ROSCOE’S Weak-End Review

Here it is

And we ain’t givin’ up till we get some feedback. As promised, here’s the Roscoe mini-survey, designed to test what’s working and what’s not:

1. What do you like best about The Roscoe Daley Report?
2. What do you like least?
3. Would you miss it if it were gone?
4. Your opinion on “Roscoe’s Weak-End Review.”
5. Your opinion on “Ask Roscoe.”
6. Would you like less humor or more?
7. Less serious commentary on events in the news or more?
8. Less on the Middle East, Islam and the War on Terror or more?
9. Less on the foibles of the mainstream mediocracy or more?
10. Other suggestions and general comments.

Go ahead and respond in the Comments section. If old Roscoe doesn’t get feedback, that will be an answer in itself. In that case, we’ll give more serious thought to redirecting this time to other pursuits.

Prayers for the Assassin concluding thoughts



A couple more points about author Robert Ferrigno need to be made. (See Thursday and Friday’s posts.) And if he responds to our questions—nothing as of Friday—we’ll revisit it yet again.

Point 1: As a Christian, we need to note that this is R-type content with rough language and more sex and violence than we’d prefer. Think Elmore Leonard and maybe Stephen King.

Point 2: From the novel itself, it wouldn't be hard to get the idea that Ferrigno is soft on Islam. In fact, he is walking a fine line here, one that could get him a Salman Rushdie-type fatwa. We don’t expect that to happen, though, with his careful study of the subject and expressions of respect for Islam and Muslims. In fact, a Turkish publisher has taken on his book, which certainly should help his situation in the Muslim world. Yet, it’s also clear from some of Ferrigno’s other writing that his heart is in the right place.

We would point, for example, to his position on the 2004 presidential election, as National Review Online quoted from Slate:

Mark me on the Bush side of the ledger, a lonely side for this survey, I'm certain. Most novelists live in their imagination, which is a fine place to be until the bad guys come knock knock knocking. I don't agree with Bush on shoveling free meds to granny and grandpa, or his antipathy to fuel conservation along with opening up the arctic reserve, but this is small stuff. I'll be voting for Bush because his approach to stopping the people who want to kill my children is the right one, i.e., kill them first. Kerry will dance the Albright two-step with Kim Jong-il, consult with Sandy Berger's socks, and kowtow to the U.N. apparatchiks who have done such a fine job of protecting the Cambodians, Rwandans, and the Sudanese. No thanks. No contest.

Islamic Republic of America: Part 6

Oh, yeah—the map. (See yesterday’s Islamic Republic of America: Part 5.)

In Robert Ferrigno’s Prayers for the Assassin, America in 2040 has fractured along sectarian lines—the largest piece Muslim, but with significant autonomous Mormon, Bible Belt and secular territories. Says the author: “I make it clear in the book that the U.S. was never defeated militarily, but bled white by a conflict without end, weakened internally by dissent, economic malaise, and a consumer culture hostile to people's genuine thirst for meaning in their lives.”

Sound familiar? Not so far-fetched when someone like Ferrigno puts it all in context—several hundred million fractious, self-centered, decadent, spoiled Americans versus a billion or so Muslims worldwide with a common purpose—restoration of the caliphate. As he asks on his blog, “Which culture do you think is better equipped spiritually to fight a fifty-year war?”

And yeah—the blog.

Imagine if Bob Dylan had a blog. Or, say, Edgar Allan Poe or Mark Twain. Would have have been pretty darn entertaining, right? Imagine the quality of the posts. Well, they don’t. (In fact, we’ve even heard rumors that Twain might be dead.) But Ferrigno does—or did. It’s been a few months since he’s posted. More’s the pity. We’re attempting to find out why, because the content is matchless.

Check it out. Not only that, but there’s a linked Web site called Republic World News, which Scribner commissioned, that’s like a futuristic Drudge Report under a 2040 Islamic States of America. It is truly a wonder to behold—very layered and credible, with News, Weather, Sports, Travel, Education, Business, Faith and Health.


Some Ferrigno highlights from the blog:

· Moral ambiguity and cultural relativism is a luxury when the ground shakes beneath your feet.
· The worst thing for the west is that Ahmadinejad wants a fight. He wants the US or Israel to take out his nuke facilities. He rightly says bring it on, knowing we will tire long before he does, and the world-wide chaos caused by the conflict will only hurry the return of the Hidden Imam.
· If I could add one thing to Prayers for the Assassin, it would be to have mentioned that during the civil war, the State Department converted en masse. And no one noticed.
· Dan Rather is rumored to be staking out a Dallas Kinko’s, awaiting “ramrod buck solid” evidence that George Bush drew the cartoons while he was coked up in an abortion clinic waiting room.
· In the photo after his arrest, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed looks like John Belushi after a speedballs-and-burgers weekend. Puffy, unshaven, dazed and wearing a dirty T-shirt that opened the way for a potential Twinkie defense if he’s ever brought to trial.

Islamic Republic of America: Part 5

Prayers for the Assassin

“I certainly hope I’m writing fiction, rather than prophecy...”

The words of Robert Ferrigno, author of the hands-down most important work of fiction in our estimation this year, Prayers for the Assassin (Scribner, 2006). We promised we’d review it here, only to discover that for once the old Roscoe—ordinarily nothing if not prescient—has been a little slow on the draw on this one. So instead, let’s play catch-up on this blockbuster that’s been out since February, hitting some highlights.

Ferrigno, author of eight other well-received crime novels, has broken with his own genre to produce this dystopic picture of America in 2040 as an Islamic republic, the Islamic States of America. Our take: Extraordinarily well conceived, written and executed, especially for a concept with such a high aim. This guy’s got a keen eye, excellent sensibilities and a wicked sense of humor (particularly appealing to Roscoe). We agree with the Philadelphia Inquirer: If you read just one book this year, let it be this one

The basic plot line involves a hunt for a missing damsel named Sarah who knows the real truth behind suitcase-nuke attacks that left Washington, New York and Mecca in radioactive ruins and was blamed on the Jews. The hero is a disaffected Muslim feyadeen named Rakkim, who is tracking Sarah while being pitted against a pathological assassin named Darwin, who would be right at home in a Dean Koontz novel.

This kind of story could easily descend into purple pot-boiler prose, but not in Ferrigno’s hands, who handles it all like a master. By his own account, he spent two years researching the subject of radical Islam—and it shows. National Review Online’s John J. Miller put it this way:

This, in fact, may be the chief reward of the book: The creation of an alternate reality that abides by a set of internally consistent rules as well as a place that reminds us of what’s at stake in the war on terror. In Ferrigno’s future, the Superbowl is played at Khomeini Stadium, cab drivers have Osama and Zarqawi emblems dangling from their rearview mirrors, LAX is called Bin Laden International, Jews try to escape to Canada on a 21st-century version of the Underground Railroad, Disneyland is a slum overtaken by prostitutes, and radical Muslims have tried to blow up Mt. Rushmore just as the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan.

This is a rich venue. Scribner reportedly shelled out some big bucks for an avant garde promotional campaign geared to blogs and the Internet, including a Prayers for the Assassin Web site that one could get lost in for a long time. More about all of this later.

The next battle

Maybe you noticed how Iran President Mahmoud “Mojo” Ahmadinejad concluded his remarks at the United Nations last week—a prayer for the coming of the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi, a.ka. the 12th Imam. Anyone starting to get the idea he’s serious about this?

Well, if he really wants to bring forth the Mahdi, Mojo’s got to keep stirring the pot. The 12th Imam, they say, will only come when the forces of Islam are in all-out conflict with the infidel. So far, Iran nuclear brinkmanship hasn't quite done it. And now Israel and Hezbollah are in a cease-fire. So, what’s next?

Look for an attack upon Kurdistan in northern Iraq by the Turks and Iranians. The Turks have coveted this region for ages, and Mojo no doubt would love to help them. See reports of a suspicious military build-up that could presage just such an attack.

The danger for us is that Mojo knows that the United States cannot stand idly by and allow its client, Iraq, to be blatantly attacked. This could well do what his other schemes so far have failed to accomplish—i.e., draw us into direct conflict with Iran. Keep watching for this; it could blow real soon.

Home of the whopper

Boy, does this ever show up the difference between the distributed intelligence network of the blogosphere and the lazy, partisan dishonesty of the old elite mainstream mediocracy. Bill Clinton has the unmitigated chutzpah to tell whopper after whopper after whopper to Fox News. Why? Because he knows his buds in the old mainstream mediocracy won’t call him on it.

But we will. The folks at GOP.comhave done the hard work that ordinarily you’d expect professional journalists to do—i.e., check the actual facts. But Willie—on the principle of telling lies so outrageous that it won’t occur to most people to question—can dare the media to read Richard Clarke’s book or the report of the 9/11 Commission with impunity because he’s calculated, correctly, that the mainstream mediocracy ciphers won’t do it. They’re too busy with deadline pressures—and too lazy, partisan and dishonest.

One example:

MYTH: President Clinton Said Osama Bin Laden And Al Qaeda Had Nothing "To Do With Black Hawk Down":

Former President Bill Clinton: "There is not a living soul in the world who thought Osama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk down ..." (Fox News' "Fox News Sunday," 9/24/06)

FACT: Experts Agree, Black Hawk Down Was Osama Bin Laden And Al Qaeda's "First Victory" Against The U.S.:

Osama Bin Laden Considered Black Hawk Down His First Victory Against The U.S. "The international community turned away from the country after a 1993 battle that killed 18 U.S. troops the basis for the 'Black Hawk Down' book and movie and a U.N. peacekeeping mission ended in failure in 1995. Osama bin Laden considered the subsequent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia his first victory against America." (Nick Wadhams, "New U.S.-Organized Group Lends Support To Somalia's Weak Interim Government," The Associated Press, 6/15/06)

· Mark Bowden, Author Of Black Hawk Down: "The lesson our retreat taught the world's terrorists and despots is that killing a few American soldiers, even at a cost of more than 500 of your own fighters, is enough to spook Uncle Sam." (Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down, 1999, p. 355)

OK. One more, even more abbreviated:

MYTH: President Clinton Said Richard Clarke Was Nonpartisan And "Loyal" To All Presidents He Worked For:

FACT: Richard Clarke Had Close Ties to Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) 2004 Campaign And Was Used By Liberal Groups Trying To Defeat President George W. Bush.

This fact checker is a must read. See also political strategist Dick Morris, who knows the Clintons all too well, and his take on all this. In Willie’s rush to protect his “legacy,” he has only indelibly cemented his other legacy as a world-class pathological liar--as well as the mainstream's mediocracy's legacy as a bunch of shameless whores.

Listen to me, I never had sex with that terrorist

I don’t care how many times our former President wags his finger at me or pokes Chris Wallace’s knee: I just don’t believe his denials.

No, siree. In this case, I rather think al Jazeera has it right. I refer, of course, to the brand new bin Laden tape in which the mother of all terrorists boldly challenges President Clinton’s veracity. And when it comes to lying and cheating and butchering—well, old Osama should know. But we have to admit, his rebuttal certainly has the ring of truth.

Otherwise, as bin Laden asserted, how did that DNA stain get on his blue burqa?

And we thought the Weimar Republic was decadent

Guess who’s a leading candidate for next German chancellor? According to The New York Times:

Berlin's openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, has come under criticism for extending the city's official welcome to a leather and latex fetish street fair that begins Saturday. ''The first weekend in September will be marked by pure joie de vivre,'' Mr. Wowereit wrote in a message of greeting for the official program of the event, Folsom Europe. ''A warm welcome to Berlin!'' About 15,000 leather and latex enthusiasts from around Europe are expected at the event, which is being held for the second year in Berlin and was inspired by the long-running Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco.

Himmel. And when it comes to lying and cheating and buggery, the NYT should know. Sadly, in Europe today it seems your only choice is between this and the street-corner mullahs. And don’t you dare even think about those burqa girls, Alfonso.

ROSCOE'S Weak-End Review

Religion of peace--or organized crime?


Our Israeli friend Yaakov Kirschen over at Dry Bones Blog must be a good carpenter, the way he keeps nailing it. This time he makes a thought-provoking point about Islam and crime gangs, including this from an essay about gang-bangers:

In the gang world, no challenge, assault or diss (act of disrespect) can go unanswered since being a gang member is all about holding onto respect and reputation (rep). When a diss occurs to a gang by a rival, only revenge will satisfy the offended gang. To them, revenge shows the world (mostly themselves, really), that their rep is intact and is to be respected. Gang history teaches us that revenge will be in the form of a bloody beating, a bullet-spray drive-by or even a bombing.

Which, of course, suggests a strategy, does it not? Forget freedom of religion. Radical Islam is organized criminal activity and ought to be treated as such--RICO, forfeiture of property and holdings, etc.

Noam who?

Maybe you wondered who this Noam Chomsky guy was that Hugo Chavez was ballyhooing last week at the United Nations. You know if he's a friend of Hugo, he must be bad news. And you'd be right. If people are judged by the company they keep, old Noam, the left-wing, America-bashing professor, anti-war activist and friend of Hezbollah, is right up there with Hassan Nasrallah and Cindy Sheehan.

That's right. Chomsky may be a brilliant linguist, but he's a lousy human being. Did you catch Nasrallah, the Hezbollah coward, coming out of hiding in Lebanon now that hostilities are over to declare victory and vow never to disarm? Well, that's Chomsky's old buddy & pal.

Check it out here and here.

Muslims supporting congressional hopeful

With Muslims all over the country rallying to his cause and ponying up cash contributions, the chances are very good for America to get its first Muslim congressman. He's Keith Ellison of Minneapolis, but we don't expect him to be alone for long. No, this is just the beginning.

We look at what's happening in Europe and smugly think, "It can't happen here." And that kind of thinking is the very thing that will make it possible for it to happen here.

Story here.

Golly, whiz

Question: How many times can this Osama bin Laden guy die? Read all about it.
Answer: Not enough, bro’ dhimmi. Not enough.


Boycott CITGO

So, that’s where the Venezuelan gas is sold. Well, you won’t see the Roscoe there no more. No, sir. Hope the same is true for you. Every dollar spent at CITGO is a dollar for Hugo Chavez. And while we’re at it, how about swearing off that low-cost Harlem heating oil, too?

Remember what old Rudy Guiliani told Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Alsaud when the nephew of King Faud offered $10 mil to NYC after 9/11—along with the suggestion that America change its foreign policy? Stick it where the sun don’t shine, or words to that effect.

Michelle Malkin has the story.

Whither Roscoe?

Say, this blog is not growing like we’d hoped. We’re not thinking yet of pulling any plugs. But let’s just say the old cost/benefit analysis is not going in the right direction.

So, put on your thinking cap. Next week we plan to post a mini-survey to see what we might do to turn this around. What do you like most about The Roscoe Daily Report? What do you like least? Etc.

Also, we could use more Ask Roscoe questions. It’s a little embarrassing to have to make them up all the time. . .

Number of Companies Touted as Gay-Friendly on the Rise

Maybe you’ve heard about the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and the formerly good American companies like WalMart that have been lining up to shell out thousands of dollars to join. It’s kind of a legal protection racket to immunize them against the bad-publicity offensive other less open-minded corporations are now being subjected to. The Human Rights Campaign, for example, has been publishing information on gay-friendly corporations, such as Ford Motor Co., that are leading the way in providing special benefits for homosexuals.

So, being the right-wing, reactionary and intolerant voice that we are, we thought it appropriate to honor herein some of the losers in this survey as corporate heroes who have refused to capitulate to such extortion: ExxonMobil, Meijer Inc., Reebok, Northwest Airlines, J.C. Penney, Radio Shack and Toys 'R' Us, to name a few. Perhaps we should go out of our way to express appreciation by giving these companies more of our business. Read more here.

New Documentary Features Controversial Bible Camp, Evangelical Movement

Question: Which of the following do neo-libs believe about Bible-believing Christians?

(a) They favor a Christian theocratic government for America (b) They are at least as great a threat to America as al Qaeda (c) They worship pictures of President Bush (d) Their children are being systematically programmed to be political and religious extremists

Answer: a, b, c and d (all of the above)

If you find that as hard to believe as Roscoe, check out this report on the movie, Jesus Camp.

ASK ROSCOE: Is the pope Muslim?

Dear Roscoe:

I’m disappointed with you, my friend. First, on Monday you’re telling us what a great leader Pope Benedict is. Then on Wednesday you’re making fun of him and saying he should convert to Islam. So, which is it? Inquiring minds want to know.

--G. Sarducci

Dear G.:

Oh, we wuz jus’ funnin’ about Il Papa converting to Islam and all that. In fact, the official Roscoe position on this is that Pope Benedict should respond in the style of former President Truman. You know—“Give ’em hell, Harry.” Benedict should get up on his hind legs and say something like:

Any sane, civilized homo sapiens should be able to tell the difference between one man’s opinion and his quoting of another man’s differing opinion. And so, most people do understand that the remarks I made at the University of Regensburg (which some have considered insulting to Islam) were actually my quoting of another man’s differing opinion—and that of a medieval emperor, for crying out loud.

The fact that so many radical Muslims either can’t or won’t see this distinction is a statement in itself. Moreover, the irrationality and violence of their reaction tends to prove the point of some that Islam is not a religion of peace. And let’s not buy into any of this deception that Allah is the same as Jehovah God of the Bible. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible says "by their fruits you shall know them," and these fruits should get a life. Be it so decreed, Dominoes Nabisco.

Or words to that effect. But he won’t do that. No way. And that’s the problem. See, G., Benedict is a great culture warrior, just like John Paul II, and conservative evangelicals are in total agreement with most of his public policy agenda. But on this—the issue of Islam—the Catholic Church is horribly compromised and, we believe, deceived.

Once again, the great Southern Baptist scholar Al Mohler has nailed it. He cites Pope Paul VI’s approval of Muslims’ practice of prayer and fasting and their revering of Jesus and Mary as evidence of a common faith. Then quoting from the Second Vatican Council:

But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohamedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind.

“In other words,” writes Mohler, “the Catholic church teaches that Muslims are included in the economy of salvation by virtue of the fact that they worship the one true God. This is simply unsustainable on any number of fronts. Most importantly, the Christian doctrine of God is irreducibly Trinitarian. We know no other God than the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Islam explicitly denies that Jesus is God's Son. Muslims acknowledge no God who is the Father of Jesus Christ. Christians know no God who is not the Father of Jesus Christ. We do not claim or worship the same God.”

And that, G., is a huge problem. So, don’t look to Benedict for moral leadership on this one. We’d love to be proven wrong. But that skeleton in his closet is facing Mecca.

--Roscoe

BENEDICT: First Muslim pope?

Is The Daley Report prescient or what? (We think that’s a good thing.)

No sooner had we urged a bedcheck for papal hitman Mehmet Ali Agca (See Monday’s “Pope must die”) than did This Is London answer with the report, “Papal Assassin Warns Pope Benedict His ‘Life Is in Danger’ if He Visits Turkey.”

Turns out old Mehmet was still in the pokey after all. As This Is London reports:

Earlier this year he was briefly freed from his life sentence after a judge released him but after a huge outcry he was jailed again within days and is now at Istanbul's Kartal Maltepe jail and not due for release until 2012.

In a letter to an Italian newspaper, Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square in 1981, warned that Pope Benedict XVI—who has “insulted” Islam in recent remarks—is as good as dead if he visits Turkey, as planned in November. “Your life is in danger,” wrote Agca. He closed the letter with an appeal for Benedict to resign (he even named a couple of cardinals who would be suitable replacements) and return to Germany to save his neck.


As the British report stated:

For many Muslims, the Pope's attempt to explain himself on Sunday did not go far enough and observers were waiting to see if he would speak about it again at his general audience at the Vatican. ... The leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics said on Sunday he was 'deeply sorry' for the reaction caused - but stopped short of apologising for his words or retracting them.

See, this presents a real problem. If Benny doesn’t grovel in the dust, offer up the obligatory mea culpas and beg forgiveness, there’s going to be a fatwa and some operative of the Religion of Peace is going to rat-a-tat-tat him—or saw off his holy head. BUT if he does apologize to the extent demanded, it will be an admission of fallibility.

Houston, we have a problem here. What happens if a pope—who is supposed to be infallible—is forced to admit fallibility? Can he still be pope? Yikes. Sounds like Benedict is damned if he do and damned if he don’t.

There’s probably only one way out, your Excellency: Apologize, then convert to Islam. You could probably get a gig somewhere as an imam or something. Right?

Well, we try to be helpful where we can. . .

Break out your lead shorts

In the interest of your security and at the risk of being branded an abject Bush-sympathizer and alarmist scaremonger, we issue the following advisory:

Nuclear attack!!! Head for the hills!!!

Well, maybe. In case you haven’t heard, there’s a story going around that an Islamniac named Adnan Shukrijumah has penetrated our southern border in possession of some kind of nuclear materials for recreational use during Ramadan—which begins this Sunday (September 24).

Reportedly, our eight or nine largest cities may be in danger, but especially New York and Washington. Muslims are urged to leave the United States. (Boy, do we second that motion. . .)

This is all according to some poobah named Abu Dawood, supposedly the new commander of al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. “Our cycle of warnings has been completed,” Dawood said ominously. Whatever that means. The essence of these reports:

* Final preparations have been made for the American Hiroshima, a major attack on the U.S.

* Muslims living in the United States should leave the country without further warning.

* The attack will be commandeered by Adnan el Shukrijumah (“Jaffer Tayyer” or “Jafer the Pilot”), a naturalized American citizen, who was raised in Brooklyn and educated in southern Florida.

* The al Qaeda operatives who will launch this attack are awaiting final orders. They remain in place in cities throughout the country. Many are masquerading as Christians and have adopted Christian names.

Read more at Canada Free Press and WorldNetDaily.


[Courtesy of Dry Bones Blog.]

We can, of course, hear it now from the neo-libs and mainstream mediocracy: "Don't pay attention to these Karl Rove rumors. It's just another attempt to scare you into supporting the so-called global war on terror."

The truth: After purchasing potassium iodide (to block radiation uptake by your thyroid) for yourself and your family—as the Roscoe has done—we should all consider passing a hat and taking up a collection. It’ll probably cost a lot of money to relocate those millions of American Muslims.

But it would be worth every penny. Nes pas?

‘Pope must die’

Memo to the Vatican Swiss Guard:

Anybody know where Mehmet Ali Agca is right now?

If not, this might be a good time to find out. Agca, of course, is the Turk who plugged Pope John Paul II with four shots in his famous 1981 assassination attempt. That particular incident probably had more to do with the KGB and the Cold War than with Islam. But it is a little troubling that the Turks let Agca free on parole earlier this year. The only thing we know for sure is he's probably not working for Opus Dei or the Calcutta Missionaries of Charity.

On the other hand, Agca’s not the only guy willing to take a shot at a pontiff, either. Especially these days. After Benedict XVI outed himself as a vicious Islamo-phobe, he’s now a marked man. As well he should be. How dare he insult the Religion of Peace that way?

Well, the punk-pontiff has outsmarted himself this time. He probably didn’t realize just who he was dealing with. Take Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for example. The ol' ayatollah wasn’t fooled by any of this. He figured out—all by himself, apparently—that the whole controversy was just another U.S. plot. According to the Associated Press, “He argued that while the pope may have been deceived into making his remarks, the words give the West an ‘excuse for suppressing Muslims’ by depicting them as terrorists.”

Hah! Muslim “terrorists”? Have you ever heard anything so absurd? Americans are so gullible.

It’s all so regrettable, but can anyone blame them? Islam has been insulted. So, of course, al Qaeda must declare war on “worshipers of the cross” and the pope should be “subject to capital punishment.”

Muhammad himself predicted in the hadith (not the Quran, but the “teachings”) that in the last days Islam would take Romiyya (Rome)—but by force of teaching and moral suasion rather than armed conflict. In the words of Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi: “Allah willing, Islam will return to Europe and the Europeans will convert to Islam.” And, sure enough, Italy and much of Western Europe are rapidly becoming Eurabia with their declining birth rate and rapid growth of Islam within its borders.

Check out the ancient prophecy here.

Islamic Republic of America: Part 4

Whilst we were jetting about on our secret mission—including a tete a tete with the original Roscoe Daley himself—we were amused to learn, a little belatedly, of the latest offense committed against the Religion of Peace. This time by no lesser a luminary than the most famous Christian on earth, Pope Benedict.

Man, these popes just keep getting better and better, don't they? First, John Paul II helps bring down the Evil Empire and end the Cold War. Now Benedict is taking on the Religion of Peace. Although there is that little question of whether that’s what he was really intending to do. But the Islamniacs are nothing if not touchy.

No matter that Benedict was quoting an obscure Byzantine emperor for the sake of an academic lecture point:

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

Islam has been offended—and somebody must pay! Yeah, right…

From where we sit, we think there need to be more and more of these “offenses” until ever last Islamniac head has exploded and the rest of us can finally have some peace.

Meanwhile, we have a book recommendation: Prayers for the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno, Scribner, 2006. This work, about a future Islamic Republic of America, is more frightening than any piece of horror fiction could ever hope to be. Because, when you get right down to it, an Islamic Republic of America would be the ultimate horror. Maybe we’ll do a review in this space sometime soon.

While finishing this disturbing book, we experienced a whispering from that Still Small Voice—to the effect that if America will not be a Christian nation, then it will become a Muslim nation. Don’t laugh. It’s in process in Europe. Remember: We’re not dealing with natural, rational forces here. We’re dealing with the supernatural—as in things from the pit.

American hero, European treachery

Not that we needed any further evidence that Western Europe has totally lost both its mind and its morals. But hard as we try to ignore them—especially when they get all sanctimonious about America and our president—they go and do something else that sets new lows in treachery and cowardice.

Like releasing Mohammed Ali Hamadi from prison. Yep. Maybe you’ve heard that this murderer has already gone to Lebanon lickety-split and rejoined Hezbollah faster
than you can say "Neville Chamberlain." Hamadi is the Islamo-scumbag who beat and tortured Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem to death during the hijacking of TWA flight 847 20 years ago.

Stethem, 23, could have saved his skin by caving to Hamadi’s demands. He chose an honorable death instead. He is a true American hero. In fact, there’s an Aegis destroyer named in his honor—the USS Stethem. There, unfortunately, the good sense comes to an end.

When Hamadi turned up in German custody some years ago, our government petitioned to get him here for the Stethem murder. But because Germany doesn’t approve of our death penalty (!), they refused. Instead, they sentenced him to life in prison, with the understanding that if he ever were to be released, we get first crack at him.

But that’s not what happened. Inexplicably, Hamadi is suddenly released and allowed to return to Lebanon. Why? Apparently, an under-the-table deal for the release of someone in Germany’s interest. Outrageous would be an understatement.

Are we going to let this stand? Apparently. The Bush administration doesn’t seem motivated to challenge it. For more information, we’d like to refer you to the open letters to President Bush from Stethem’s brother on Michael Yon’s Web site. Unfortunately, Yon’s copyrighted Web site is so consumed with warnings about misappropriation of its content that we’re afraid to even give the Web address for fear of legal action. (Get a life, Michael.)

Instead, we’ll refer you to the more user-friendly site of Debbi Schlussel, who’s got some excellent content, too.

Are we grouchy these days? You betcha. Is the Ayatollah Muslim?

5th ANNIVERSARY: The dog that didn’t bark

Last night President Bush said it: The global war on terror is “the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the call of our generation.”

The sad and shameful truth is that five years later half of America still doesn’t believe it. But the lessons are there nonetheless:

• They will not just leave us alone. Radical Islam has been targeting even its good butt-boys in France and Germany.
• Appeasement doesn’t work. To any honest inquirer, the evidence is clear that such restraint has only emboldened radical Islam as signs of weakness.
• The only thing that works with Islamo-fascists: Strength and perseverance.
• They will hit us again. The chances of a suitcase nuke or a “dirty” radiological bomb in a major U.S. city? You probably don’t want to know.
• Slowly but surely, progress is being made in the Global War on Terror. Many plots have been foiled—which get little more news coverage than the dog that didn’t bark.
• Next time self-defense requires foreign intervention and regime change, screw nation building. We take out your terrorist schmuck-fuhrer; you clean up your own mess. Sorry.
• Liberal moonbat pukes who are rowing in the opposite direction cannot be tolerated indefinitely. They are fast becoming a national security threat. There are laws for the kind of sedition being committed by The New York Times and their ilk. We need to enforce the law.

Further affiant sayeth naught.

This Week

First reaction to The Path to 9/11:

Great stuff. Absolutely captivating. Strong candidate for the Roscoe Full Bladder Award. The last 15 minutes of those two and a half hours were impossible to tear away from, despite nature's call. (We made it.) Loved the casting. George Tenet in particular was a dead ringer. Ramzi Yousef was also eerily--and wickedly--dead on. Northern Alliance commander Massoud was a winsome character, the tragedy of his death made poignantly palpable.

Can't wait for the exciting conclusion--although we don't know how or when we'll get to see it. We're flying out on 9/11 for another secret mission this week. Yeah, we know: Brave men laugh in the face of danger, but it takes a real nut to fly on 9/11. Well, look at it this way: Blowing up in the air is probably a good deal better than dying of congestive heart failure or pancreatic cancer.

All of which is also to say that posting this week will be erratic. Though we do have a laptop with a wireless card. So, where there's a wireless, there's a way...

ROSCOE’S Weak-end Review

Plame: Outrageous media hypocrisy

Did you hear about Hardball’s Chris Matthews being confronted over his sudden attack of shyness in the Valerie Plame story? His only defense was that the story has suddenly become “too complicated.” Yeah, now that the story no longer makes Karl Rove and others in the Bush administration look bad. Now it’s a non-story.

What hypocrisy—especially since the mainstream mediocracy couldn’t get enough of this lame story before. It’s probably too much to expect an outright apology from the mainstream mediocracy Bush bashers, but you’d think they could at least follow up their own hysterical inaccuracies and rush to judgment with the truth, now that it’s come out. But no-o-o-o. And Matthews is not the only culprit.

Matthew Sheffield managed to corner Matthews at a party and put him on the spot. As Sheffield observed:

Since the revelation that Richard Armitage, a former high-ranking official in the State Department, was the source of the much-ballyhooed Valerie Plame "leak," many in the media have refused to touch the story with a ten-foot pole. This was quite a turnaround since before the Armitage involvement was known, many journalists believed the CIA leak story was one worth pursuing on a daily basis. Some even believed it could bring down the Bush White House, or at least end the careers of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.

You can read Sheffield’s account of his delightful needling of Matthews at News Busters. But there needs to be one heck of a lot more of this. Our side is just too darned nice. Imagine if the shoe had been on the other foot. Or imagine if Sandy “What National Security Documents in My Pants?” Burglar had been a Bush operative rather than a Clintonista. We’d still be hearing the media wails about it instead of the cricket chirping we have now.

Some of that is our fault: We let them get away with it. We need to quit doing that.



America-hating as mental illness

We gave our Canadian cousins a piece of our mind (that we could ill afford to lose) here yesterday over their knee-jerk anti-Americanism. Then today we find one of their own rebuking her fellow countrymen over the same thing. In “The Sickness of Anti-Americanism” at FrontPageMag, Jamie Glazov takes strong exception to a Canadian bloke named Mark Kingwell and his America-bashing.

One small sampling of her withering chide, which places America-bashing in a larger historical context:

This psychic illness is founded on Canada’s desperate desire to be “different” than the Americans -- a result of Canada being built on the “counter-revolution.” When the British colonies revolted against their masters in 1776, Canadians became the first anti-Americans. Canada is based on anti-Americanism. Without anti-Americanism -- as one author has quipped -- Canada would cease to exist.

While Kingwell conspicuously avoids the issue of how bearing the mark of “moral courage” translated into many Canadian nationalists engaging in Gulag denial during the Cold War, the historical record stands firmly in place: the Soviet regime was an expansionist and totalitarian regime that exterminated millions of its own people. Consequently, as the de-classified documents from the Soviet archives now prove, the Canadian nationalists who demonized the United States, and exonerated the Soviet Union, in the Cold War, for the sake of anti-Americanism, were completely wrong.

So there!

We stand on guard for thee?

There’s nothing like a bad war to find out who your friends are. In case you were counting, you can cross Canada off the list.

Seems our friends up north kinda think those nearly 3,000 people who died screaming on 9/11 may have had it coming. Yes, that right, America’s foreign policy was to blame for their deaths. Witness this story, “New Poll says most Canadians blame U.S. for 9/11 attacks.” That sentiment rises to a high water mark of 77 percent in Quebec. (Anybody recall what language is spoken there?)

We’ll let you draw your own conclusions as to what this might say about the character of our friends to the north. Most of what we might add would probably violate the language standards of the Daley Report. But we think this speaks for itself.



Without getting personal about it, let’s just say these people are full of horsepuckey. And lest anyone think this be a hasty or unscientific judgment, we wouldst refer thee to, oh, a story like this LA Times report, “Germany Startled to Find It's Terror Target.” Subtitled: “Many thought the nation's opposition to the Iraq war protected it from militant attacks. But a failed plot to bomb two trains altered that.”

Who would have thought that German trains would be attacked by radical Presbyterians from Michigan? No, wait. Uh, make that “angry Muslim men” from Lebanon. Easy mistake. But what the heck were they mad about? It couldn’t have been Germany’s foreign policy. Germany, like France, et al., has been a very good butt-boy for radical Islam.

Let’s be clear: All such rationalizations are unadulterated horsepuckey. If you want to know the reason for radical Islam’s murderous anger, look no farther than radical Islam. And then reload. End of story.

ASK ROSCOE: Dr. Horsepuckey rides again

Dear Roscoe:

Hey, pal. Where do you get off, dissing a good Iranian-American citizen and scholar like Dr. Ismael Hossein-zadeh, just because he doesn’t agree with your right-wingnut world view? (Don’t you dare call him that ridiculous name again.) I did a little checking into Dr. Hossein-zadeh’s writings and found this:

“Perhaps more than anything else, it is this combination of private ownership of the means of warfare and market imperatives of profitability that drives the war today. It is also this business imperative of war that, more than any other factor, underlies the U.S. militarists’ constant search for enemies, or new ‘threats to our national security.’ ”

I think Dr. Hossein-zadeh’s got your number—you and George Bush and all you slimy neo-con chickenhawk warmongers. What do you think? Hmm?

--G. Dean


Dear G.:

You mean Dr. Horsepuckey? (See Aug. 28, “Dr. Horsepuckey.”)

I believe you’re referring to Dr. Horsepuckey’s article, "Manufacturing External Threats to Ensure War Profits." It’s from his book, The Political Economy of American Militarism. The only thing is, you should have also quoted a few lines farther down, to Dr. Horsepucky’s walk-off:

As Brandon J. Snider points out, “Nations like Britain and the U.S. don’t really have to do anything to fight terrorism; they only have to stop doing things that provoke terrorist responses: keep out of the affairs of other nations.”

Golly, G., but that’s a howler! There’s just a whole lot we could say about the sheer idiocy—the horsepuckiness—of that. But I think our friend Robin over at Chickenhawk Express says it best:

Once again - blame America and Americans for terrorist attacks. Once again and I'll say it slowly so even the Libs with their fingers in their ears can hear...

THERE... WAS.... NO... ABU... GHRAIB.... ON..... 9/11...

WE... WERE.... NOT... IN... IRAQ... ON .... 9/11...

THE... TERRORISTS... WERE... AT... WAR... WITH... US... ON... 9/11...

SADDAM... HUSSEIN... WAS.... INVOLVED... WITH... TERRORISM... (and NO I'm not saying he was involved with 9/11).

Or how about this further example of horsepuckery from Jihad Watch:

Swiss charge Pakistani over 'honor killing' of wife

Eurabia Alert from AFP:

ZURICH -- Swiss prosecutors have charged a Pakistani man over the "honor killing" of his wife, according to legal documents published Wednesday [August 23].

Ajmal Butt Aziz, 24, is accused of murdering his 20-year-old wife Khudeja because she refused to follow Islamic tradition and wear a headscarf, according to the charge sheet published by the Corriere del Ticino newspaper.

Aziz's spouse died in July 2005 after he allegedly bludgeoned her to death with a hammer as she slept at the couple's home in Bellinzona, in Switzerland's southern canton of Ticino.

Born in Pakistan, Khudeja Aziz was brought up in Switzerland and was a citizen of the Alpine country.

Aziz claimed that he acted in self-defense after being attacked by his wife.
Prosecutors, however, alleged that he acted because he was opposed to his wife's Western lifestyle and her wish to find a job, and also that she was seeking a divorce.

Moral of the story: Obviously, it wasn’t Khudeja’s responsibility to do anything to prevent her husband’s violent actions; she only had to stop doing things that provoked him. Guess she won’t make that mistake again...

So, G., that’s why we say it—and say it loudly: Horsepuckey. Horsepuckey.

And again, Horsepuckey.

ASK ROSCOE: What the eh?

ROSCOE News Alert

For what it's worth, the Pakistan government is now denying this report:

Dear Roscoe:

What do you make of the report that Osama bin Laden has cut a deal with Pakistan to be left alone in the north country if he keeps his nose clean? Doesn’t that mean that the Taliban and al Qaeda have won? Sounds like the Bush & Rumsfeld chickenhawks have blown yet another one, eh?

N. Young


Dear N.:

You’re apparently referring to this ABC News report that Pakistan is withdrawing troops from the tribal region of Waziristan, along the border with Afghanistan. Yes, it would look as if the terrorists have won a round, but keep your powder dry. Looks can be deceiving.

Who knows how this might play out, eh? Assuming it’s all true. Maybe it will become an independent state, with a new name like Talibanistan or Binladistan. Maybe the United Nations will take care of the problem, just as handily as it’s taking care of the Hezbollistan (a.k.a. southern Lebanon) and Iranian nuclear problems. Or maybe (heh, heh) this will be provide opportunity for the Zionist crusader missionary forces of the U.S. to do a little Orkin exterminating without unnecssarily embarrassing our Pakistani ally. In fact, maybe that's the real deal...

You just never know. Heck, Canada has forces in the vicinity. Maybe they’ll take of it.

And another thing N.: Southern man don’t need you around, anyhow.

--Roscoe

‘Invitation to Islam’: No thanks

Just goes to show what over-exposure to heavy metal music in the early years—on top of bad parenting—will do to the human brain. It sounds like Adam Gadahn--the American convert to Islam who joined al Qaeda and recently issued a highly publicized “invitation” for Americans to convert, too--never had a chance. Adam’s heavy-metal addiction during his teen years was probably understandable, given his father’s bizarre example as a psychedelic rock musician and goat farmer.


Phil Pearlman, a southern California musician who produced one album, “Beat of the Earth” in the 1960s and a few singles on obscure labels (Phil & the Flakes), reportedly changed his name to Gadahn for equally obscure religious reasons. (It apparently had something to do with the Old Testament character Gideon.) Then he had some kind of goat business on a farm without electricity where he’d “humanely” slit their throats and butcher the carcasses in “halal” fashion for sale to Muslims.



Perhaps that’s how young Adam had his first exposure to Islam—and possibly throat-slitting. Then, after he got over his heavy metal addiction, he became one himself. Not just any kind of Muslim, but a fire-breathing, jihad-screaming, infidel-threatening one. This time he has threatened a few specifically by name, including Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. It’s come-to-Allah time, Adam warned, or face the consequences.

To which Robert has issued a firm “no thank you.” Robert asserted in his response that he rejects “violent intimidation” and has no desire to live in a society that practices such. “I believe that societies that respect the equality of rights before the law of all people, including women and religious minorities, as well as the freedom of conscience, are superior to those that do not. I hope that such societies will be able to summon the will to resist you and your ‘invitation’ in all its implications before it is too late,” he wrote.

The only thing is, this invitation from Adam—like one that Iran President Mahmoud “Mojo” Ahmadinejad has made to President Bush--could well be a formulaic prelude to attack. The Daley Report and a few others have noted that this kind of “invitation”—with the anticipated rejection—is radical Islam’s justification for jihad against the infidel. The fact that this is coming just on the verge of the fifth anniversary for 9/11 is particularly ominous.

We would like to issue an invitation of our own: Adam, you are one lost dude. You may be able to clean the outside of the cup with religious rituals and works, but the inside is still full of vileness and sin. There is only one remedy for that: the person of Jesus Christ, the Savior. You need a Savior, Adam. Come to him now. He will not turn you away.

ROSCOE'S Weak-End Review

The Khatami visa: A minority view

We know. We know. Nobody likes the issuing of a visa to Iranian leader Mohammad Khatami to come to the United States and meet with Bush-bashers like Jimmy Carter. Agreed. Normally, we’re on the same side of issues like this with experts like Michael Ledeen and Gary Metz (a.k.a. Dr. Z of Regime Change Iran).

But in this case, we’re more in tune with the minority view being expressed by Iranian expatriate writer and editor Amir Taheri, who’s produced a number of works of late with rare insight. On the visa controversy, Taheri says, “There is no harm in letting Khatami come to Washington to be exposed to pubic scrutiny.”

Khatami, once considered a reformer, is the predecessor of Iranian President Mahmoud “Mojo” Ahmadinejad. Taheri reasons that a Khatami visit might provide an opportunity for some comeuppance as the Iranian is subjected to the news media of a free society and is forced to answer for atrocities committed by his administration, including:

o The assassination of dissidents.
o The arrest and torture of thousands of people, including trade unionists and student leaders.
o The closing of more than 150 newspapers and magazines.
o The banning of hundreds of books and dozens of films.
o The arming of the Hezbollah in Lebanon.
o Shipping weapons to Yasser Arafat’s terror units and Islamic Jihad.
o Providing the Jaish al-Mahdi in Iraq with money and arms.

Of course, Taheri may be giving our Bush-bashing mainstream mediocracy way too much credit. We’ll see. If they wimp out or, worse, jump aboard the Bush-bashmobile, they may have the new media to rub their noses in it. That’s us, folks. Let’s hold them accountable on their coverage of this event.

Read the rest of the Taheri piece—as well as a series of other writers on the other side—here. The Taheri piece comes last in this post.

Parting note: Another factor entering into our minority view here is that we’re also not eager to attack Iran, at least at this point, over its nuclear ambitions and Middle East aggressions (arming Hezbollah, fomenting Shiite opposition in Iraq, etc.). That’s for two reasons: Mojo (for reasons detailed here Aug. 27, “Mojo’s martyr complex”) is trying to provoke us to attack, and we don’t want to play into his hand. And, it may not be widely known in the West, but Mojo’s regime is skating on pretty thin domestic ice. If we’re smart about it, we might be able to facilitate regime change more easily in other ways.

On the other hand, this doesn't mean we still wouldn't like to see a well-placed bunker buster at the site of the well at Jamkaran to erase Mr. Mahdi, the mythical Muslim Messiah—who’s the whole reason for Mojo’s provocative behavior in the first place.

Death of a President

Hey, did you hear about the movie that’s just been made called Rape of a Senator? Yeah, can you believe the nerve, the appalling bad taste? They got this Hillary look-alike to play a U.S. Senator who gets assaulted right on the steps of the Rayburn building by this big guy with a bad haircut. The whole ugly thing is shown in graphic detail.

The director (no doubt a right-wingnut) denied that he had any anti-liberal agenda or sensationalistic designs. He said “it's a serious film which I hope will open up the debate on where current domestic policies are taking us."

Yeah, right. In a pig’s eye. This is an outrage! Why—uh, what? It’s not Rape of a Senator? It’s Death of a President? George W. Bush gets whacked on film?

Oh. Well, that’s different. I didn’t realize we were talking about real art. In that case, no problema.

Dynamite Israeli video

Get down, baby! “You look like a hippopotamus / You have the brains of a bird…”

Not your father’s music video, exactly. The lyrics are in Hebrew, with English subtitles. The music is driving, Israeli rock. The video, intense scenes from the recent Israeli military push into southern Lebanon—rockets, tanks, bombs, all sorts of fun stuff. The object of their affection: Hezbollah chief thug, Hassan Nasrallah.

The chorus:

Yalla ya Nasrallah, we will screw you inshallah
We will send you back to Allah with all the Hezbollah
Yalla ya Nasrallah, go away ya garbage
It’s already been sentenced from above—that this is your end
You are pathetic, you are small
And resemble an orangutan
You have lice on your beard
And soon you’ll be out of here
You are a dead cockroach, your are a skunk.

At least, it makes us want to get up and dance. But it also makes us lament: If only they had succeeded…

To view, go here if you have a YouTube account. Or go here if you don’t.

NYT reporter in counseling for PTSD

Sometimes the elite mainstream mediocracy do something right. Like today’s Washington Post editorial pinning the blame for the Valerie Plame leak right where it belonged from the beginning: On hubbie Joseph Wilson. Like The New York Times recent two-part take-out on the tragedy of child porn by Kurt Eichenwald, called “Dark Corners.”

Unfortunately, it was at high personal cost for the reporter, as this interview excerpt reveals, after the interviewer asks Eichenwald his personal view of the pedophiles themselves:

You know, on some level, for some of them – and this might surprise people, because I do seem to have [LAUGHS] – when you hear me, I sound like have hatred – many of them, I feel sorry for them. Nobody would choose to isolate themselves in this way. And there are those who recognize that their desires are, in fact, damaging to children, and so they make sure they stay away from kids. And I actually have respect for those people. For those who rationalize it, for those who sit there and say, you know, children benefit from sexual relations with adults, for those who say that they're fighting for children's rights to have sex with adults, I have nothing but contempt for them. You know, I have seen more kids sobbing in front of me, I have had more instances of witnessing an image that haunts me for months. This is the first time in my life that I've needed to go into counseling sponsored by, you know, The Times, where I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. I had to stop doing this for three months. You know, my wife periodically will say, you know, are you sure you can keep handling this? I'm not sure. But there is nothing more important in this country, in terms of transforming the social fabric of our nation, than the Internet. And reporters are duty-bound to let readers understand how it is transforming us, both for good and for bad. And if we ignore the bad, then we, I believe, are abdicating any right we have to say that we are journalists.

So, what was all that about victimless crime?

Read the rest of the interview here.