Networks put gun ruling in their crosshairs

From: Douglas C. Mills, Executive Vice President, The Media Research Center

The recent Supreme Court ruling striking down a ban on handgun ownership in Washington, D.C., touched off a maelstrom of negative media reports about how the ruling would lead to more gun violence.

Really?

The 32-year ban on handguns in our Nation's Capital was one of the strictest, yet the District has been widely labeled "the murder capital of the country". Why didn't the media analyze that?

For the full Culture and Media Institute report:

http://www.mrcaction.org/r.asp?U=8733&RID=16261470

Just after the ruling, The N.Y. Times used a misleading statistic to bolster their argument.

"Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year -- on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly with its wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of Columbia's gun-control law."

The Times failed to mention that nearly half of the 30,000 deaths are suicides. The paper also didn't look at how many of those homicides were the result of self-defense.

Instead, the Times, like its liberal network counterparts, lamented that the "far-right" court got it wrong, setting the stage for more violence and death.

Go here for the complete Timeswatch report:

http://www.mrcaction.org/r.asp?U=8734&RID=16261470

Clay Waters, director of Times Watch, takes on the New York Times on a daily basis in Times Watch Tracker.

Sign-up today for the Times Watch Tracker and we'll deliver it to you via email -- absolutely FREE!

http://www.mrcaction.org/r.asp?U=8735&RID=16261470

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Gathering of Mustangs & Legends - Flag Jump

(Compiler's note: Should my American flag offend you, please call 1-800 Leave-the-USA)

Great video!

Bush administration streamlines security clearance process

The Bush administration has issued a new executive order that could streamline the onerous and often lengthy background checks performed on federal employees and contractors who need special security clearance to access classified information.

The order, issued on June 30, requires federal agencies to establish "consistent standards" for all individuals who require access to classified national security information or who are applying for a sensitive government position.

"The aligned system shall employ updated and consistent standards and methods, enable innovations with enterprise information technology capabilities and end-to-end automation to the extent practicable, and ensure that relevant information maintained by agencies can be ...

Report provides roadmap for first Homeland Security transition

Identifying and filling critical positions, training new executives and working aggressively to get the next presidential team on board are critical steps for a smooth transition at the Homeland Security Department, according to a new report by the National Academy of Public Administration.

The 118-page report, requested by DHS and the House and Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittees, found that while it has made a solid start in planning for the presidential transition, the department and other key players in homeland security have to do more.

"The panel has provided a roadmap for DHS, and made recommendations to Congress, the presidential candidates, and key federal agencies, to reduce America's vulnerability during the election and presidential transition year," said NAPA President Jennifer Dorn. "I have no doubt that our country is up to the job." ...

Does Patriotism Matter?

By Thomas Sowell

The Fourth of July is a patriotic holiday but patriotism has long been viewed with suspicion or disdain by many of the intelligentsia. As far back as 1793, prominent British writer William Godwin called patriotism "high-sounding nonsense."

Internationalism has long been a competitor with patriotism, especially among the intelligentsia. H.G. Wells advocated replacing the idea of duty to one's country with "the idea of cosmopolitan duty."

Perhaps nowhere was patriotism so downplayed or deplored than among intellectuals in the Western democracies in the two decades after the horrors of the First World War, fought under various nations' banners of patriotism.

In France, after the First World War, the teachers' unions launched a systematic purge of textbooks, in order to promote internationalism and pacifism.

Books that depicted the courage and self-sacrifice of soldiers who had defended France against the German invaders were called "bellicose" books to be banished from the schools.

Textbook publishers caved in to the power of the teachers' unions, rather than lose a large market for their books. History books were sharply revised to conform to internationalism and pacifism.

The once epic story of the French soldiers' heroic defense against the German invaders at Verdun, despite the massive casualties suffered by the French, was now transformed into a story of horrible suffering by all soldiers at Verdun-- French and German alike.

In short, soldiers once depicted as national heroes were now depicted as victims-- and just like victims in other nations' armies.

Children were bombarded with stories on the horrors of war. In some schools, children whose fathers had been killed during the war were asked to speak to the class and many of these children-- as well as some of their classmates and teachers-- broke down in tears.

In Britain, Winston Churchill warned that a country "cannot avoid war by dilating upon its horrors." In France, Marshal Philippe Petain, the victor at Verdun, warned in 1934 that teachers were trying to "raise our sons in ignorance of or in contempt of the fatherland."

But they were voices drowned out by the pacifist and internationalist rhetoric of the 1920s and 1930s.

Did it matter? Does patriotism matter?

France, where pacifism and internationalism were strongest, became a classic example of how much it can matter.

During the First World War, France fought on against the German invaders for four long years, despite having more of its soldiers killed than all the American soldiers killed in all the wars in the history of the United States, put together.

But during the Second World War, France collapsed after just six weeks of fighting and surrendered to Nazi Germany. At the bitter moment of defeat the head of the French teachers' union was told, "You are partially responsible for the defeat."

Charles de Gaulle, Francois Mauriac, and other Frenchmen blamed a lack of national will or general moral decay, for the sudden and humiliating collapse of France in 1940.

At the outset of the invasion, both German and French generals assessed French military forces as more likely to gain victory, and virtually no one expected France to collapse like a house of cards -- except Adolf Hitler, who had studied French society instead of French military forces.

Did patriotism matter? It mattered more than superior French tanks and planes.

Most Americans today are unaware of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens of the world instead of American patriots.

Our media are busy verbally transforming American combat troops from heroes into victims, just as the French intelligentsia did-- with the added twist of calling this "supporting the troops."

Will that matter? Time will tell.

CIA Suppressed Iran Nuclear Intelligence, Ex-Agent Says

A former undercover CIA operative claimed in a federal court filing Friday that the agency quashed intelligence indicating that Iran had halted its pursuit of a nuclear weapon capability, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, June 30).

The former agent, who is prohibited from releasing his name, contends that the CIA ignored evidence that Iran had suspended its military nuclear program until the agency reversed its conclusions in helping to formulate a U.S. intelligence assessment last year...

Saudis Schmooze Their Way To Safety

So far this year, Saudi Arabia has arrested 701 terrorist suspects. About 180 were released, but the rest are still being investigated. Many had been recruited overseas by al Qaeda, and provided with money to get into Saudi Arabia during the annual Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca, which every Moslem is encouraged to do at least once). ...

The Curious China Connection

A recent analysis of web sites pushing malware (software that helps hackers steal data) revealed that half of them are connected with just ten ISPs (Internet Service Providers), and six of those ISPs are in China. This came as no surprise, as China has become the favorite hideout for Internet criminals.

There's just one catch. The Chinese Internet is highly policed by a special force of 30,000 secret police technicians. On the Chinese Internet, you don't do something the government does not want, at least not for long. ...

The Islamic Bewilderness

Al Qaeda has had a bad year, having been crushed in Iraq and having a hard time doing much damage anywhere else. But on the Internet , the Sunni terrorist organization is expanding its activities. ...

Son Of Spooky A Shorty

SOCOMs gunships (the AC-130) are wearing out because of heavy use in combat. In 5-10 years, all of them will have to be retired, or heavily rebuilt. So the air force portion of SOCOM (AFSOC, Air Force Special Operations Command) is going to try converting new light (two engine) transports to "light gunships. ...

Congress Blinds The FBI (Reid-Pelosi aid terrorists)

The U.S. Congress has refused to give the FBI $11 million to expand the use of data mining in counter-terrorism efforts. American politicians are generally hostile to government use of data mining, a technique widely used, for decades, in business (marketing), law enforcement (catching criminals) and the military (finding the enemy). This last use has become much more sophisticated since the U.S. Department of Defense began pouring billions of dollars a year into finding ways to defeat IEDs (improvised explosive devices, usually roadside bombs). The effort to lower IED casualties has opened up all sorts of opportunities for technological innovation. No one harasses researchers for using data mining, or makes fun of building supercomputers with graphics processors (often the same ones found in video game consoles, making super-fast computers cheap enough to be used in a combat zone to make life saving predictions), when it saves troops from getting killed.

The data mining was initially used to figure out who the bomb making crews were, and where they operated from. Then, using math techniques first developed during World War II, the intel geeks began creating predictions about where IEDs were most likely to show up next. These predictive models get better as the quality of the information going into them improves. As more terrorists are captured and interrogated, and their computers and data is translated, the predictions become more accurate.

Using more primitive computers, Germany employed data mining successfully in the 1970s, to find leftist, middle class terrorists who were operating with assistance from the East German secret police. The terrorists thought they were well concealed, but data mining can do wonders with the slightest pieces of information.

The FBI has been unable to make this point to Congress, mainly because some key legislators are ideologically opposed to data mining, and refuse to acknowledge the widespread success of the technique in civilians and military sectors.

Getting Sensible On Energy

If the price of gasoline is around $4 a gallon, Americans have no one to blame but themselves. For decades, we have demonized the people and businesses who supply our energy. Energy fuels our economy and prosperity, but bad public policies have made it increasingly more difficult to develop our own vast resources. Americans are in danger of falling irreversibly into a dysfunctional culture and fading into the dust of history.

We sit on our own undeveloped energy supplies and complain about the high price of gasoline and imported oil. ...

... The United States has enough oil and gas resources to meet our energy needs for hundreds of years. Nothing but our own ignorance stands in the way of developing them.

Turkish police detain 2 retired commanders over alleged anti-government plot

Turkish police detained 24 people including two retired military commanders Tuesday during raids against an alleged network of extreme nationalists accused of plotting to topple the government, according to media reports. Dozens of people have previously been detained during the yearlong probe into the alleged group whose members have been accused of provoking an armed rebellion against the government. ...

Terror suspect video 'a mistake'

An aircraft suicide bomb plot suspect has told jurors that a video threatening martyrdom that he helped to make had been a "silly" mistake. ...

Wave of attacks threaten Iraqi judges

BAGHDAD - Five Iraqi judges escaped assassination Monday in a series of small bomb attacks that police believe may be part of a Shiite extremist campaign to force them to free jailed militants or reduce their sentences. ...

Qaeda targets U.S. oil interests in N.Africa: report

Al Qaeda's growing north Africa network plans to attack U.S. interests seeking control of the region's energy riches, ...

The Border Fence Folly

In this political season, immigration is the issue that everyone’s taking pains not to discuss. The presidential candidates are merely paying the same lip service to border security. Congress has all but abandoned comprehensive immigration reform, and the Bush administration continues to pile all their immigration-policy eggs in the border-security basket. ...

... Most experts say that physical fencing would not drastically decrease the number of illegal immigrants entering the country. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that as much as 40-50 percent of the U.S.'s unauthorized migrant population entered the country through legal ports of entry, either with nonimmigrant visas that subsequently expired (known as "overstayers") or by using a Border Crossing Card that allows for short visits to the border region. ...

Nuclear Terror: Federal/Local Coordination Still a Challenge

Despite progress, continuing gaps in nuclear terror readiness on local level seen.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at the poetry of strategy,” Paul McHale Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas' Security Affairs , US Department of Defense told the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Thursday at a hearing entitled Nuclear Terrorism: Providing Medical Care and Meeting Basic Needs in the Aftermath – the Federal Response. Click here to see full testimony. ...

Glenn Beck: The Last Patriot

Brad Thor, author of The Last Patriot, was on the show months ago and Glenn told him that he should consider not publishing the book. With extremists rioting over cartoons they don't like--Glenn believes Brad is legitimately in danger because of this book. What's his book about? How is he dealing with death threats? Read the transcript here including the Glenn Beck quote "You'll think 'Brad Thor is a dead man.'" ...

The enemy within

(Compiler's note: The Ottawa Citizen story below highlights the grave threat of infiltration of our defense and intelligence communities by Islamists working in league with terrorists abroad.

The article references the Muslim Brotherhood Project, the long-term plan created by the Muslim Brotherhood to subvert the West from within.)

But these things must be asked whenever a possible radical or extremist Islamist breach of security is hinted at, and here's why: Islamic extremists and subversives place great emphasis on infiltrating social, political, economic and security apparatuses of target nations, like Canada, with a view to manipulating and undoing their infrastructure. ...

SNIFFER DOGS OFFEND MUSLIMS

UK -- A report for the Transport Department has raised the prospect that the animals should only touch passengers’ luggage because it is considered “more acceptable”.

In the Muslim faith, dogs are deemed to be spiritually “unclean”. But banning them from touching passengers would severely restrict their ability to do their job. ...