Think Progress » BREAKING: Rumsfeld and Pace Not Consulted On Transfer Of Port Operations To UAE

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This whole story if foul indeed. And I'm not talking about Bird Flu either. The word 'Impeachment' really needs to be brought forward against this President and this is just one more example of a leader who is out of touch and whose actions are autocratic and extra legal. From the illegal wiretaps and the excesses allowed under the Patriot Act this President does not believe he needs to follow the Constitution, consult Congress or even make an effort to pretend to follow the Constitution. The Senate even tried to help the President out by suggesting that they would be more than happy to change the FISA Court law to overcome whatever objections the President had to actually following the law. No dice, the illegal unconstitutional actions continue and there is oversight, no idea of how extensive the wiretaps against american citizens actually is.

In this case, the selling of ownership of the major US ports to a middle eastern country is more than foul. It's the direct result of letting the President run roughshod over the Constitution. He doesn't think in any way that the Congress has any right to have a say in anything he does. He just doesn't care, he believes he is the dictator of the United States and not the President. It's amazing, it's the answer to the frequent question about how on earth the Germans allowed Hitler to take over the country. The answer is of course, one day at a time and with each day the rights and laws are further diminished until someday nothing of them will remain. This is another example.

David Irving - Last Sane Insane Man in Europe

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online:

You know, the idea that what you believe can lead to serious prison time or other punishment is a barbaric idea, with no place in Modern Western Civilization. It's something more to be expected in the Medieval thinking of the Middle East where there are many people calling for the death of a number of cartoonists who wrote something that caused outrage and rioting. Mind you there is never any rioting and moral outrage when people are kidnapped, tortured and murdered in the name of the person whose visage must not be pictured but that's another rant for another day. No indeed, not in modern Europe where freedom of expression, free speech and even the thoughts in your head are free from the heavy hand of the government. But no, that idea is just a fantasy which has no place in the People's Republic of Austria, well on it's way to reinstituting the policies and overall style of the Third Reich. Yes, the Fourth Reich is well on it's way in spirit if not in deed. In Austria you have a country where a crackpot historian from Britian, a one David Irving, has just been tried and convicted of the shocking crime of 'Holocaust denier' which I'm sorry to say isn't quite a capital offense yet but you know, if they just incorporate their spiritual brother in thought - shiaria law, they'll be able to make thoughtcrime a capital offense too like it is in Shiaria law. Then they can line up all the cartoonists and authors they don't like and shoot them all at once and be done with it. But of course, where there is thoughtcrime there is no being done with it. There are always dangerous thoughts that must be stamped out.

The article states that "One hundred and fifty-eight people have been convicted of Holocaust denial in Austria between 1999 and 2004." They must be proud in Austria for this. A fellow named Lord Janner of Braunstone - there's no telling if his first name is really 'Lord' or if he has some actual real name but one thing is for sure, the pompous ass is from Braunstone. He says that "We must learn the lessons of the past to build a decent society for the future." which is an awesomely clueless thing to say for someone who claps and cheers over idiots being put in jail for what they think. The thing is, when you decide to start putting people in jail for what they thing and write you've lost freedom of speech. Sure, it seems okay since the speech and thought you are punishing is stuff that you don't like. Isn't that worth a bit of loss of freedom? Well you know, what'll it be next time. They've already started down the slippery slope and the next thought crime might be something you think or say or write. Someone who denies that the holocaust happened is guilty of stupidity and a lack of education at best and is some sort of Nazi advocate. By elevating it you've created an illustration of your own fear and validated the idea that those thoughts are somehow dangerous. It's really pathetic and reflects badly on Austria.

Holocaust Denier Gets Three Years

Holocaust Denier Gets Three Years

Imagine that you lived in a country where simply by saying something that others didn't agree with you set yourself up to be put in prison. Imagine that it wasn't even the country you are from, perhaps you wrote something that the government of that country did not believe in, perhaps you even wrote your conjectures, your opinions, your ideas down in a book. Those opinions would earn you a first class trial and a three year prison term when you happened to travel through that country and were subsequently arrested by the gestapo of that country. Well, imagine no longer. It's completely true and the modern day country where thoughtcrime is reality is Austria.

Yes indeed, the British historian David Irving is just that man. He has written numerous books which have gone against the normal, the usual, the properly prescribed view of history. This made him a maverick, a person who examined and wrote views of World War II that for the vast majority of historians and scholars made David Irving a outcast. Good enough, the weight of good scholarship and logic and reasoning has made David Irving sort of a joke as a serious historian. I'm not arguing one way or the other about his research and scholarship. You can actually go to Amazon.com and look at some of the books he's written. I don't think they've been able to make it a crime to look at a book just yet.

The crime here is from Austria. To make having a point of view a crime. This puts them on a par with the bad days of the Soviet Union where dissenters were put in institutions for the insane. Of course, if you disagree then you are clearly insane so it makes perfect Owellian thinking. Austria has gone to another level of mental dictatorial control over people. Yes, it's shocking for someone to deny that the holocaust ever happened. But the answer to that is education and ridicule of those who do the denying. Not prison for saying something you disagee with. Welcome to the Austrian Gulag.

Foto Fuck Vrijdag - the Amazing Retecool -

Foto Fuck Vrijdag - the Amazing Retecool -

The amazingly clueless rage of Islam over some political cartoons has created the very predictable opposite reaction hoped for. Instead of cowering the people of the West with their threats to bomb and kidnap more people but this time in retribution of the blasphemy of printing images of Muhammed they have spawned tons and tons of even worse images of their prophet. Such as the ones you can see by following the link above. A warning though, some are rather crude and offensive.

It's been interesting, and I'm not the only one to notice the level of rage over some cartoons as opposed to the absolute silence when it comes to Muslims raping, kidnapping, torturing and killing innocent people. To the ears of people in the west, the protests and the moral outrage expressed by irate Muslims over this is finally waking some people up to the intolerance and hatred Muslims have toward anyone who is not of the same strain of Islamic belief. They ask and demand complete and total respect and obedience to their religious dictates but are actively hostile to anyone who believes or thinks anything different from their beliefs. Their answer for it all? Threats of violence, actual violence and strict obedience to their beliefs upon pain of death. Very civilized people eh?

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