Via ABC News:

Thank you to the citizens of Berlin and to the people of Germany. Let me thank Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Steinmeier for welcoming me earlier today. Thank you Mayor Wowereit, the Berlin Senate, the police, and most of all thank you for this welcome.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen — a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father — my grandfather — was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning — his dream — required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life.

That is why I’m here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life.

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade.

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin.

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin.

And that’s when the airlift began — when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city.

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold.

But in the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up. And on one fall day, hundreds of thousands of Berliners came here, to the Tiergarten, and heard the city’s mayor implore the world not to give up on freedom. “There is only one possibility,” he said. “For us to stand together united until this battle is won. The people of Berlin have spoken. We have done our duty, and we will keep on doing our duty. People of the world: now do your duty. People of the world, look at Berlin!”

People of the world — look at Berlin!

More »

Buried in the “Region” section of the New York Times:

Garth Brooks performed in the North Meadow in 1997. Officials said that 750,000 people attended.

Fuzzy Numbers at Bon Jovi’s Park Concert

By Jim Dwyer

July 24, 2008

In recent years, New York City has been going to great lengths to count the numbers of people who attend big events in the parks like rock concerts and Metropolitan Opera performances. One of those efforts literally ran out of gas, though, at the Bon Jovi concert on Central Park’s Great Lawn on July 12.

Admission to the Lawn was by ticket (they were distributed free as part of a commercial promotion), and the city planned to scan the bar code on every ticket to get an exact attendance count.

But there was a problem, according to Doug Blonsky, the president of the Central Park Conservancy: a generator in the park’s command center ran out of fuel. For about 90 minutes, a computer that was supposed to get the scanning data had no power. However, the city was using a second, low-tech counting tactic: parks workers hand counted every person who went through the entrances to the lawn, using clickers. At the end, the hand count showed 48,560 people, while the scanner count was 8,000 less, the Parks Department said.

In any case, the counts from the Jon Bon Jovi concert and a few other recent events show that crowd estimates for past concerts — the 600,000 who supposedly saw Paul Simon, for instance, or the 300,000 who saw Elton John — were vastly overstated.

The number of people who actually attend these events has taken on a charge in recent years because the city would not give a permit to two groups that wanted to hold an antiwar rally in the park in 2004.

With Central Park restored after decades as a big dust bowl, the Parks Department has resisted certain kinds of mass gatherings that once were common. It has permitted opera and symphonic concerts, and some tightly controlled rock concerts.

The decision to exclude the 2004 peace rally was challenged in court, with the groups saying that the park had historically been the host of mass events, with hundreds of thousands of people. Ultimately, the city paid the groups a $50,000 settlement and $500,000 in legal fees. But city officials say that the historical argument shouldn’t carry that much weight because the crowd estimates before 2000 had no basis in reality. The officials remain protective of the lawn — at the expense of free speech on the only suitable open space in Manhattan, critics say.

Bon Jovi performed on The Great Lawn on July 12. The city’s official head count was 48,538 people.

In typical New York Times fashion this article is so badly written most readers will miss an important point. (An outcome, come to think of it, the editors might actually want.)

The translation boils down to this. New York City has spent a huge amount of money restoring Central Park over the last few years and would like to preserve the improvements.

In 2004, the professional America-hating organization United for Peace and Justice wanted to hold a rally on the Great Lawn during the Republican National Convention, with attendance they hoped would top half a million.

The city denied UFPJ’s application for a permit, stating that such a mass gathering would hurt the newly restored lawn and that such damage would make it harder to collect private donations to maintain the park. The courts upheld the refusal.

But the America-haters used the past wildly inflated official crowd numbers to argue that such events had been permitted before.

In truth, however, they had not.

For instance, the Garth Brooks crowd on the Great Lawn (estimated at 750,000) was exactly the same size as the Bon Jovi audience (actually 50,000) in the same venue.

Still, the terrorist supporting UFPJ got the city fathers to settle in the favor and pay them off to the tune of $550,000.

Which should be a lesson to all of us.

Of course one wonders how many of these same America-haters also claim to be friends of the Earth and worshippers of the cult of Gaia?

From an overjoyed Associated Press:

Two women walk past the main building housing the National Iraqi Olympic Committee in Baghdad, June 2008.

IOC says Iraq won’t be allowed at Olympics

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - The International Olympic Committee says Iraq will not compete at the Beijing Games because of interference by its government in sport.

The IOC suspended Iraq’s national Olympic committee in June after the Baghdad-based government dismissed elected officials and installed its own people who are not recognized by the IOC.

The IOC Charter forbids political interference in the Olympic movement.

Iraq missed a Wednesday deadline to submit a team for the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Games because of a stalemate between the two sides. Four Iraqi athletes were expected to compete, in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting.

The IOC says the Iraqi government did not accept an invitation to come to its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, to try to end the dispute.

Surely, this is a cruel joke.

The International Olympic Committee says Iraq will not compete at the Beijing Games because of interference by its government in sport.

“Interference”? Does the name Uday Hussain ring a bell with any of the Olympic officials.

Torture devices used by Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein, on members of Iraq’s Olympic team as tools of punishment for bad performance.

But that was okay. Saddam and company undoubtedly paid the IOC enough baksheesh to get them to turn a blind eye.

And never mind what the Communist Chinese are currently doing. 

What an absolute farce.

From those defenders of another faith at Reuters:

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama stand behind banners printed with his name in Hebrew as they wait for his arrival at the Western wall in Jerusalem July 23, 2008.

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama hold a banner printed with his name in Hebrew as they wait for his arrival at the Western wall in Jerusalem July 23, 2008.

Supporters of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) hold a sign printed with his name in Hebrew as they wait for his arrival at the Western wall in Jerusalem July 23, 2008.

Just imagine the wailing if a Republican had done such an insensitive thing.

A timely flashback to an Associated Press article we posted back on one year ago to the day:

Blindfolded terrorist suspects are brought to an Iraqi army base in Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Saturday, June 23, 2007.

U.S. makes improbable Sunni ally in Iraq

By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer

BAQOUBA, Iraq - Two months ago, a dozen Sunni insurgents — haggard, hungry and in handcuffs — stepped tentatively into a U.S.-Iraqi combat outpost near Baqouba and asked to speak to the commander: “We’re out of ammunition, but we want to help you fight al-Qaida.”

Now hundreds of fighters from the 1920s Revolution Brigades, an erstwhile Sunni insurgent group, work as scouts and gather intelligence for the 10,000-strong American force in the fifth day of its mission to remove al-Qaida gunmen and bomb makers from the Diyala provincial capital…

Each U.S. Army company in Baqouba, an hour’s drive northeast of Baghdad, has a scout from the Brigades, others have become a ragtag intelligence network and still others fight, said Capt. Ricardo Ortega, a 34-year-old Puerto Rico native of the 2nd Infantry Division.

The Army has given some of the one-time insurgents special clothing — football-style jerseys with numbers on the chest — to mark them as American allies.

U.S. commanders say help from the Brigades operatives was key to planning and executing the Baqouba operation, one of a quartet of U.S. offensives against al-Qaida on the flanks of the Iraqi capital.

The informants have given the American troops exact coordinates of suspected al-Qaida safe houses, with details down to the color of the gate out front, said Lt. Col. Avanulas Smiley, 40, commander of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment and a Tacoma, Wash., native.

Most of the Brigades members, whom U.S. officials call “concerned local nationals,” hail from eastern Baqouba, while the bulk of the fighting has so far raged in western Baqouba.

But with contacts among fellow Sunni fighters on the city’s west side, they have fed American soldiers critical information about al-Qaida positions.

The American decision to bring insurgents into the mission has angered Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who told visiting Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week that the tactic — getting too cozy with former enemies — would backfire.

But U.S. officials defend the strategy, first tested in Iraq’s once-volatile western Anbar province, where U.S. officials tout success in turning Sunni tribal leaders against al-Qaida…

Get it? Maliki was dead set against the ‘Sunni Awakening.’ He is a Shiite.

Prime Minister Maliki worked adamantly against the very strategy that has helped to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Funny, though, how our media will suddenly forget that now that he is an Obama supporter.

From this morning’s press conference in Israel, via MSNBC and YouTube:

More pig-ignorant gibberish.

We should offer Iran “carrots and sticks”? Where has Mr. Obama been?

In a cave?

For the record, here is the anointed one’s original response from 2007 CNN/YouTube Democratic Debate way back on July 23, 2007:

Maybe we should start asking about whether Mr. Obama is suffering from senility, since he can’t even remember what he (famously) said exactly one year ago today.

From the defenders of a different faith at Reuters:

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., lays a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Wednesday, July 23, 2008. Barack Obama, after vowing to immediately work for a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations if elected U.S. president, plunged into the intricacies of the region’s conflict Wednesday with a packed schedule of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Obama calls Israel a “miracle,” vows staunch support

By Caren Bohan and Adam Entous

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged staunch support for Israel on Wednesday in Jerusalem, describing the Jewish state as a miracle and holding only a low-profile meeting with Palestinian leaders.

Obama, who is seeking to allay wariness among some U.S. Jewish voters about his policy towards Israel, said in comments to reporters he hoped to help bring peace in the Middle East.

“I’m here on this trip to reaffirm the special relationship between Israel and the United States, my abiding commitment to its security, and my hope that I can serve as an effective partner, whether as a … senator or as a president, in bringing about a more lasting peace in the region,” he said.

The Illinois senator, meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres, described Israel as a “miracle that has blossomed” since its founding 60 years ago. Wearing a Jewish skullcap, he later laid a white wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum.

“Let our children come here and know this history so that they can add their voices to proclaim ‘never again’,” Obama wrote in the museum’s visitors’ book.

The Democratic candidate met Defence Minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and will later hold talks with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who could be forced out of office by a corruption probe.

Avoiding turning a trip to the occupied West Bank into a high-profile visit that could alienate Jewish voters, Obama did not make a statement after an hour-long meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah.

Aides said he would release a written statement later…

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas had briefed Obama on the peace process…

Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh said Obama pledged as president to pursue talks started by the Bush administration…

Luckily, Mr. Obama’s lunatic supporters don’t follow the news or there would be hell to pay.

But what exactly is so different about Obama’s Middle East policies? Except for surrendering Iraq to the terrorists, where is the “change” we hear so much about?

Or were his secretive meeting with the Palestinians more fruitful than he is letting on?

And while we are on the subject, where does a candidate get off “having talks” with foreign leaders?

From his disappointed fans at the Associated Press:

British court denies radical cleric Abu Hamza permission to appeal against extradition to US

July 23, 2008

LONDON: A British court ruled Wednesday that a radical Muslim preacher accused of helping to set up a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon cannot appeal against extradition to the United States to face terrorism charges.

Justice Igor Judge refused Abu Hamza al-Masri’s application to challenge his extradition in the House of Lords, the country’s highest court of appeal.

The High Court ruled last month that al-Masri should be sent to the U.S., where an 11-count indictment accuses him of offenses including supporting al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Al-Masri’s lawyers can still appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. His attorneys have questioned U.S. assurances that he would not be mistreated or face the death penalty if convicted.

U.S. officials allege al-Masri, 51, conspired to establish a training camp in Bly, Oregon, where followers received combat and weapons training for violent jihad in Afghanistan.

They also say he assisted extremists who kidnapped 16 foreign tourists in Yemen in 1998. Three British tourists and one Australian visitor were killed in a shootout between Yemeni security forces and the captors.

Al-Masri also is accused of facilitating terrorist training in Afghanistan.

The former imam at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, al-Masri is one of Britain’s best-known Islamist radicals. The Egyptian-born preacher is blind in one eye and has hooks in place of the hands he says he lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Under his leadership the Finsbury Park mosque became a magnet for extremists. Its worshippers included Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.

He was arrested in London on a U.S. extradition warrant in 2004, but the process was put on hold while he stood trial in Britain for inciting racial hatred and encouraging followers to kill non-Muslims. He was convicted in 2006 and is serving a seven-year sentence.

Where is the ACLU?

We know there don’t limit themselves to American citizens. Not when there are terrorists to defend.

Still, there’s really nothing to be worried about:

Al-Masri’s lawyers can still appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Isn’t that nice?

How soon before President Obama decrees we are under their jurisdiction as well?

From another Obama conquest at the New York Times:

Obama Overseas! In Presidential Mode! Back Home, It’s McCain in a Golf Cart.

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: July 23, 2008

It wasn’t a television blackout of John McCain; it was worse: split-screen contrasts that at times made it seem as if Barack Obama was on a state visit while back home his opponent chafed at the perks and privileges of an incumbent commander in chief.

On Tuesday, Mr. McCain held a town hall-style meeting in Rochester, N.H. In the shadow of the ancient Temple of Hercules in Amman, Jordan, Mr. Obama solemnly described his vision for peace in the region while standing at a lectern, the Middle East sprawling out behind him. Reporters were cordoned in front of him like the White House press corps — except that an audio snag kept their questions inaudible.

All three cable news networks carried Mr. Obama’s news conference live and in full. They showed only parts of Mr. McCain’s forum and focused mostly on his reaction to Mr. Obama’s statements. Even Fox News broke away from Mr. McCain midevent to cover the rescue of a bear cub wounded in a California fire and nicknamed Lil’ Smokey.

Mr. McCain’s surrogates complained bitterly about the Obama news blitz; on Tuesday the McCain campaign put out a Web video mocking reporters’ doting coverage with a montage of anchors’ gauzy looks and glowing praise set to the tune of the Frankie Valli hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.”

But it’s not pro-Obama bias in the news media that’s driving the effusion of coverage, it’s the news: Mr. Obama’s weeklong tour of war zones and foreign capitals is noteworthy because it is so unusual to see a presidential candidate act so presidential overseas. Mr. Obama looks supremely confident and at home talking to generals and heads of state, so much so that some viewers may find the pose presumptuous — as if Mr. Obama believes that not only is his official nomination at the Democratic convention in August a mere formality, so is the November election.

All three network anchors traveled overseas for one-on-one interviews with Mr. Obama, and that, too, irked the McCain campaign…

Mr. Obama’s stops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan provided arresting video of the candidate being mobbed by American troops, surveying terrain by helicopter alongside Gen. David H. Petraeus and holding talks with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq and King Abdullah of Jordan. When posing for an official photograph with a foreign leader, Mr. Obama often places his hand paternally on the other man’s arm, subliminally signaling that though a visitor, he is the real host of the meeting.

Touring ruins of the Citadel in Amman, Mr. Obama strode confidently with his jacket crooked over his shoulder in classic Kennedy style. He also practiced statesmanly restraint, telling reporters in Amman that he wouldn’t criticize his opponent while abroad…

McCain aides haven’t been nearly as creative on his behalf: their stagecraft has been notably unflattering to the candidate. While Mr. Obama was shown striding across military tarmacs and inspecting troops standing at attention, Mr. McCain on Monday was seen being driven around in a golf cart by former President George Bush in the resort town of Kennebunkport, Me. Later, the two men spoke to reporters side by side at a waterfront, and they looked more like fellow members of a Past Presidents’ Club than a party elder passing the torch to his political heir.

CNN even contrasted how the two candidates pronounce Pakistan. (Mr. Obama favors the more international Pahk-ee-stahn; Mr. McCain keeps the a’s flat.) …

Well, it’s nice to see them admit their overwhelming bias.

Except they didn’t.

(Thanks to news maven BillK for the heads up.)

From, of all places, the Washington Post:

Behind Maliki’s Games

By Max Boot
Wednesday, July 23, 2008; Page A15

There is some irony in the fact that Democrats, after years of deriding Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a hopeless bungler and conniving Shiite sectarian, are now treating as sacrosanct his suggestion that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Naturally this is because his position seems to support that of Barack Obama.

A little skepticism is in order here. The prime minister has political motives for what he’s saying — whatever that is. An anonymous Iraqi official told the state-owned Al-Sabah newspaper, “Maliki thinks that Obama is most likely to win in the presidential election” and that “he’s got to take preemptive steps before Obama gets to the White House.” By smoothing Obama’s maiden voyage abroad as the Democratic nominee, Maliki may figure that he will collect chits that he can call in later.

Giving the Iraqi prime minister an added motive to posture about troop withdrawals, even while he explicitly eschews binding timelines, is that he is engaged in contentious status-of-forces negotiations with the United States. He may figure that threatening to boot us out gives him more leverage over our troops. Beyond the negotiations, there is the imperative of Iraq’s provincial elections, supposed to take place this year. Maliki no doubt expects that his Dawa party will reap political benefits from appearing to stand up to the Americans.

This is part of a pattern for Maliki, who, though he won office and has stayed alive (literally and politically) with American support, has hardly been an unwavering friend of the United States — at least in public. Although he was an opponent of the Saddam Hussein regime, he was not a proponent of the U.S.-led invasion. Having spent long years of exile in Syria and Iran, he has had to overcome deeply ingrained suspicions of the United States.

Keep in mind also that Maliki has no military experience and that he has been trapped in the Green Zone, relatively isolated from day-to-day life. For these reasons, he has been a consistent font of misguided predictions about how quickly U.S. forces could leave.

In May 2006, shortly after becoming prime minister, he claimed, “Our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces within a year and a half.”

In October 2006, when violence was spinning out of control, Maliki declared that it would be “only a matter of months” before his security forces could “take over the security portfolio entirely and keep some multinational forces only in a supporting role.”

President Bush wisely ignored Maliki. Instead of withdrawing U.S. troops, he sent more. The prime minister wasn’t happy. On Dec. 15, 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported, “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has flatly told Gen. George Casey, the top American military commander in Iraq, that he doesn’t want more U.S. personnel deployed to the country, according to U.S. military officials.” When the surge went ahead anyway, Maliki gave it an endorsement described in news accounts as “lukewarm.”

In January 2007, with the surge just starting, Maliki predicted “that within three to six months our need for the American troops will dramatically go down.” In April 2007, when most of Baghdad was still out of control, the prime minister said that Iraqi forces would assume control of security in every province by the end of the year.

Even now, when the success of the surge is undeniable, Maliki won’t give U.S. troops their due. In the famous interview with Der Spiegel last weekend, he was asked why Iraq has become more peaceful. He mentioned “many factors,” including “the political rapprochement we have managed to achieve,” “the progress being made by our security forces,” “the deep sense of abhorrence with which the population has reacted to the atrocities of al-Qaida and the militias,” and “the economic recovery.” No mention of the surge.

To his credit, although he has postured as a fierce nationalist in public, Maliki has often accommodated American concerns in private. And, despite saying that Iraq doesn’t need many U.S. troops, he has acquiesced to their presence.

But Maliki’s public utterances do not provide a reliable guide as to when it will be safe to pull out U.S. troops. Better to listen to the military professionals. The Post recently quoted Brig. Gen. Bilal al-Dayni, commander of Iraqi troops in Basra, as saying of the Americans, “We hope they will stay until 2020.” That is similar to the expectation of Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul Qadir, who says his forces cannot assume full responsibility for internal security until 2012 and for external security until 2018.

What would happen if we were to pull out much faster, on a 16-month timetable? Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, says that would be “very dangerous” — the same words used by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Of course, if the Iraqi government tells us to leave, we will have to leave. But, the prime minister’s ambiguous comments notwithstanding, the Iraqi government is saying no such thing, because most Iraqis realize that the gains of the surge are fragile and could be undone by a too-rapid departure of U.S. forces.

The writer is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a foreign policy adviser to Sen. John McCain’s campaign.

A little antidote to the mendacity being promulgated by our watchdog media.

From The Rocky Mountain News:

DNC host’s tax-free gas

Angry reaction brings a halt to use of city pumps

Daniel J. Chaconand Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News
July 23, 2008

The committee hosting the Democratic National Convention has used the city’s gas pumps to fill up and apparently avoided paying state and federal fuel taxes.

The practice, which began four months ago, may have ended hours after its disclosure. An aide to Mayor John Hickenlooper [photo at right] released a statement Tuesday evening saying that Denver 2008 Host Committee members would pay market prices for fuel and would also be liable for all applicable taxes.

However, Public Works spokeswoman Christine Downs told City Council members just hours before that host committee members were fueling up at the city pumps. The city does not pay taxes on the fuel for its fleet, and Downs said the host committee would not either.

The disclosure brought immediate scrutiny. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said the practice “would seem” to be illegal and referred the matter to the state Department of Revenue.

Nonprofits, such as the host committee, are subject to state and federal gasoline taxes, according to the Department of Revenue.

The issue arose during the regular weekly meeting of Hickenlooper and City Council members. Downs requested authorization for a contract so the Public Works Department could be reimbursed by the host committee for use of “fueling facilities, fuel and car washes.”

Downs said the contract with the host committee started in March and that $9,700 in fuel and services had been purchased from the city so far. But the committee has yet to be billed. The city anticipates $466,125 in total revenues from the contract, Downs said.

City Councilman Charlie Brown raised the question of whether the host committee would be paying fuel taxes, and Downs said it wouldn’t.

“There’s something there that just doesn’t seem right to me because, in a sense, you’re saying then that the officials who pass the laws are not willing to live by them,” said Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz.

Hickenlooper said the practice isn’t unique to Denver.

“I do know for a fact that they’re doing the same exact thing in Minneapolis,” Hickenlooper said, referring to the city that along with St. Paul is hosting the Republican National Convention.

But Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee, said its members are getting their gas at public pumps.

“We’re not getting a tax break on fuel,” she said. “That’s not the setup at this end.”

In Colorado, consumers pay 40.4 cents per gallon in state and federal fuel taxes…

The host committee, which is responsible for raising money to put on the convention, is using the city’s pumps “for safety and security reasons,” Lopez said.

“We know the gas is not tainted,” he said. “We use it as a safety and security measure.”

Hickenlooper said GM is “loaning” the host committee vehicles and he expects a large number to be hybrids. It wasn’t clear Tuesday whether host committee members are using those loaners or their personal vehicles…

After the meeting, Faatz said it was wrong for the DNC host committee to get a tax break.

“I am just troubled by not having the payment of taxes for what I consider to be a privately funded party, and that’s what the host committee is: it’s a private organization,” she said.

“If you’ve got a 14-gallon tank, on the average, that’s about $5.66 that they don’t have to pay for fill up,” Brown said.

Brown also questioned the need for car washes.

It also wasn’t clear Tuesday whether the Department of Revenue will investigate.

“We can’t talk about any individual taxpayer’s circumstance,” said department spokesman Mark Couch. “Tax-exempt organizations are not exempt from fuel taxes, so a nonprofit group is not exempt from fuel taxes. As to the individual circumstance involved here, we’d have to look into it and investigate to make any kind of determination.”

Denis Berckefeldt, spokesman for Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher, said Hickenlooper’s administration has been guilty in the past of doing business before a contract is executed.

“Is it unusual that it happens?” he asked. “No, because they do stuff like this. Do we like it? No.” …

It turns out that John “Love Child” Edwards is right. There really are two Americas.

The one with special rules for Democrats and the one for the rest of us.

And note their excuses when they got caught red-handed. They had to do it for “security reasons.”

Also note how quickly they falsely accused the Republicans of doing it, too.

Do we really want these thugs to be entirely in charge of the federal government?

Watch them before they are scrubbed from YouTube:

Sure, everyone admits Mr. Obama has no real world experience.

But we should elect him President anyway, on the strength of his unfailing judgment.

Something that almost got by us in the rush of events, from his campaign site on YouTube:

Barack Obama Video Address at Netroots Nation

That Mr. Obama pledges to do all he can to earn the support of these radically left lunatics is really all you need to know about the man.

From an understanding Reuters:

Bulldozer on Jerusalem rampage before Obama visit

By Rebecca Harrison

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian rammed a bulldozer into vehicles on a busy Jerusalem street on Tuesday, ahead of a visit by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and wounded 16 people before being shot dead.

The attack, just down the road from the hotel where Obama was to stay, was the second such incident in Jewish west Jerusalem in three weeks…

The attack occurred while Israeli President Shimon Peres hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his official residence less than a kilometer (half-mile) away…

“The bulldozer driver left a construction site, and hit two cars,” a police spokesman said. “A civilian who saw what was happening, shot him. The bulldozer continued on its way. A border police patrol … continued to shoot and the terrorist was killed.”

The bulldozer also hit a bus. Emergency services said at least 16 people were wounded, one seriously. After the attack, police set up a cordon around the yellow bulldozer and the slumped body of the driver inside…

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack was praised by Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip as “a natural reaction to the crimes of the (Israeli) occupation.” …

Obama, scheduled to hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday, was due to stay in Jerusalem at the King David Hotel, less than 200 meters (yards) from the scene of the attack. Police said they had no immediate evidence to suggest it was linked to the visit…

Tuesday’s attack coincided with the first visit by a Palestinian president to Israel’s official presidential residence…

These bulldozers are getting to be as bad as SUVs.

Allah forbid that Reuters put ‘Palestinian’ in the headline. No, it was just another out of control bulldozer.

Tuesday’s attack coincided with the first visit by a Palestinian president to Israel’s official presidential residence.

But of course Reuters interpreted it as somehow having more to do with the forthcoming visit of Mr. Obama.

But how is the anointed one expected to heal bulldozers?

From a delighted Associated Press:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (left) meets with President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez outside Moscow. Chavez passed on a message from Cuban leader Fidel Castro hailing Russia’s greater role in world affairs.

Chavez says Venezuela needs Russia for protection

By MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 22

MEIENDORF CASTLE, Russia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on Tuesday for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect the South American country from the United States.

Chavez is expected to reach a number of agreements for purchasing military hardware while in Russia, according to Russian news media reports. One newspaper reported that the deals could be worth up to $2 billion.

“That way we can guarantee Venezuela’s sovereignty, which is now threatened by the United States,” Chavez was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying. The U.S. stopped supplying arms to Venezuela in 2006.

While welcoming Chavez at his castle resort in the Moscow region, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russian-Venezuelan relations “are one of the key factor of security in the (South American) region.” …

Russia’s daily Kommersant reported Tuesday that Chavez is looking to order up to $2 billion worth of Ilyushin jets, diesel-powered submarines, TOR-M1 air defense systems and possibly tanks…

“We want peace, but we are forced to strengthen our defense,” Chavez said when asked about the potential deals.

Venezuela, which spent $4 billion on international arms purchases between 2005 and 2007, mostly from Russia and China, has a defense budget of $2.6 billion, according to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Chavez also wants to discuss the possibility of creating a joint bank, according to Alexis Navarro, Venezuela’s ambassador to Moscow.

In addition, the two sides are expected to discuss three energy deals involving three Russian companies — Gazprom, Lukoil, and TNK-BP — and Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the Kremlin said…

Aren’t we glad we bailed Russia out of their troubles? (For the second time in 75 years.)

Aren’t we glad we did everything in our power to get them into the World Trade Organization and every other position on the world stage?

As always, they are paying us back nicely.

They are such good friends.

The DNC’s Washington Post:

Sectarian Violence Resurges in Iraq

By Nelson Hernandez and Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, February 25, 2006

BAGHDAD, Feb. 25 — Fierce sectarian violence erupted anew Saturday despite an extraordinary daytime curfew, killing more than two dozen people in a series of incidents around the country, including a brazen attack on the funeral procession of an Iraqi television journalist in Baghdad.

The violence took place even though a daytime curfew emptied the streets of Baghdad and three neighboring provinces for a second day.

President Bush made a round of phone calls to Iraqi political leaders Saturday in an effort to defuse the violence that has killed more than 150 people in the country since the destruction of the golden-domed Shiite Askariya Shrine in Samarra four days ago.

Bush "encouraged them to continue to work together to thwart the efforts of the perpetrators of the violence to sow discord among Iraq’s communities," said Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, according to news agency reports.

Iraq’s top political and religious leaders held emergency talks in Baghdad and said they would join forces to ease the sectarian bloodshed that has put the country on tenterhooks waiting to see whether a full-scale civil war will erupt, news agencies reported from Baghdad. They also discussed the formation of a new government, the agencies reported.

In a symbolic gesture, Shiite and Sunni leaders held hands and then prayed after the talks at the Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad, the Reuters news agency reported from Baghdad.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry announced that the ban on all vehicular traffic will be continued in Baghdad and its suburbs for 24 hours from 6 a.m. Sunday. The ban was lifted for three other Iraqi provinces, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said at a news conference, according to reports.

The first day of the curfew, Friday, brought a relative calm to the embattled country.

Shiite and Sunni Arab political leaders have issued public pleas for calm, but each side has accused the other of mounting revenge attacks since the Askariya bombing.

The main Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, issued a statement Saturday welcoming the government’s promise to rebuild the Shiite shrine in Samarra and Sunni mosques that were damaged in reprisal attacks afterwards.

The Sunnis suspended talks with the Shiites and Kurds on Thursday following attacks against more than 180 mosques in retaliation for the Samarra bombing.

Despite the flurry of meetings and calls, on Saturday there were signs that the Sunnis were conducting their own offensive. In the morning, gunmen burst into a Shiite house and killed 13 members of one family living near the predominantly Sunni Arab town of Baqubah, north of Baghdad. The victims, all men, consisted of three generations of one family, the Associated Press reported.

In Karbala, a Shiite holy city some 50 miles south of Baghdad, a car bomb explosion killed at least five people and injured more than 30, police and hospital officials said, according to the Associated Press. Karbala’s governor said on television that a suspect, who witnesses said detonated the bomb by remote control, was caught as he tried to flee the scene.

And in Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on the funeral procession for an Al Arabiya television reporter, who was killed along with two colleagues while covering the bombing in Samarra. One security guard was killed in the firefight, the network said.

When the mourners were returning from the cemetery, a car bomb ripped through an Iraqi military patrol that was escorting the mourners, news agencies reported. At least two soldiers and one police commando were killed then, police and army officials said, according to the Associated Press.

And at least two rockets slammed into homes in Baghdad’s Shiite slum, Sadr City, killing three people, including a child, the Associated Press reported.

Sunni leaders say Shiite militias affiliated with political parties have been allowed to rampage through the streets unchecked by the army and police. The Sunnis, in turn, have hastily organized groups of local men to defend their neighborhoods from attack.

Or the Australian Sunday Times:

Sunnis and Sadr’s Shiites make peace

From correspondents in Baghdad
26 Feb 06

THE movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, alleged to have played a role in the anti-Sunni violence over the last few days, publicly made peace with political and religious Sunni leaders overnight.

Four sheikhs from the Sadr movement made a "pact of honour" with the conservative Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, and called for an end to attacks on places of worship, the shedding of blood and condemning any act leading to sedition.

The agreement was made in the particularly symbolic setting of Baghdad’s premier Sunni mosque Abu Hanifa where the Shiite sheikhs prayed under the guidance of Sunni imam Abdel Salam al-Qubaissi.

The meeting was broadcast on television and the religious leaders all "condemned the blowing up of the Shiite mausoleum of Samarra as much as the acts of sabotage against the houses of God as well as the assassinations and terrorisation of Muslims".

The statement made reference to the key concerns of both communities with the violent aftermath to the attack on the Samarra mausoleum which saw more than 119 people die.

The sheikhs condemned "those who excommunicate Muslims" a reference to the "takfireen" or Islamist extremists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who justify killing fellow Muslims by declaring them non-Muslims.

"It is not permitted to spill the Iraqi blood and to touch the houses of God," said the statement, adding that any mosques taken over by another community should be returned.

The meeting also announced the formation of a commission to "determine the reasons for the crisis with a view to solving it", while also calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.

On the political front, Salam al-Maliki, a cabinet minister allied to Sadr, and Iyad al-Sammaraie of the Sunni Islamic Party proclaimed their own reconciliation at a joint press conference, aired on Iraqi state television.

The Islamic Party belongs to the Sunni National Concord Front, which won 44 seats in parliament and has broken off talks on forming the next Iraqi government since Wednesday’s eruption of violence.

While overwhelmingly Shiite and representing thousands of poor and disaffected Shiites across the country, Sadr’s movement has often made overtures to the Sunni Arabs over their mutual dislike of the US presence in the country.

Still, the roving bands of gun-toting, black clad youths attacking Sunnis and their places of worship on Wednesday were widely believed to have connections to the Mehdi Army, the armed wing of Sadr’s movement.

In fact, Sadr’s office in Najaf issued a statement Saturday calling on his followers to eschew their trademark black uniforms.

"The order has been given to members of the Mehdi Army to no longer wear their black uniform, so that it not exploited by those who commit crimes," said the statement.

The statement added that those attacking mosques were "criminal bands with no links to the Sadr movement."

Maybe they are talking about two different Iraqs.