ConservativeINC

Al Qaeda knows it cannot win a war with us. They can’t even win a guerrilla war with us either. We’ve proven that we can defeat them on their home turf and there’s not much they can do about that. But they do have an ace up their sleeves; immigration.

How else can you explain bin Laden’s most recent verbal jihad?

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged European countries to end their military participation with U.S. forces in the Afghan conflict, Al Jazeera television said omon [sic] Thursday.

Jazeera aired portions of an audio tape in which a speaker who sounded like bin Laden said his Taliban allies had no knowledge of plans for the September 11, 2001 attacks, a main reason for the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

While immigration is definitely a pressing issue for America it is even more so for the Europeans because their immigrants come with a little more (explosive) baggage. And this is exactly what the jihadis are banking on.

Islamic communities have flexed their muscles in Spain (train bombing), England (bus bombing), France (rioting), Netherlands (killing filmmaker), Germany (luckily they got caught before they could do anything, although those responsible for 9-11 were part of a German cell), and others. And it is far from being hysterical to think that the European Islamic community wasn’t all that troubled over these examples. They’re Islamic and would be happier living under Islamic law.

Islamic terrorists are definitely changing their strategy though. As aforementioned, they don’t stand a chance against us in an armed struggle. Since September 11, 2001 there has been an ever-tightening noose around their necks; with the increased powers given to our clandestine services we’ve been able to thwart many plots and bust many sleeper cells. Even their ability to launch a small-scale sneak attack has been significantly reduced.

They’ve adapted, however, and this is what they’re going to do for now on: they’re going to tell their fellow Muslims in the West to throw off the Western yolk and claim their birthright. They’re going to ratchet up their propaganda to Michael Moore-like proportions by telling lies like “the Taliban didn’t know” all in an effort to give native subversives some fodder to work with to take down their own governments.

And it’s already working. Just look at the Reuters’ story above and how they made sure to include the fact that a BIG reason we invaded Afghanistan was to take out the Taliban. Our media’s new narrative about Afghanistan is now about how we took out a government that “did nothing” to us. They are going to mindlessly report what Osama wants them to report: “Reuters, I’m telling you the truth, the Taliban knew nothing about this plot against the Great Satan. We planned it for five years without them knowing about it.”

With large subversive organizations (known as CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, BBC, ACLU, CAIR, etc.) and an increasing Muslim population throughout the West the terrorists are going to focus their efforts on undermining Western nations through propaganda and the expansion of Islamic culture. This represents their best chance at making any gains in their jihad.

Many deficiencies are arrayed against us. We deny our native culture in exchange for some ethereal ideal of “multiculturalism.” Abilities that were made available to our clandestine services and our military are methodically being rolled back by “protectors” of the Constitution. Our nation lacks the will to continue the fight against radical Islam where the jihadis live. Illegal immigration is being treated as a politically unstoppable force. And the deficiencies go on and on.

But we have one thing in our corner at all times. Whenever in our past things seemed to be at their most dire somewhere deep in the belly of the American spirit has come salvation. Every war we’ve been in looked like we were going to lose. Every time our nation’s survivability was on the line we have come through and struck down our foes. The enemy may be more dangerous this time but as long as the flag waves outside my home I know we will prevail. We’re Americans, we don’t know how to lose. BigT

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Today in BigT’s Roundup I talked about how our nation’s fourth grade literacy rank has fallen to twelfth in the world. The story tried to plant in the readers mind the belief that this national failure can be attributed to No Child Left Behind. So, it was Bush’s fault, which is a not so novel theory coming out of the media. I placed the blame on the lack of school choice and/or increased immigration.

From personal experience in Southern California I can attest to the fact that there are huge swaths of kids who cannot read or write because they really don’t know the language. It isn’t spoken at home and recent immigrants don’t seem to feel necessary to make sure their children know how to speak this nation’s language. We all know that this is going on but now it’s official: we have proof that more immigrants are coming in then ever before.

Here are the highlighted findings:

— The immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached a record of 37.9 million in 2007.

— Immigrants account for one in eight U.S. residents, the highest level in 80 years.

— Overall, nearly one in three immigrants is an illegal alien. Half of Mexican and Central American immigrants and one-third of South American immigrants are illegal.

— Since 2000, 10.3 million immigrants have arrived — the highest seven-year period of immigration in U.S. history. More than half of post-2000 arrivals (5.6 million) are estimated to be illegal aliens.

— Of adult immigrants, 31 percent have not completed high school, compared to 8 percent of natives. The share of immigrants and natives with a college degree is about the same.

— 33 percent of immigrant-headed households use at least one welfare program, compared to 19 percent for native households. Among households headed by immigrants from Mexico, the largest single group, 51 percent use at least one welfare program.

— The poverty rate for immigrants and their U.S.-born children (under 18) is 17 percent, nearly 50 percent higher than the rate for natives and their children.

— 34 percent of immigrants lack health insurance, compared to 13 percent of natives. Immigrants and their U.S.-born children account for 71 percent of the increase in the uninsured since 1989.

— The primary reason for the high rates of immigrant poverty, lack of health insurance, and welfare use is their low education levels, not their legal status or an unwillingness to work.

— Of immigrant households, 82 percent have at least one worker, compared to 73 percent of native households.

— Immigrants make significant progress over time. But even those who have been here for 20 years are more likely to be in poverty, lack insurance, or use welfare than are natives.

— There is a worker present in 78 percent of immigrant households using at least one welfare program.

— Immigration accounts for virtually all of the national increase in public school enrollment over the last two decades. In 2007, there were 10.8 million school-age children from immigrant families in the United
States.

— Immigrants and natives have similar rates of entrepreneurship — 13 percent of natives and 11 percent of immigrants are self-employed.

— Recent immigration has had no significant impact on the nation’s age structure. Without the 10.3 million post-2000 immigrants, the average age in America would be virtually unchanged at 36.5 years.

Even as a percent of the population we almost have the most immigrants ever!

For the full report, click here.

Read all of this and weep. Immigration reform is needed because a huge portion of them take a lot more then they give to this country. Maybe this news will put a fire under some politicians but I think we all know nothing is going to happen. BigT

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Fine, America’s fourth graders aren’t actually “illiterate” but we are falling behind other countries according to a story from AP. The last time this test was given was in 2001 and since then our scores have stayed flat while others have increased. Now we’re ranked twelfth in the world behind countries like Russia and Hungary. What’s to blame for our lack of improvement?

The story gives a hint: No Child Left Behind. Bush’s brainchild educational reform emphasizes reading more but scores are still just treading water. Personally I think that NCLB is a decent idea but it doesn’t really address the problem head on. If we want to dramatically increase scores then we’re going to have to overhaul the education system with free market reforms. Kids get stuck in failing schools and many teachers don’t care about improving themselves because there is no financial incentive for doing so. A move to vouchers would increase our scores.

Or our scores could be treading water because there has been a massive influx of non-English speaking immigrants. That could be it.

Venezuela has made an intriguing move of their own by all but severing ties with their neighbor, Columbia. After getting the boot from Columbian President Alvaro Uribe from a mediation role between the Columbian government and leftists rebels (FARC), Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recalled his ambassador to Columbia and said many harsh words about his conservative neighbor.

One question: Why would the Columbians call on Hugo Chavez, the resurgent communist, to help negotiate with leftist rebels in the first place? I understand that Chavez is close to the rebels but shouldn’t that have been more a warning sign then anything else? Columbia is contending that Chavez had unilateral talks with the head of Columbia’s Army, which is a big time no no. Could he have been planning a leftist coup in Columbia? Probably not but the end result is that there is no doubt that he is untrustworthy.

6,000 Sunnis join the fight in Iraq. They’ve joined with the side of democracy because al Qaeda has killed too many of their brethren to be seen as anything but murderous thugs. The Sunnis will provide help with a couple hundred checkpoints and will hopefully stem off the movement of insurgents and terrorists into the oil rich regions of North Iraq. Oh, and the last paragraph of the story mentioned how a bunch of refugees were getting bused into Iraq from Syria. Good news.

Is there good news for our beleaguered markets? No one can be sure and anyone who puts credence into the day-to-day fluctuations of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a fool. The recent bump in the market is directly attributable to the Fed’s hinting at future rate cuts. But think about it, has the value of Coca Cola increased a couple of percentage points since last weak just because of possible rate cuts? How about any of the other companies? The market is fickle and reading too much into a good day or a bad day is folly.

Bill Clinton on Iraq in 2004:

That’s why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for. So I thought the President had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, “Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process.” You couldn’t responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks. I never really thought he’d [use them]. What I was far more worried about was that he’d sell this stuff or give it away. Same thing I’ve always been worried about North Korea’s nuclear and missile capacity. I don’t expect North Korea to bomb South Korea, because they know it would be the end of their country. But if you can’t feed yourself, the temptation to sell this stuff is overwhelming. So that’s why I thought Bush did the right thing to go back. When you’re the President, and your country has just been through what we had, you want everything to be accounted for.

Now he says that he has been against the Iraq War “from the beginning.” To be fair to the former president he was not explicitly for the Iraq War. But he was not against it either. He wasn’t for or against the war and yet here he comes saying he was always against the thing. I don’t see how this helps Hillary at all but I do see how it helps her husband.

He’s in the news again. Everyone thinks he’s such a brilliant speaker and he has a blanket immunity from the media to say whatever he wants and to get away with it. This is just Bill being Bill and he’s going to make sure that his legacy is intact no matter what.

Remember how I said you shouldn’t put too much into the daily fluctuations of the market? You shouldn’t put too much into the yearly fluctuations of the weather either. 2007 is going to be the seventh warmest year on record (reliable records start around 1860) meaning that the world is slightly cooling yet still warm. My question: What’s going to happen when there is significant cooling one year? How about for five years in a row so that there’s a trend?

This story talks about how Bulgarian bears are already hibernating, which is right on track based on historical data. If you want to thank anyone for making sure that the bears got to bed on time then you should probably be thanking America because we were able to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5% last year. Yeah for us!

And finally, a Dutch lawmaker with a death wish has said he’s going to make a ten-minute long movie showing how the Quran has passages in it that are used “by bad people to do bad things.” Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this whole thing was this:

The interior and justice ministers said they were concerned, but believed they had no authority to prevent the lawmaker, Geert Wilders, from screening his film.

When I first read this passage I thought they must have been talking about protecting Mr Wilders but I’m not so sure after reading the whole article a couple of times. I’m now pretty sure now that they are just talking about shutting this guy up because it might offend some people. This is just one of many battles that are being waged, mostly in Europe, between the West and Islam.

These battles mostly do not involve bombs and guns but legalese and sensitivity codes. I like to believe that the vast majority of Muslims want to live in peace in their adopted homelands but I’m not so naive as to think they wouldn’t rather be living under Islamic law with Islamic leaders. Using hate speech codes and bending over backwards to not offend minorities is the surest way to lose all Western identity and this is what is happening in the Netherlands right now.

BigT’s Linkapalooza:
British teacher charged with offending Islam in the Sudan.
Militants march against the teacher.
The bear wasn’t even named after the prophet, but after the kid who suggested the name (who’s doubtlessly named after the prophet himself).
40 lashes.
Was Annapolis a false start?
Musharraf has been honorably discharged.
BigT

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