Is Eric Alterman dumb or just evil? To equivocate between U.S. forces detaining women who have ties to terrorists and terrorists who kidnap, hold hostage, and threaten to murder civilians is dumb and evil, so I guess the answer is both.

Such equivocation minimizes the barbarity of hostage taking. Further, it gives aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States who fight us because they actually believe such equivocations are true. Next time bin Laden delivers an audio tape to al Jazeera, I fully expect him to quote Eric Alterman.

Eric Alterman:

IÂ’d like to congratulate the Bush administration for having the good taste to not make too big a deal about the kidnapping of U.S. journalist Jill Carroll by Iraqi insurgents. Since the Bush administration is in the business of politically kidnapping innocent people too, including the wives of people it wants to surrender. I hate to say it because of the all the baggage it carries but it reminds me of the deliberate murder of the innocent Ethel Rosenberg, to try to get a confession out of her husband.

But that goes only to Alterman's stupidity. What about the evil accusation?

As regular readers know, I spend a good deal of my free time watching media produced by terrorists and reading what they say on bulletin boards. Alterman's accusations are identical to those made by jihadis all around the world. They justify the murdering of people like Jill Carroll as simple tit-for-tat.

The Americans murder Iraqi women, therefore murdering American women is justified.

They actually believe this. Why would they not? Their media tells them so. They even have images of crying women making the same accusations. It only makes matters worse that the American Left also seems to enjoy believing the most outrageous accusations made against the U.S.

So, we should not be surprised that when terrorists in Iraq cut off the head of an American civilian that they first dress him up in the orange jumpsuits so familiar from picturs of Abu Ghraib. They justify their actions because they equivocate the abuse at Abu Ghraib with torture and murder.

Just as Eric Alterman equivocates detaining security threats who happen to be women with the kidnapping of civilians.

The views of the people holding Jill Carroll hostage are shaped by the outrageous lies of the Arab, Islamist, and Western Leftist media. For nearly two years now, with every single female hostage that has been taken there has been a demand that all female Iraqi prisoners must be released from prison. These demands came long before Jill Carroll was taken hostage because these media outlets made outlandish accusations that thousands of Iraq women were in prison, being tortured, raped, forced to watch as American soldiers sadistically killed their small children, and murdered.

All of which are lies, and all of which outlets such as the one cited by the ignoramous Eric Alterman--al Jazeera.com--have been running for years.

So, when the U.S. military admits that it occassionally detains women for questioning in a country that has more than its fair share of female suicide bombers, how exactly are we to come to the conclusion that we are guilty of hostage taking? Even when these women are only detained for questioning because their husbands are terrorists, such equivocation is unfounded. The wives of criminals are routinely questioned in the United States, even in peacetime. And charging the loved ones of a criminal is routinely done in the U.S. as leverage against the real target of the criminal investigation--the husbands.

Under war conditions is it surprising that we might need to detain the wife of a terrorist who may know the time and location of the next bombing of a cafe that her husband is planning? That soldiers might occasionally overstep the normal bounds of detention if they think that holding a woman might lead to the arrest of the kind of man that beheads hostages? That the same procedural rules that apply in Chicago don't necessarily apply in Baghdad?

It takes a sick, demented, and perverted mind to come to the conclusion that American soldiers are engaged in the same activities as Islmic terrorists. Eric Alterman has such a mind.

More at Newsbusters who have a similar disdain of Alterman.

Posted by: Rusty at 01:22 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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Isn't this one of the signs of the apocalypse? Word on the streets is that French and German newspapers have begun to reprint cartoons deemed so offensive by Muslims that the offending countries should be a) boycotted b) condemned by the U.N. c) cyber attacked d) bombed.

(UPDATE: Italy and Spain too)

We at The Jawa Report have been doing our part for some time. Vinnie reprinted the offending cartoons here with the caveat that he must receive the first death fatwa.

Nu-huh, he din't! Aint no way nobody is ge'in no fatwa before me!

Our adoptive blogfather The Commissar is starting a campaign to urge the reprinting of these cartoons. If your blog hasn't printed them, please stand up for freedom. Better yet, enourage the MSM to carry the cartoons in their pages. They'll print Ted Rall's garbage, why not this?

We've also called for a boycott of the boycott by buying Danish products. But via Beth we learn that others are beginning to organize the effort with images for your blog. Keep it up and support the effort!

Steal these images: more...

Posted by: Rusty at 12:31 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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I always loved Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean. I loved him even more as Black Adder. But my favorite Rowan Atkinson is defender of free speech and anti-dhimmitude. Notice that the Jew in the story thinks one ought to have the right to poke fun at religion. And what is the reaction from Muslims? Do I even have to say?

WaPo:

After protests outside the Houses of Parliament, British lawmakers Tuesday watered down a bill banning religious hate speech, then narrowly voted it into law.

Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to make it a criminal offense to incite religious hatred through threatening words or actions, insults and abuse.

Britain's upper chamber Tuesday eliminated the ban on insults and abuse, and inserted a provision allowing proselytizing, discussion, criticism, and ridicule of religion, belief or religious practice...

Hundreds of people had demonstrated against the proposal outside the Houses of Parliament, saying it would curtail freedom of speech. Opponents included Rowan Atkinson, a comedian who claimed the law would infringe on artistic expression. Supporters said religious groups should have the same protection as racial groups, which are already covered by a similar law...

"No one secure in their religious beliefs need fear laughter," said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, an opponent of the legislation and spokesman for the Movement for Reform Judaism.

Mohammed Sarwar, the first Muslim lawmaker elected to Britain's parliament, said the result would disappoint those of all faiths.

"It would have been beneficial not only to Muslims but to those of other faiths and of none. It is very unfortunate," he said.

Big hat tip to Bill Dauterieve.

Posted by: Rusty at 11:10 AM | Comments (25) | Add Comment
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Go see Ted Rall's latest outrage and tell me he doesn't deserve a swift kick in the [insert body part here]. (via Bluto)

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has this offensive cartoon by Tom Toles. The brass is not too happy, and either am I.

Posted by: Rusty at 10:59 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Last night Cindy Sheehan was arrested and expelled from the gallery for disruptive behavior. I don't blame Cindy one bit. Mother Saint Cindy Sheehan was just doing what Mother Saint Cindy Sheehan does. To claim that you didn't see that coming is worse than sheer stupidity, it's a lie.

So, who is responsible for the Cindy Sheehan train wreck? Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.

Rep. Woolsey is directly responsible for disrupting the President's State of the Union Speech. It was she who gave her one invitation to last night's event to a known anti-American activist and traitor.

No, Cindy Sheehan is not an anti-war activist as the MSM constantly reports, she is an anti-American activist. The kind of anti-American activist who believes in a global Jewish conspiracy. The kind of anti-American activist who believes Washington takes its marching orders from Tel Aviv. The kind of anti-American activist who embraces strong-men like Hugo Chavez because they both share the same vision of a weak America which will not meddle in the affairs of third-rate countries' schemes to oppress their own people.

Cindy Sheehan is more than an anti-war activist, she is a traitor to her own son who volunteered to fight in Iraq. She believes her own son was in Iraq to oppress the Iraqi people and to steal their oil.

If that wasn't enough, she is a criminal. And a criminal with poor manners, at that. Arrested on numerous occasions in acts of civil-disobedience, what the hell did any one expect she would do last night? Frown at the President.

So, the person responsible for bringing her to the State of the Union address had to have known what she was planning. To say Lynn Woolsey didn't know is to say Lynn Woolsey is stupid.

Lynn Woolsey ought to be impeached and removed from the House of Representatives for her part in facilitating an unlawful act. At the very least, she should be immediately censured by that body.

I will update this post later and see what other people are saying about Lynn Woolsey and Cindy Sheehan. I hope I'm not alone in my utter disgust at one very irresponsible Congresswoman's actions. Excuse any typos but I banged this out pretty fast and no time to check it now.

Yet another update: It looks like Lynn Woolsey isn't the only Congressperson who stands in dire need of censure. Add to that list Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA.

Some other members were upset about Sheehan’s arrest. “I’m still trying to find out why the president’s Gestapo had to arrest Cindy Sheehan in the gallery. … It shows he still has a thin skin,’’ said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont.

Let me just say this to all the conservatives out there who are saying something like, "Well, it's okay to throw Cindy out because they also threw out Pete Stark's wife." Look, if you want to equivocate Cindy Sheehan's anti-Americanism with Mrs. Stark's patriotism, be my guest. However, doing so is kinda, I dunno, wimpy. Like, who on earth are we to judge the content of the speech being said? Screw that. I'll judge if you aren't willing to. Cindy Sheehan's very presence in the Capital building is an offense to that institution after she went down and hugged Hugo Chavez last week. But to allow her to come into that building wearing that shirt is even worse.

And to the 'free speech' crowd who seem so well versed in the 1st Amendment, let me remind you of Article 1, sec. 5 of the U.S. Constitution:

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.

UPDATES: Ah, I knew Michelle Malkin and I would be on the same page on this one. Of course, I call for greater sanctions than revoking her tickets, but other than that Michelle is right on:

When it comes to whether she knew Sheehan would pull the stunt she pulled, Woolsey has absolutely no plausible deniability. She is one of disruptive guerilla group Code Pink's biggest advocates.

It is bad enough that Rep. Woolsey would lend credence to the kind of vile, vicious rhetroric spewed by Cindy Sheehan but to invite such a loose cannon into a Presidential speech with the clear intent on disrupting it is beyond the pale.

Another update: At the request of John Ryan, here is what Mother Saint Cindy's shirt says. 2,242 DEAD How Many More?

Here is an image from Mother Saint Cindy Sheehan's reaction over at big fat traitor's website here.

I won't bother to look, but I'm sure the Leftards are up in arms over this.

UPDATISHNESS: Interested Participant: It looks to me like an anti-Bush and anti-America T-shirt. Heh.

Traderrob: Thinking straight has perenially been an issue for you Ms. Sheehan. Bwahahaha!!

Taylor: I can see a teenager who thinks that showing up at “The Man’s” place to show him what for with a placard or shirt would be speaking truth to power and all that, but I continue to be amazed at Ms. Sheehan’s puerile, and indeed often juvenile, attempts at scoring political points.

Dan Riehl's sure bet: But what do you think the chances are that Cindy Sheehan gets invited to the Oscars, gets a prominent seat and at some point some Hollywood moonbat will point out that she's among friends and not subject to arrest?

Kevin Aylward: What's next for Mama Moonbat, streaking through a presidential press conference? My eyes, they burn!

Goldstein: Whereas, Elaine Benes being forced to remove her Orioles’ cap while sitting in one of the Yankees’ owners’ boxes—now we’re talking restriction of speech that are unconscionable…

Posted by: Rusty at 08:55 AM | Comments (111) | Add Comment
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I was upset over the snooty look on her face during the speech last night. Now I just feel sorry for Bill don't you?

Here are your White Trash Wednesday bloggers

more...

Posted by: Howie at 08:54 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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If only the Fox All Stars could do SOTU analysis like this.

The money quotes:

"Alito, wearing robe, enters the hall. Instinctively, Amanda Marcotte clenches her vaginal muscles to protect her uterus."

"Cut to Pelosi: Beelzebub in heels, her face stretched like an Ed Gein lampshade: applauds politely."

Happy Birthday to PW, btw. The cupcakes are in the mail.

Posted by: Vinnie at 08:54 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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'...you'd think we lost the entire 1st Marine Division or something.'

US troops in Iraq are reacting to a phenomenon I first mentioned here, as displayed by CNN's Christiane Amanpour in her unprofessional and shameful appearance on Larry King Live Monday:

So when something happens to people that we identify, like Bob and like Doug, we wake up again and realize, no, this is not acceptable, what's going on there.

Not being dense and self-absorbed; in fact, being pretty much the opposite, American servicepeople were quick to pick up on this. more...

Posted by: Bluto at 08:25 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Sure, we believe you.

"Muscle spasms."

Heh.

Posted by: Vinnie at 08:06 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Man, that was a classic episode of South Park last night, wasn't it? And, call me a geek if you will, but the history of lumber mills is wicked cool. And no, I regret not watching that other show about as much as I regret not watching Desperate Housewives.

Posted by: Rusty at 07:55 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Fox News reports that Cindy Sheehan was led out of the House gallery in handcuffs.

Apparently she tried to unfurl a banner.

From the Corner:

This from Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of U-S Capitol Police.... Cindy Sheehan was arrested in the gallery of the house floor tonight and charged with demonstrating in the Capitol--a misdemeanor. ...Sgt. Schneider says she was wearing a T-shirt with a slogan on it and was asked to cover it up. Sheehan did not cover it up and she was arrested. ....She is being processed at Capital Police hd and is expected to be released at some point tonight. The misdemeanor charge carries one year in jail.

What a pity she wasn't armed.

UPDATE:

Heh:

Liberal activists -- among them graying leftovers from the Vietnam-era antiwar movement -- plan to gather near the Capitol tonight, banging pots and pans to drown out President Bush's State of the Union address.

SHUT UP, BEDWETTERS, I CAN'T HEAR THE PRESIDENT!!!

Anyone else having a problem hearing?

UPdaTE 2:

Thank you Howie, for posting the transcript.

Due to the cacophonous din of moonbattery banging pots and pans 2000 miles away, I was unable to hear a word of tonight's SOTU. Cursed rabble rousers, they ruined my SOTU drinking game. One shot for every time the Democrats sit while the RethugliKKKans give a standing 'O'. Two shots for every close up of a Hillary "I just ate a raw lemon dipped in Bill's semen" look.

So I'm still sober, dammit.

BTW, did anyone notice the absence, albeit one small reference, of any real mention of North Korea?

Any ideas why? I haven't a clue, to be quite honest.

Posted by: Vinnie at 10:53 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
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Good Speech, despite some lady in a red suit sneering through the whole thing. Who was that?

President George W. Bush, Via FOXNEWS: No one can deny the success of freedom, but some men rage and fight against it. And one of the main sources of reaction and opposition is radical Islam - the perversion by a few of a noble faith into an ideology of terror and death. Terrorists like bin Laden are serious about mass murder - and all of us must take their declared intentions seriously. They seek to impose a heartless system of totalitarian control throughout the Middle East, and arm themselves with weapons of mass murder. Their aim is to seize power in Iraq, and use it as a safe haven to launch attacks against America and the world. Lacking the military strength to challenge us directly, the terrorists have chosen the weapon of fear. When they murder children at a school in Beslan ... or blow up commuters in London ... or behead a bound captive ... the terrorists hope these horrors will break our will, allowing the violent to inherit the Earth. But they have miscalculated: We love our freedom, and we will fight to keep it... ...There is no peace in retreat. And there is no honor in retreat. By allowing radical Islam to work its will - by leaving an assaulted world to fend for itself - we would signal to all that we no longer believe in our own ideals, or even in our own courage. But our enemies and our friends can be certain: The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil.

Amen and may God bless America!

Link with unedited Podcast of speech via the mysterious newslinker. Who also notes that the "no t-shirt rule was applied fairly". This is a formal event, I expect anyone who fails that code would asked to leave.

Entire text and more links below the break hat tip RNC:

more...

Posted by: Howie at 09:58 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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No, not that Democrat response.

This Democrat response.

Tinfoil hat mandatory

UPDATE:

Good lord, I'm doing lots of updates tonight.

UPDATE 2:

I just clicked on that link and saw this:

We've squandered the goodwill of the nations of the world with the Iraq debacle. How exactly does President Bush propose to engage the nations of the world in combatting this threat? The occupation of Iraq has galvanized radical Islamists in their hatred of the United States, providing a regrettable and powerful recruiting tool to those who would do us harm. How does the President propose we reach out to the Muslim world to build the bridges we must have to become "the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran"?

Our own armed forces are stretched nearly to the breaking point, understaffed and under-equipped because of the Iraq debacle. How does the President propose we rebuild our armed forces to combat the threat Iran poses?

The largest cost of the Iraq debacle is likely to prove to be our inability to respond to the threat of Iran, diplomatically or militarily.

Hey, STUPID! Can you read a freakin' GLOBE? Do you have any idea what country sits between Iraq and Afghanistan? IRAN.

The armed forces you claim are stretched too thin are sitting within spitting distance of the country you claim we can't deal with militarily.

And of course you can't deal with Iran diplomatically, they're under the thumb of a bunch of undiplomatic 7th Century theocrats who believe that once they get DA BOMB, the 12th imam will appear in all his righteous glory.

How about this ignorance:

How does the President propose we reach out to the Muslim world to build the bridges we must have to become "the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran"

Gee, could saving Kosovo be a start? Oh, that was your boy Clinton. How about extending aid after the earthquake that killed 20,000? Tsunami aid? Pakistan earthquake aid?

If anyone wonders why the Daily Kos is so popular, all you have to do is look at the success of Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Or the Darwin Awards.

Posted by: Vinnie at 09:33 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Cox & Forkum says it best:

If I were an outraged muslim, I'd consider shutting up about now.

After all, you bomb our churches, and in return we make cartoons.

And crummy photoshops.

If you don't like these depictions of your exalted pedophile prophet-pimp, wait and see what happens when we really get pissed off.

You talk tough in the comments section, so come on, beeyotches, give me a real fatwa. You sissies.

Google bait: danish caricature prophet mohammed jyllends posten cartoon mohammed

Posted by: Vinnie at 07:03 PM | Comments (23) | Add Comment
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A meticulously detailed look at tonight's State of the Union Address painstakingly constructed from pre-speech published sources: more...

Posted by: Vinnie at 05:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Another day another hostage video from the ghouls at al Jazeera television. This time the video shows German civilians Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich. The two engineers have been threatened with death if Germany does not break diplomatic relations with Iraq.

An earlier video had been broadcast on al Jazeera two days ago which was dated Jan. 24th, the day the Germans were abducted.

The group calls itself the Tawhid and Sunnah Brigade (unification and 'way of the Prophet'). While the AP is reporting that the group is 'unknown', the name is actually very well known. It is associated with a subgroup of Jaish Ansar al-Sunnah. Ansar al-Sunnah is thought to be made up of Kurds of the former Ansar al Islam terrorist organization. Dozens of people with ties to Ansar al-Islam have been arrested and tried in Germany in the past several several years (example).

If this Tawhid and Sunnah Brigade is the same group that is associated with Ansar al-Sunnah (sometimes criminal organizations simply adopt an Islamic sounding name) then the hostages are in grave danger. The Army of Ansar al Sunna has murdered dozens of civilian hostages in the past.

We pray that these hostages will be released unharmed.

AP:

The brief tape Tuesday showed Thomas Nitzschke and Rene Braeunlich seated on the floor in front of a group of armed men. Al-Jazeera said the previously unknown group, the Tawhid and Sunnah Brigade, demanded the German government close its embassy in Baghdad, withdraw all the German companies from Iraq and to stop cooperation with the Iraqi government.

On a related note: Is al Jazeera making money from these hostage videos by selling them to the Western press?

Posted by: Rusty at 04:36 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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You may know the Deuce Four (1st Battalion, 24 Infantry Regiment) Stryker Brigades from Michael Yon's time embedded with them in Mosul, Iraq. These guys are the real deal and deserve our utmost appreciation. How brave are they? Just read this account and try not to feel the patriotism swell.

Here is a video produced by the Deuce Four that I found via Doubletap and which I posted over at Google Video. Just press the play button below to watch it.

It's the best kind of porn: Iraq war porn.

Posted by: Rusty at 03:53 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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CNN's Pose of Objectivity Blown To Smithereens By Amanpour
Speaking on Larry King Live yesterday, CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour let the cat out of the bag on one of the worst-kept secrets in the world of journalism: Amanpour is grossly biased against US efforts in the war in Iraq.

Newsbusters has a transcript: more...

Posted by: Bluto at 02:38 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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I've always thought al Jazeera was the most despicable media organization on Earth. They are objectively pro-terror, pro-tyranny, and pro-fascism. What I did not know, however, was that the frequent hostage videos aired by al Jazeera are then sold to Western media outlets for rebroadcast. If this is true, then the Western mainstream media is partially culpable for the plight of Western hostages in Iraq.

While many hostages are taken for purely financial reasons, others, including Jill Carroll, were taken for their propaganda value. Their terrorist captors find value in the fact that the Western media will replay her hostage videos over and over. Just like they did Giulana Sgrena's. This reinforces the notion that the terrorists are winning. And if people in the West believe the terrorists are winning, they will have less of a will to fight. Why fight a losing battle?

If true, shame on the Western media for paying the terrorists' media arm, al Jazeera, for a news story.

Human Events:

Having gotten their scoop, Al-Jazeera will then sell rights to the video to other networks, including American news channels. This generates income for the money-losing network and provides a measure of cover: If everyone else is airing them, why single them out?

Networks like hostage videos because they are newsworthy and form the basis for follow-on stories. There are relatives pleading for the release of their loved ones, generals asserting that we don't negotiate with terrorists, and pundits moaning that things must really be going badly. And at many networks, the "if it bleeds it leads" rule has a corollary: If it hurts Bush, give it a push.

The problem with these hostage videos is two-fold. First, they provide aid and comfort to our enemies in time of war. While a 30-second tape by a random terror groups may lack the propaganda punch of a rambling Osama tape, it will be followed by another almost exactly like it, and then another, dampening resolve and eroding morale.

Second, the publicity these tapes provide teaches aspiring terrorists that the price of admission for an airing of their grievances is not joining the political process, but simply grabbing a foreign hostage. This endangers every foreigner in Iraq, not just those seen as occupiers. [emphasis mine]

Posted by: Rusty at 02:25 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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Via TC Leather Penguin, this from the Washington Times:

"I'm old enough to remember an op-ed you wrote in March 1974 which appeared in the New York Times, saying the military should intervene in getting rid of Richard Nixon," one gray-haired woman told Mr. Raskin. She spoke about "criminals, gangsters and thugs" in the Bush administration.

Mr. Raskin seemed confused. "I don't think I wrote it," he told the gathering. "I'm not in favor of military coup d'etats."

Mr. Clark, the Vietnam-era Democratic attorney general who is an attorney for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, spoke for 10 minutes.

His voice faltered, and he seemed to lose his train of thought. "President Bush is the greatest threat to peace and human rights," Mr. Clark told the crowd, calling for Mr. Bush's impeachment, which drew applause.

Posted by: Rusty at 12:33 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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