Here is the video everyone is talking about.

Solidarity.

via Hot Air.

Note:  THE CLIP BELOW IS PARODY, IT IS NOT REAL.

I find the Onion equally funny and distasteful, depending on the subject, which makes them effective neutral in my opinion.

Satire, by definition, should sting.  Wiki says "In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with an intent to bring about improvement.  Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humour in itself so much as an often quite angry attack on something the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit."

I am of mixed feelings with this, so I cannot say if they lived up to this definition or not, but I can see that it was the intent.

The victims of satire here are both TSA Screeners, who have been criticized for being lax in their duties, and the Main Stream Media, whose quest for sensationalism has sometimes led them to dangerous waters, such as releasing classified information that damages national security, just to get the scoop.

The message is clear:  Screeners are inept.  Their security measures are ineffective.  Reporters are essentially information whores who would exploit even the most awful circumstances just to prove a point.  And the newscaster takes a few hits, as the Anchor reading the story of the events in the parody was full of victorious gloating, callous blame shifting and needless finger pointing with no regard for the actual cost of catastrophe.

The danger here is that all of the insinuations are ever so slightly on target.  Newscasters dto pontificate soberly, devoid of all emotion, over stories that are gross and horrible, reporters do seek stories with an overzealousness that is almost criminal, and the TSA has earned some serious criticism due to mistakes and nonsensical restrictions. 

Hot Air notes:

A trenchant satire on the media’s loyalty in the age of terror? Not from a lefty outfit like the Onion. Call this a commentary on sensationalist stunt journalism — sort of like “To Catch a Predator” but in the national security context.

This is no bull, this is a woman calmly blowing herself up to kill someone.  Rumoured to be a Tamil Tiger, she did this in Sri Lanka.

The only appreciable difference, is that an Al Qeada bomber would have leveled the whole building.

 — In chilling security camera footage, a female suicide bomber on a mission to kill a Sri Lankan Cabinet minister is seen patiently answering questions in a bustling government office before calmly standing up and detonating the bomb hidden in her bra.

The video, released by police Friday, gave a rare look at a suicide bomber's last moments and the immediate aftermath of a devastating attack.

In the footage, the bomber, wearing a yellow sari and a white shawl, calmly walked into a small waiting room at the Colombo offices of Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda on Wednesday, the day he sets aside to hear complaints from the public.

The woman, identified by police as 24-year-old Sujatha Vagawanam, sat down in front of a desk and answered questions from Devananda's 72-year-old aide Steven Peiris. As the two spoke, Peiris was repeatedly interrupted by other officials sitting nearby or walking past.

After nearly a minute and a half, he began gesturing for her to sit down in a nearby cluster of white plastic chairs, apparently to await a security check. She then stood up facing Peiris, reached her right hand to her right shoulder to grab something and exploded.

And just like that, it is over.  This is horrible, and I only post it because the world needs to see how calm and cool these people are so they can understand the difficulty our troops face daily in trying to stop them.

You watch this, and wonder:  Would you have suspected her? 

Not all fanatics are howling fanatics.

Hat Tip:  Hot Air

A huge win for the Administration in the 9th Circus Circuit Court:

In this  just released this morning, three Judges of the Ninth Circuit, including one of the most liberal anti-government judges in the Country, Harry Pregerson, sided with the Administration on its asserting of the “State Secrets” privilege in a lawsuit brought by Islamic groups and others against both the government. and the telecommunication companies that helped put in place the terrorist surveillance program that involved the use of warrantless wiretaps.

...

In this case the Court held that the government had properly invoked the State Secrets privilege with respect to document(s) and information which the plaintiffs would need to proceed with their suit – such as confirmation that the plaintiffs had been the target of the Terrorist Surveillance Program and the details of how the program operated.   

 Money quote from p. 22 of the pdf:

“Having reviewed it in camera, we conclude that the Sealed Document is protected by the state secrets privilege, along with the information as to whether the government surveilled Al-Haramain. We take very seriously our obligation to review the documents with a very careful, indeed a skeptical, and not to accept at face value the government’s claim or justification of privilege. Simply saying “military secret,” “national security” or “terrorist threat” or invoking an ethereal fear that disclosure will threaten our nation is insufficient to support the privilege. Sufficient detail must be—and has been—provided for us to make a meaningful examination. The process of in camera review ineluctably places the court in a role that runs contrary to our fundamental principle of a transparent judicial system. It also places on the court a special burden to assure itself that an appropriate balance is struck between protecting national security matters and preserving an open court system. That said, we acknowledge the need to defer to the Executive on matters of foreign policy and national security and surely cannot legitimately find ourselves second guessing the Executive in this arena.

Hard to find a place in there anywhere for a “Bush/Cheney are worse than Hitler” jibe. 

Seems an incredible slap in the face, but its true.  8 of the 19 Hijackers had used phoney documents or loopholes in the state law to obtain drivers licenses, and under the Motor Voter act had also been allowed to register to vote.

Makes you feel real secure in our system, doesn't it?  Because nowit is easier then ever before to do both.

Eight 9-11 Hijaacckers Were Registereed to Vote: Will MSM 'Drive' Story?

The fact has been out there for some time, but never garnered much media attention. Now, in the context of the current debate over the granting of driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, will there be renewed focus on this chilling reality? Could this be the factoid that changes a presidential election? As John Fund wrote in his Wall Street Journal column today and discussed during his "Morning Joe" appearance:

After 9/11, the Justice Department found that eight of the 19 hijackers were registered to vote.

View video of Fund's "Morning Joe" appearance here.

And what made it so simple for them to register? As Fund explains:

[T]he National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as "Motor Voter," that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It required all states to offer voter registration to anyone getting a driver's license. One simply fills out a form and checks a box stating he is a citizen; he is then registered and in most states does not have to show any ID to vote.

The Fund column contains other mind-boggling details of the extent to which Eliot Spitzer, the New York governor whose drivers license plan Hillary Clinton supports, wanted to go:

Despite a tactical retreat this week--he says he will only give illegal immigrants a license that isn't valid for airplane travel and entering federal buildings--Mr. Spitzer has taken active steps to obliterate any distinctions between licenses given to citizens and non-citizens.

911 Truthers are the poster children of deranged conspiracy theory fools. 

They love to confront anyone to forward their insanity, like when Bill Maher turkey walked them off of his live show last week (strong language warning).

This week they tangled with former President Clinton, who was also in no mood for it.

Here are clips from both and as a bonus, the last clip is Bill's opinion of the Truthers from his New Rules segment.

I admit I give many liberals a bad time for their ideology, but in this case it goes to show that even liberals have their limits on irrationality.  Maybe there is some hope.

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, , guerrilla radio, Right Truth, The Populist, Shadowscope, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Nuke's, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Right Celebrity, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

This was a subject on two of my daily radio shows, so it bears some attention.

The idea is to take a week at colleges nationwide, and remind people about this wacky little bunch of fanatics who want to kill Americans, and why they are a threat.

You would think that the issue of them being a threat is a no brainer.

I start at Michelle Malkin:

The irrepressible David Horowitz is the man behind Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which kicks off today. The Left and the jihadi apologists are in a snit, of course, and you already know what the grievance hoaxers at GWU attempted to do in their effort to deflect attention away from our true enemies and smear the organizers and supporters of IFAW.

Horowitz told the WashTimes:

Provoking protest is nothing new to Mr. Horowitz, an ex-Marxist and a leader of the 1960s New Left who has been the target of pie-throwing incidents during his campus appearances as a conservative speaker. He doesn’t mince words when describing his former ideological comrades.

“The left has only one strategy when dealing with its opponents, and that’s to smear them,” Mr. Horowitz, 68, says in a telephone interview. “They learned from Stalin.”

…Mr. Horowitz says conservatives should not tolerate accusations of “hate” from left-wing activists.

“We’re not just going to sit and take it,” he says. “We’re going to fight fire with fire. They are the haters, and we’re going to stick them with that.”

So assuming that it is a bad thing when people want to strap on a bomb and blow themselves to heaven and kill innocents, why is there any debate?

The MSA at the University of Washington wants people on campus to wear green to protest IFAW:

Hala Dillsi, a member of the UW Muslim Student Association, believes Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week promotes fear and intolerance. She is distributing green armbands and encouraging people to wear T-shirts that are green — traditionally the color associated with Islam — on Wednesday in solidarity with local Arabs and Muslims.

So as another 9/11 passes us, here is a final round of 9/11 related stories.  The last one is the one I am the happiest about.

RELIGION OF PEACE: We'll cut off head of 'prostitute' Britney Spears

Terrorists: We'll cut off head of 'prostitute' Britney Spears.  Madonna also targeted by jihad leaders who warn of 'spreading satanic culture'

Well here the Islamics might actually find common ground with some Christian fundamentalists, though I personally doubt the Moral Majority would resort to beheading.

The threats, recorded on audio, come as Madonna is due to arrive in Israel Wednesday to celebrate the Jewish new year with fellow Kabbalah practitioners.

"If I meet these whores I will have the honor – I repeat, I will have the honor – to be the first one to cut the heads off Madonna and Britney Spears if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam," said Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization.

Thus speaks the Religion of Peace.

Al-Qaeda to release third 9/11 video

Al-Qaeda will release a third video marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, this time showing its top leader in Afghanistan, US monitoring groups said Wednesday.

After releasing two videos featuring Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in recent days, the terror network will now show a video "presenting reasons and motives for the attacks on New York and Washington," the SITE Intelligence Group said in a press release.

The new video will show Al-Qaeda's chief in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, also known as Sheikh Said, said SITE, which monitors Islamic extremist websites.

Considering the first one has been shown to be faked, or at least manipulated, I wonder what this one will contain?

Kucinich Stands Alone Opposed to Sept. 11 Resolution

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democratic presidential candidate and no stranger to contrarian views, was the sole congressman Tuesday to vote against the House's Sept. 11 commemoration resolution.

I will let you the reader make up your own mind if this is significant or not.  I personally think it is, that it is a part of that core difference between liberals and conservatives.

I will not say by any means this is conclusive, or that it is absolute.  Some on both sides of this issue routinely act as the exception to the rule.

But the sheer numbers support a trend whether we like it or not.   I have for your examination several from each camp.

• Pigs of War (by Cindy Sheehan)

Pigs of War come in both political colors of red and blue. We are all unfortunately very familiar with the red pigs. The pigs of war who manipulated, cherry-picked, stove-piped and manufactured intelligence to suggest to the world that Saddam had mushroom cloud producing WMD and something to do with the tragic events of 9-11 that occurred six years ago now.

• Six Years of 9/11 as a License to Kill

It evokes a tragedy that marks an epoch. From the outset, the warfare state has exploited "9/11," a label at once too facile and too laden with historic weight -- giving further power to the tacit political axiom that perception is reality.

The most repetitious lessons of 9/11 -- received and propagated by the vast preponderance of U.S. news media -- have to do with the terribly asymmetrical importance of grief and of moral responsibility. Our nation is so righteous that we are trained to ask for whom the bell tolls. Rendered as implicitly divisible, humanity is fractionated as seen through red-white-and-blue windows on the world.

Posing outside cycles of violence and victims who victimize, the dominant vision of Pax Americana has no more use now than it did six years ago for W.H. Auden's observation: "Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return."

• JAMIESON: "Endless Iraq war adds to sorrow of 9/11"