From The New York Times:

"Mr. Sharpton said that when Mr. Biden called him to apologize, Mr. Sharpton started off the conversation reassuring Mr. Biden about his hygienic practices. “I told him I take a bath every day,” Mr. Sharpton said."

Well, that covers clean, now what about the rest of the quote:

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

In all fairness to the Rev, he's certainly very articulate and bright. So, since he does take a bath every day, I think he was probably dinging Al on the, "nice-looking guy" front, which I took as some form of ATM test. You know, would you scare Joe Biden if you were coming up behind him at an ATM while he was getting money?

But, the real story hear is that Joe Biden is actually calling people who he presumably considers to be "mainstream African-American(s)" and personally apologizing. That's a lot of the minutes on the cell phone there, depending on how thorough a job you do.

Think about it: Is he be calling all the black members of Congress? How about black Governors and prominent, black politicians like Harold Ford, Michael Steele, and Deval Patrick? We could go on and on with this and of course, there are the mainstream black leaders Joe can't call, like MLK.

Some reporter should ask Joe how MLK failed the Obama test. Did Joe think he couldn't talk, was dumb, or was dirty, ugly, and scary? Come on, inquiring minds want to know.

Is this a case of Muslims having trouble assimilating or liberals being far too accommodating?

"A ROW has erupted over Muslim-only washrooms at La Trobe University (in Australia) that can be accessed only with a secret push-button code.

Muslim students have exclusive access to male and female washrooms on campus, sparking claims of bias and discrimination.

...Victorian Muslim community leader Yasser Soliman said the washrooms were necessary.

He said the separate facilities were also due to concerns from non-Muslim students.

"Muslims need to wash their feet before prayer and in the past there have been complaints about them washing their feet in sinks, so this is a happy medium," he said.

Mr Soliman said most universities provided Muslim-only prayer and washrooms for students."

How can these Muslims assimilate into society when they can't even handle using the same bathroom as people of different religions?

Hat tip to Relapsed Catholic for the story.

"It is probable that the minimum wage increase will not cost enough jobs to make its effects readily distinguishable from random economic variation. It is also probable that it will improve the lot of a few poor people, though not many, as fewer than 20% of those who earn the minimum wage live in poor households now. On the other hand, it also seems probable that much of any benefit that goes to poor families will come out of the pockets of other poor people—very probably even poorer people, such as convicts, who are currently barely hanging onto the fringes of the labour force." -- Economist

You may have thought that "dumb bimbo" routine that Paris Hilton engaged in while on the Simple Life was just acting. But, this story would seem to indicate that she really is as much of an airhead as she seems to be:

"Paris Hilton has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles demanding the closure of a website where visitors can pay to view nude photos and other items that formerly belonged to her.

Hilton's suit says the website...which displays photos, home videos, diary entries and audiotapes of her conversations, as well as images of her passport, is "one of the most reprehensible invasions of privacy of a celebrity".

The site includes topless pictures of 25-year-old Hilton on holiday and also shows her frolicking in a bath-tub.

In a declaration to the court, the Simple Life reality television star says the items were put into storage two years ago after she and her sister Nicky moved out of a house after it was burgled.

Hilton claimed the removal company was supposed to pay the storage fees and that she was "shocked and surprised" to learn that the amount had not been paid and that her belongings had been sold at a public auction.

"I was appalled to learn that people are exploiting my and my sisters' private personal belongings for commercial gain," she said in her court statement.

...The lawsuit claims the possessions were bought by defendants Nabil and Nabila Haniss for 2,775 dollars and sold to a third person Bardia Persa, for 10 million. Visitors to the site pay around 40 dollars to view the items."

According to the website mentioned in the story, Hilton owed $208 and didn't pay it. So, apparently, legally, they're allowed to sell what's in the storage site if it's not picked up. And what was in there?

I went to the website and watched a short video and you would not believe it. They've got diary entries, numerous videos of Paris nude and having sex, making out with other women, her doing drugs, including cocaine; it goes on and on. The website claims to have video/pics of a kilo of cocaine, that she went to AA, that they actually have videos of her using sex toys on herself.

First of all, who in her right mind would video tape all of this stuff? And then, who would take all these potentially humiliating personal items, put them in storage somewhere, and just totally forget about them to the point of not even paying the bills?

Now, who knows what will happen in court, but presumably, the person who paid 10 million dollars for this material consulted a lawyer first to make sure that it could be used. If you're shelling out that kind of dough, especially for material like this, you definitely dot your "I's" and cross your "T's" on the legal front -- which means that anyone willing to shell out $40 may be looking at the most intimate aspects of Paris Hilton's life for years to come.

If and when she ever pops out a couple of kids, I wonder what they'll say when someone finally shows them "their mom's website."

The mainstream media is absolutely determined to turn every victory in Iraq into a defeat no matter how they have to twist things around. The latest example is the Iraqi/US victory over a Shiite cult in Najaf. Here's the New York Times spin on this incredibly successful operation from an article called, "Missteps by Iraqi Forces in Battle Raise Questions."

Iraqi forces were surprised and nearly overwhelmed by the ferocity of an obscure renegade militia in a weekend battle near the holy city of Najaf and needed far more help from American forces than previously disclosed, American and Iraqi officials said Monday.

They said American ground troops — and not just air support as reported Sunday — were mobilized to help the Iraqi soldiers, who appeared to have dangerously underestimated the strength of the militia, which calls itself the Soldiers of Heaven and had amassed hundreds of heavily armed fighters.

Iraqi government officials said the group apparently was preparing to storm Najaf, a holy city dear to Shiite Islam, occupy the sacred Imam Ali mosque and assassinate the religious hierarchy there, including the revered leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, during a Shiite holiday when many pilgrims visit.

“This group had more capabilities than the government,” said Abdul Hussein Abtan, the deputy governor of Najaf Province, at a news conference.

...The Iraqis and Americans eventually prevailed in the battle. But the Iraqi security forces’ miscalculations about the group’s strength and intentions raised troubling questions about their ability to recognize and deal with a threat.

...Among the troubling questions raised is how hundreds of armed men were able to set up such an elaborate encampment, which Iraqi officials said included tunnels, trenches and a series of blockades, only 10 miles northeast of Najaf. After the fight was over, Iraqi officials said they discovered at least two antiaircraft weapons as well as 40 heavy machine guns.

The government knew that the Soldiers of Heaven had set up camp in the area, but officials said they thought they were there to worship together.

Mr. Abtan said the Iraqi forces later decided to move on the group because an informer said Sunday was “zero hour” and the government noticed more men streaming into the area.

...The Iraqis initially sent a battalion from their Eighth Army Division, along with police forces, but they were quickly overwhelmed, according to an Iraqi commander at the scene. The battalion began to retreat but was soon surrounded and pinned down, and had to call in American air support to keep the enemy from overrunning its position.

American Apache attack helicopters and F-16s, as well as British fighter jets, flew low over the farms where the enemy had set up its encampments and attacked, dropping 500-pound bombs on the encampments. The Iraqi forces were still unable to advance, and they called in support from both an elite Iraqi unit known as the Scorpion Brigade, which is based to the north in Hilla, and from American ground troops.

Around noon, elements of the American Fourth Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division were dispatched from near Baghdad.

After an American helicopter was shot down at 1:30 p.m., some of those soldiers helped secure the crash site and recover the bodies of the two American soldiers killed in the crash, according to a statement by the American military. Others joined in the effort to combat the renegade militia, the statement said.

A commander in the Scorpion Brigade said the combined American and Iraqi forces killed 470 people. He also said some of the dead Soldiers of Heaven fighters were found bound together at the ankles and suggested that the chains had probably been used to keep people from fleeing and to keep them moving as one unified group.

Government estimates of the number of fighters killed ranged from 120 to 400.

An Iraqi military official said at least 25 security force members were killed in the battle."

So, long story short, the Iraqis were made aware of a terrorist enclave that was planning to mount an attack later in the week. It turned out to be stronger than they thought, so they had to call in help, but in the end -- with our help -- they killed somewhere between 120 and 450 terrorists at a cost of 27 men. That's a kill ratio of somewhere between 4.4 to 1 to 17 to 1 against a well prepared, heavily armed, dug in force.

Moreover, although we did lose 2 men, the Iraqis lost 25, so it's not like they were hanging around in the rear. It sounds like they bore the brunt of the fighting, which is exactly what they should be doing.

Yet, this is supposed to be an example of some sort of debacle? That just goes to show you how hidebound the media is to their "we can't win" narrative.

"According to the latest calculations, the gap between Japanese and American carmakers' profits average out to about $2900 per vehicle, and the home team does not have the advantage.

A big reason is the cost of labor. As analyzed by Harbour-Felax, labor costs the Detroit Three substantially more per vehicle than it does the Japanese.

Health care is the biggest chunk. GM, for instance spends $1,635 per vehicle on health care for active and retired workers in the U.S. Toyota pays nothing for retired workers - it has very few - and only $215 for active ones.

Other labor costs add to the bill. Contract issues like work rules, line relief and holiday pay amount to $630 per vehicle - costs that the Japanese don't have. And paying UAW members for not working when plants are shut costs another $350 per vehicle." -- Alex Taylor III

Hat tip to Mickey Kaus for the story.

A lot of conservatives out there are continually scratching their heads and trying to figure out why Republicans like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Chuck Hagel love to slam a shiv into the back of other conservatives as often as possible.

Well, it's because they get fawning press coverage when they do it. Just look at this mash note from Newsweek to Chuck Hagel over his opposition to the surge. There are two different things that can inspire the mainstream press to speak this fondly about a Republican: their death and/or their betrayal of other conservatives.

Here's how the piece, entitled "Rebel Chuck Hagel: A President in the making?" starts:

Chuck Hagel wears pain on his face. The senior senator from Nebraska earned two Purple Hearts in Vietnam, where a mine blew out his eardrums and delivered a sharp burn up the left side of his head. When he is thinking hard, his brow droops low, weighted and weary; when he smiles, his eyes slip into thin slits. His brother Tom calls this Hagel's "running gear"—the thick mask of intensity he shows the world.

You'll never hear them laud the service of a pro-war Republican with military service, like Duncan Hunter, in that same manner. But, let's dig a little deeper:

...Calling Iraq the country's most divisive issue since Vietnam, he dared his fellow committee members to take a stand. "I think all 100 senators ought to be on the line on this," he said. "If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes." For a moment, his colleagues were silent and stunned. Later that afternoon, Joe Biden, the committee's Democratic chairman, complimented him on his performance. "I've rarely seen such a powerful connection between the heart and the mind," Biden said. "That was deep in you."

If Joe Biden is mooning over you and a Republican, that's always a bad sign. But oh boy, look at this paragraph if you want to see how head over heels in love Newsweek is with Hagel's stance on the war:

"Viewed from afar, the stuff inside Hagel looks like the stuff that makes Republican presidential candidates. He is a third-generation party member who grew up idolizing Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. He says he was the only student in his Roman Catholic high school to support Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election—and when he cast his first vote, an absentee ballot from Vietnam, it was for Nixon's winning ticket in 1968. His conservative credentials are impeccable: according to Congressional Quarterly, he voted with the White House more times in 2006 than any other senator. He is manly, Middle American—and when he talks about military matters, he exudes the cool confidence of a warrior-statesman who knows that war is hell."

Here's some more random, gushing praise for Hagel from the article:

"...The tale of Hagel's reluctant rebellion is the story of a man haunted by wars then and now—and of a party at a crossroads, weighing Hagel's past transgressions of disloyalty against the simple necessities of survival. Chuck Hagel has a lifetime of lessons in loyalty and war."

"...Hagel makes no apology for his public candor. "The reason we have a very, very thin layer of confidence in leadership by the American public is because we don't answer their questions and we don't play straight," he says. "So when Senator Hagel gets asked the question on a talk show on Sunday morning, 'What do you really think about what we're doing?' I've never pulled my punches."

And the lovestruck close:

"Hagel's speech at the Foreign Relations Committee last week earned him new fans on the left, some of whom are hoping he'll run for the White House as an independent—a notion he dismisses as ludicrous. He chafes when it's suggested he could run as an "antiwar candidate," and thinks he's earned the right to define himself. "I've always said you'd better listen to the guys who've had the experience of having to actually carry the rifle," he says, "and see the tragedy of war ... Down in the mud, having to face the fact his buddy's brains are next to him because his head's been shot off." Hagel speaks these words with sadness. He walks the halls of the Senate with a gray melancholy that makes some who know him wonder if he has the fight in him for a long-shot presidential run. But Hagel is an old soldier who has fought without question before. The wound on his face was born in a flash of fire."

You know what Hagel is? He's a guy who voted for the war (and yes, he did vote for the war) because it was popular and then when things started going wrong, he licked his finger, stuck it up in the wind, and decided to go the other way because he thought it would benefit him politically. In that sense, he's no different than Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and all the other Democrats and Republican squishes who made the same politically based calculation. Only in Hagel's case, it's even less forgivable since he's been to war, he knew the sort of things that could go wrong, he knew how important it was to stick in there once you commit to it, and he voted for the war anyway.

PS: Also, Chuck Hagel, President? Please. He'll be lucky if it he makes it through 2008 without facing a strong primary challenge for his Senate seat. The only way he could be the Republican nominee for President would be if a meteorite hit one of the Republican debates and took out all the other contenders after it was too late for anyone else to get in the race.

Apparently there are coffee shops hoping that scantily clad women will do for coffee what Hooters has done for chicken wings:

"Coffee-stand owner John Cambroto couldn't compete against the beautiful bikini-clad women selling espresso up the road.

"We had a much better atmosphere, good coffee. Unfortunately, they ran around half-naked and we didn't," said Cambroto, who finally threw in the towel last spring and sold his business to his rival, the operator of six Cowgirls Espresso stands in the Seattle suburbs.

The naughty baristas of Cowgirls Espresso represent a new trend in and around Seattle - perhaps the most caffeinated city in America - and illustrate how cutthroat the competition can be in the hometown of Starbucks, which has multiple coffee shops competing on the same block.

Among the other coffee stands that are showing some skin: Moka Girls in Auburn, The Sweet Spot Cafe in Shoreline, Bikini Espresso in Renton and Natte Latte in Port Orchard.

...Lori Bowden, the owner of Cowgirls Espresso, opened her first stand, by the entrance to the Silver Dollar Casino, four years ago. Law and other employees suggested doing "Bikini Wednesdays." Bowden approved, and her stand immediately doubled the amount of money it was taking in - from $200 to $400 - on Wednesdays.

"Fantasy Fridays,""School Girl Thursdays,""Cowgirl Tuesdays" and "Military Mondays" soon followed. The stand now rakes in about $800 a day, Bowden said. The girls make minimum wage, plus $80 to $150 a day in tips."

Originally, I was thinking, "Gee, they can't be making that much money in tips serving coffee," but $80 to $150 a day isn't chump change spread out over an 8 hour day.

Now personally, I don't drink coffee, but if you're a guy and you do, I can certainly understand wanting to have her bring it to you:

...or maybe her:

then there's her:

Still, you've gotta ask yourself, will this catch on in other businesses since it seems to work? Is this proof that sex sells? Is this just an excuse to slap up pics of attractive women on RWN?

The answer to all three of those questions is obviously, "yes," which proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt that, ...you know I think the first one is just a little hotter than the third one and both of them just edge out the 2nd one. What do you think?

"Let's say I believe firmly in Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. But it's very hard sometimes to adhere to that where Chuck Hagel is involved." -- Dick Cheney

Make sure to check out Conservative Grapevine today, where you'll find links like:

Popular Science: The scariest ideas in science.

Newsbusters: NY Times reporter chastised for saying he wants US to win in Iraq.

MyWay: Seattle-area coffee shops show some skin.

You can check out all those links and more by clicking here. Don't forget to bookmark RWN's companion page, CG! Remember, if you're not reading RWN and CG every day, you're not getting the full story!

PS: If you'd like to submit articles to be linked to Conservative Grapevine, register at CG, and then shoot me an email.

As regular readers of the page know, I've been considering getting rid of the daily news for quite a while. Honestly, I've been pondering it, off and on, for years. Why? Because it takes a lot of time to prepare, it doesn't draw links, and I've always suspected that the overwhelming majority of RWN readers don't even look at it.

Well, recently after bringing the subject up again, I got my tech guy, Danny Carlton, to prepare a script that allowed me to actually see how many clicks each news item was getting per day. That turned out to be a real eye opener.

For one thing, overall, the links weren't getting clicked that many times. For example, yesterday Conservative Grapevine had far more items clicked on than the daily news did and that's despite the fact that RWN had nearly 7 times as much traffic as CG yesterday.

Another thing to keep in mind is that something like 80% of the most clicked links came out of the columns and left-overs section. The average domestic and foreign news link? There were exceptions, but most of them were clicked only about 30-40 times over the course of a 24 hour period.

So, after much thought, I've decided to dump the daily news and start adding columns and left-over type links to Conservative Grapevine, to go along with the links to blogs that are currently carried on the page.

What that means is that Conservative Grapevine will be improved and I'll have more time to write posts for Right Wing News. Hopefully, that will mean that there will be an increase in the amount of content on RWN on a daily basis.

Now, I realize not everybody is going to be happy with this change, but I put an enormous amount of thought into it and concluded this was the right move to make. It'll hopefully mean more content for the majority of RWN's readers, who aren't fans of the daily news and yet, daily news fans can still head over to CG and read the most popular parts of the daily news over there each day. It may not be the perfect solution, but I think it's the best one possible given the circumstances.

Over at the Democratic Underground, someone named Paparush was encouraging the DUer's to take a look at his pics from the DC rally. So, in an effort to be bipartisan and fair, I've decided to show you a few of the pics from Paparush's page. Make sure to check them all out when you're done:

Fringe nuts on the left love to rave about prison camps that they're going to be put in by the right one day, but in truth, there are certain parts of the left, not the right, which seem to favor jailing people simply for disagreeing with them about political policy:

Jail Condi on what charge? Being black and Republican?

What would an anti-war rally be without a sign comparing Bush to Hitler?

Having seen this display a little closer in another pic, I can tell you definitively that is Bush that they're hanging in effigy.

Just as nutty as you'd expect from this crowd, eh?

The anti-war march this week-end in Washington was as repulsive as one of those "God hates f@gs" funeral protests. American traitor, Jane Fonda, was welcomed there:

"Those people who would try to undermine her credibility will fail. We welcome her back to the peace community," said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairman of the Out of Iraq congressional caucus.

"She's a high-profile, outspoken American," said actor Sean Penn, while smoking a cigarette before the rally. What she means to the antiwar movement "is the same thing any of the rest of us mean to it. She's one more voting American with a conscience who is against this war."

....Kathy Engel, another United for Peace and Justice spokeswoman, said Fonda is important to the cause because through the years, she has been on the wave-crest of women's rights "and a myriad of issues concerning the health of our country. She's a long-distance runner."

Before the march, Fonda spoke briefly to a few hundred people at the Navy Memorial. The event was sponsored by Code Pink, an antiwar group started by women. On the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, three dozen protesters organized by the conservative Web site Free Republic held up signs calling protesters traitors and terrorist sympathizers.

"Jaaaaannnneeeee Fonda has blood on her hands!" chanted one man with a megaphone.

"Thank you so much for being here," Fonda told the Code Pink folks over the noise. "We're going to get it done." Afterward, she hugged civil-rights activist Dick Gregory.

Asked whether she believed her presence might cause more harm than good to this antiwar movement, she snapped, "No." Then laughed. And was spirited away by handlers to the rally on the Mall.

She was one of the last people to speak at the midday rally. As she waited for her cue, she chatted with Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). She shook hands with the Raging Grannies, a group of senior citizens who sang onstage, while the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sean Penn and actor-couple Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins milled about nearby.

These people hate Bush so much that they'll even support a traitor like Fonda, who should have been hung like Saddam for what she did in the Vietnam war, as long as she agrees with them.

One of them also spit at wounded soldier, Joshua Sparling, who was one of the counter-protestors:

"In Washington, counterprotesters also converged on the mall in smaller numbers, but the antiwar demonstration was largely peaceful.

There were a few tense moments, however, including an encounter involving Joshua Sparling, 25, who was on crutches and who said he was a corporal with the 82nd Airborne Division and lost his right leg below the knee in Ramadi, Iraq. Mr. Sparling spoke at a smaller rally held earlier in the day at the United States Navy Memorial, and voiced his support for the administration’s policies in Iraq.

Later, as antiwar protesters passed where he and his group were standing, words were exchanged and one of the antiwar protestors spit at the ground near Mr. Sparling; he spit back.

Capitol police made the antiwar protestors walk farther away from the counterprotesters.

“These are not Americans as far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Sparling said."

Then to top it all off, the anti-war crowd defaced the Capitol building:

"Anti-war protesters were allowed to spray paint on part of thewest front steps of the United States Capitol building after police wereordered to break their security line by their leadership, two sources toldThe Hill.

According to the sources, police officers were livid when theywere told to fall back by U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Chief Phillip Morse andDeputy Chief Daniel Nichols. "They were the commanders on the scene," one source said,who requested anonymity. "It was disgusting."

After police ceded the stairs, located on the lower west front of the Capitol, the building was locked down, the source added.

A second source who witnessed the incident said that the police had the crowd stopped at Third Street, but were told to bring the police line in front of the Capitol.

Approximately 300 protesters were allowed to take the steps and began to spray paint "anarchist symbols" and phrase such as "Our capitol building" and "you can’t stop us" around the area, the source said.

...Yet, the sources who talked to The Hill were furious that protesters were not stopped before reaching the Capitol.

"To get that close to the Capitol building, that is ridiculous," the second source said. "[Police] were told not to arrest anyone."

The second source added that police had to stand by and watch as protesters posed in front of their graffiti."

It's utterly disgraceful that these scumbag anti-war protestors were allowed to spray graffiti on the Capitol building and even worse that the police were forced to let them do it. Whoever made that decision deserves to be fired. The police should have been in there cracking heads and hauling those taggers off to jail.

But still, this at least gives you an idea of what the anti-war movement in this country is really like. Supporting a traitor, defacing the Capitol building, spitting at a wounded soldier -- that's the real face of the anti-war movement in this country. It's not just anti-Bush or anti-war, it's anti-military and anti-American.

The LA Times has a fascinating breakdown of Harry Reid's crooked, sweetheart land deal.

"It's hard to buy undeveloped land in booming northern Arizona for $166 an acre. But now-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively did just that when a longtime friend decided to sell property owned by the employee pension fund that he controlled.

In 2002, Reid (D-Nev.) paid $10,000 to a pension fund controlled by Clair Haycock, a Las Vegas lubricants distributor and his friend for 50 years. The payment gave the senator full control of a 160-acre parcel in Bullhead City that Reid and the pension fund had jointly owned. Reid's price for the equivalent of 60 acres of undeveloped desert was less than one-tenth of the value the assessor placed on it at the time.

Six months after the deal closed, Reid introduced legislation to address the plight of lubricants dealers who had their supplies disrupted by the decisions of big oil companies. It was an issue the Haycock family had brought to Reid's attention in 1994, according to a source familiar with the events.

If Reid were to sell the property for any of the various estimates of its value, his gain on the $10,000 investment could range from $50,000 to $290,000."

...In the early 1990s, California investors bought the entire 160 acres from Reid and Haycock for a little over $1.34 million — around $8,400 an acre. The new owners obtained approval to develop a mobile home and recreational vehicle park. But a few years later they defaulted, and Reid and the pension fund were once again the land's joint owners.

...On a recent property tour, the assessor acknowledged that Reid's land had problems.

"There are topographical issues on this property," Nicholson said as he drove a county-owned four-wheel-drive vehicle through the tract. He pointed out the property's steep wash and another streambed.

An adjacent parcel with similar topography sold in April 2004 for $4,260 an acre.

So Haycock sells Reid land at a tiny fraction of its worth so that Reid can later sell the land at an enormous profit. Then, as payback, Reid introduces legislation that directly benefits his friend. That's Duke Cunningham, Jack Abramoff style corruption and if a Republican were involved, not only would he be resigning his seat, he'd probably end up going to jail.

In fact, do you know what the biggest difference between Duke Cunningham and Harry Reid is? Reid will probably get away with it.

Countries like Britain need to start thinking very hard about whether they want to continue to allow Muslims to emigrate to their country. That may sound radical, but when you look at poll numbers like these, you can't escape the conclusion that there is a 5th column being built Muslim by Muslim in Britain that is implacably hostile to Western values:

"Forty per cent of Muslims between the ages of 16 and 24 said they would prefer to live under sharia law in Britain, a legal system based on the teachings of the Koran. The figure among over-55s, in contrast, was only 17 per cent.

...One in eight young Muslims said they admired groups such as al-Qa'eda that "are prepared to fight the West".

Turning to issues of faith, 36 per cent of the young people questioned said they believed that a Muslim who converts to another religion should be "punished by death." Among the over 55s, the figure is only 19 per cent.

Three out of four young Muslims would prefer Muslim women to "choose to wear the veil or hijab," compared to only a quarter of over-55s.

...Britain's foreign policies were a key issue among the Muslim population as a whole, with 58 per cent arguing that many of the world's problems are "a result of arrogant Western attitudes". However, knowledge of foreign affairs was sketchy, with only one in five knowing that Mahmoud Abbas was the Palestinian president.

...The report also raises questions about the scale of the problems created by Islamophobia, with 84 per cent of those questioned saying they believed they had been "treated fairly" in Britain."

It's particularly significant that these numbers come from the 16-24 age bracket because it shows that a large part of the new generation of Muslims in Britain have radicalized and rejected Western culture in favor of the misogynystic, backwards culture that is prevalent in the worst parts of the Middle-East.

You know, I'm a big believer in the idea that the purpose of immigration in any country is to benefit the people who are already there. If a particular group of immigrants don't accomplish that purpose, then they shouldn't be allowed in that country.

Now, do most Muslims in Britain benefit their country? They probably do. Note that the majority of Muslims 16 to 24 reject Sharia, the veil, and death for people who convert to other religions and moreover, the numbers are even greater with older Muslims.

However, this is a little like mad cow disease. It's not ok that most beef is fine and only some of it makes people sick. Of course, with immigrants, we don't expect that level of perfection. There are going to be people who come here and commit crimes, add nothing to society, etc., etc.. That's just how people are. But, if you have one particular group of people coming in who are sympathetic to your enemies and hostile to your values in great numbers, you've really got to think very hard about putting on the brakes because once they're citizens of your country, you can't get rid of them. These poll numbers, along with the homegrown terrorists and radical Islam problems Britain has are a red light that the Brits shouldn't ignore.

PS: Although I would like to see a revamp of our illegal immigration and immigration laws in the US, I don't currently support blocking Muslims from becoming citizens of the US. Britain has a much bigger problem with radicalized Islam than we do and does a much poorer job of assimilating them. However, if I ever became convinced that we were headed towards the same situation that Britain is in, I would change my mind.

Hat tip to One Jerusalem for the story.

On January 22, 2007, tens of thousands of people converged on Washington, DC, in order to make their voices heard on an issue of great importance to the future of America.

On January 27, 2007, tens of thousands of people converged on Washington, DC, in order to make their voices heard on an issue of great importance to the future of America.

The January 22nd demonstration was the March for Life demonstration - a broad coalition of pro-life groups gathering from around the country. It got this headline, on page A-10 of the Washington Post:

Abortion Foes to Renew Efforts

The January 27th demonstration was the anti-war demonsration - a straight-jacketed group of leftwing group-thinkers who came to DC to secure America's defeat in the War on Terrorism. It got this headline, on page A-1, above the fold:

Thousands Protest Bush Policy

Does the pro-life movement, by headline, even sound like it was a demonstration? Does headline for the anti-war demonstration give any indication of the kook-fest nature of the event?

Why did one get relegated to the back pages even though it was a demonstration at least as large as the other? Because the MSM is contemptuous of the pro-life movement, but is slavishly devoted to the so-called "anti-war" movement. This is what me mean by media bias - not so much the outright lies which appear in the MSM from time to time, but the manner in which left and right are covered. Leftwingers are always covered as people who care and who want what is best, rightwingers are always covered as somehow sinister, or at least misguided. Leftwingers rate front page, laudetory coverage, rightwingers rate back page, derogatory coverage. Leftwingers always get their best spokesmen front and center, when the MSM covers rightwingers, they try to find the worst possible person to use as an exemplar of all right wingers. And on and on it goes, just like that.

This content was used with the permission of Blogs for Bush.

"When one becomes a liberal, he or she pretends to advocate tolerance, equality and peace, but hilariously, they're doing so for purely selfish reasons. It's the human equivalent of a puppy dog's face: an evolutionary tool designed to enhance survival, reproductive value and status.

In short, liberalism is based on one central desire: to look cool in front of others in order to get love. Preaching tolerance makes you look cooler, than saying something like, "please lower my taxes." This is why the only true form of rebellion left on this planet is conservatism. Conservatism, by rejecting the trademark forms of romantic rebellion (anarchy, activism, nipple rings) turns out to be far more subversive than anything on the planet. The conservative, every day, knows that he or she says things that aren't considered cool among the media elite. Yet the conservative still comes out and says it. This is why, Dick Cheney is closer to the Hell's Angels than Hunter S. Thompson ever could be." -- Greg Gutfeld

Make sure to check out Conservative Grapevine today, where you'll find links like:

Dr. Helen: Why men (and women) don't want sex.

Knowledge is Power: Joke Of The Day: Poodle vs. Leopard.

Flick Life: Video: The Nancy Pelosi vs. Dick Cheney blink count.

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