Omar and Mohammed were paid a surprise midnight visit by patrolling American troops on Thursday night.

Oh by the way, the fire you see in the posting by Omar and Mohammed is a BBQ in a Baghdad neighborhood, not an American flag or US soldier being burned in effigy. 

That is only seen in Portland, Oregon.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Yet again, an institution revered by the American Left, has voted to restrict free speech and further erode the human rights that liberal (small “l”) democracies are supposed to cherish and protect. 

GENEVA (AP) – Islamic countries pushed through a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday urging a global prohibition on the public defamation of religion—a response largely to the furor last year over caricatures published in a Danish newspaper of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

The statement proposed by the Organization of Islamic Conference addressed what it called a “campaign” against Muslim minorities and the Islamic religion around the world since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The resolution, which was opposed by a number of other non-Muslim countries, “expresses deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations.”

It makes no mention of any other religion besides Islam, but urges countries “to take resolute action to prohibit the dissemination of racist and xenophobic ideas and material aimed at any religion or its followers that constitute incitement and religious hatred, hostility, or violence.”

I’m sure there will be no demonstrations in the streets over this UN mandate by those who use their First Amendment to denegrate our President and our Armed Forces at the drop of a hat.

Will you be upset when the Leftist Thought Police on knocking on YOUR door to take more of your freedoms away?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

You know all of those “human rights” groups that pop up every single time there are mere allegations of a real or (as is usually the case) a media-invented story about American “torture”? 

Well, where are they now when a Iran is blatantly violating the Geneva Convention accords?

The third Article of the Geneva Conventions clearly prohibits the public exhibition of Prisoners of War. The display on Iranian State Television of Leading Seaman Faye Turney flouts this provision. The letters which the Iranian Government have released which they allege were written by the same Royal Navy sailor, calling for withdrawal from Iraq and “confessing” to entering Iranian waters, indicate intimidation and coercion as banned by Articles three and seventeen of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The relevant articles describe these as “serious breaches”.

Furthermore it seems that access by a humanitarian organisation such as the International Committee of the Red Cross is being denied while British Diplomats are being given the run-around in trying to determine the location, status and health of these hostages. Again this is contrary to the Geneva conventions.

So who is responsible for these acts? The Geneva conventions make this clear too. In Article twelve it defines the responsibility as being with the Government of the “Detaining Power.” In other words, President Ahmadinejad is responsible.

Whether you like it or not, and despite the worldwide intelligence failure on (obvious and large amounts) of WMD…the USA and UK are in Iraq enforcing many United Nations-approved mandates.  Iran truly is in complete violation of international law with their criminal hostage-taking of the British sailors.

And speaking of which, when will the United Nations stand up for Western liberal democracies instead of always seeming to support terrorist and anti-Isreal causes?

The time is now.  I think the United States future support of the United Nations should result directly how the UN handles the “Iran problem”.

And finally, I ask our liberal lower-case clanists…. where’s your outrage with Iran?  Bueller?  Bueller?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I don’t know how US Airways is escaping the wrath of the news media and late-night comedians.  Nearly a month after the computer systems from US Airways and the old America West were merged… there are still major problems.   I can tell you from first hand experience this morning that the kiosks at Charlotte-Douglas (one of US Airways’ hubs) are still not functioning properly.  Also, there have been problems every time I have checked in at any US Airways counter since March 4th.

The desk attendants just throw up their hands and sigh… meantime the waiting lines are longer than they ever were before the computer merge on Sunday, March 4th.  The real problem, as always with the airlines, isn’t so much the computer issue as the “people issue.”   US Airways refuses to get more people behind the counters to help out if they know the computers are still working.

And more distressing is the attitude of the union workers who, in my opinion, are enjoying this season of “screw the passengers”.  I honestly believe, based on overhearing a number of flight attendants, gate agents and counter agents during the past three weeks, that the workers are in a “slow down” period and taking advantage of the computer problem to make things worse for US Airways.

What the union workers forget is that they are making life worse for their fellow Americans who, unfortunately, rely on our air traffic system for commerce and family connections.

I only wish the news media were hounding both US Airways management and the workers’ unions as much as JetBlue was hounded during the recent snowstorm issues.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

That’s the buzz this morning in the Queen City.

The Donald’s name isn’t on any building in Charlotte — yet — but he’s causing quite a stir.

The Trump Organization has targeted a block of South Tryon Street for a mega-development of luxury condos, a five-star hotel, an office tower and high-end shops, setting off the real estate grapevine.

Trump’s son Donald Jr. confirmed the interest, even though the firm is still working to acquire land in the 600 block of Tryon across from the [Charlotte] Observer.

Maybe the Charlotte project will be the next “prize” on The Apprentice?  Probably not.  But amusing to consider!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

No folks, this isn’t a joke.  I just hope our glorious state elected officials in Raleigh have the sense to nip this idea in the bud. 

Latino advocates say they’ll start lobbying N.C. legislators for driver’s licenses, in-state tuition and wage enforcement for those who are undocumented, likely heating up the illegal immigration debate.

It’s the first time advocacy groups across the state have created one agenda, which was released Tuesday by El Pueblo, a Raleigh-based nonprofit.

The agency’s top priority is to push for a special driver’s license for illegal immigrants. Several states already use such an alternative.

After North Carolina started requiring a valid Social Security number or a valid visa to obtain a driver’s license, many illegal immigrants chose to drive without one because they still have to work and take their children to school, said Zulayka Santiago, El Pueblo’s executive director.

“When you have drivers on the roads not fully informed of our traffic laws, that puts all our communities in danger,” she said.

Testing 1-2-3… Hello… *taps screen* … anyone with a brain out there? 

How about the fact that people entering this country illegally are automatically breaking the law (that is kind of what “illegal” means).  And the fact that most of the reported deadly accidents on the roads these days in Charlotte are caused by undocumented aliens behind the wheel.

The American community is already in danger.  Here’s a wild idea… have the illegals learn English in order to get a job, and apply for citizenship through existing law.  That way when they are here legally, they will be fully informed of our traffic laws because they’ll be able to hear them in English, read them in English, and comprehend them in English.

This dopey concept by El Pueblo is nothing more than a license to encourage more law-breaking by illegal aliens.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Oh my… those faceless, pesky and adjectively-barren ”bands of youths” are at it again — rioting in main Paris Metro subway station.

Riot police firing tear gas and brandishing batons clashed Tuesday with bands of youths who shattered windows and looted shops at a major Paris train station, officials said. Nine people were arrested.

Officials said about 100 people were involved in the melee at Gare du Nord, one of Paris’ most important transport hubs. Officers and police dogs fired tear gas and charged at groups of marauding youths, some of them wearing hoods and swinging metal bars.

The youths responded by throwing trash cans and other objects at the officers. A group of youths smashed the windows of a sporting goods store and looted boxes of shoes. Others attacked automatic drink dispensers and set fire to an information booth.

So were these “bands of youths” of French origin?  If so, why don’t the news reports say so? 

Wait…I know…. maybe they were unruly Brits upset at the capture of their sailors by Iran?  Or just wild and crazy Americans out to show the Parisians that we know how to party in a subway station?

Or are they from a community that the news media wants us to forget is fomenting hate, murder and civil unrest in France and much of Western Europe?  (Read Bruce Bawer’s book if you want to know the truth about the danger that Western civilization is ignoring.)

Ah, remember the days when the news media actually reported all of the known facts of an important news item?  *sigh*

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Holy crap!  Get a load of the compensation that the membership-funded Human Rights Campaign is throwing out to its top executives.  Way to go, Joe! 

Joe Solmonese, Executive Director
$226,678

Cathy Nelson, Development Director
$170,330

Cynthia Stachelberg, Legislative Director
$161,936

David M. Smith, Policy Director
$160,060

Cheryl Jacques, Former Executive Director
$159,916

Susanne Salkind, Management Director
$134,482

Andrea Green, Treasurer
$124,933

Kevin Layton, General Counsel
$118,916

Elizabeth Seaton, Legal Director
$111,089

Mary Breslauer, Board Member
$103,000

Timothy Bahr, Major Gifts
$79,456

Mark Shields, Coming Out Project
$77,269

Daryl Herrschaft, Workplace Project
$76,181

Matthew Bayer, Major Gifts
$72,770

Kudos to Michael Petrelis for doing the research to bring some transparency to the “Hypocrite Rights Campaign.”  Although I do disagree with Michael who doesn’t take issue with the amounts.  In fact, the HRC cabal’s compensation, for a non-profit, is outrageous!!  There are many colleagues of mine in the private sector, that have worked for 20 years in a professional job that don’t have that kind of compensation!

And here are a couple of interesting questions to mull over: 

Why on earth does HRC pay their FORMER Executive Director, Cheryl Jacques (oui! oui!) at all, much less close to $160,000?  After all, Ms. Cheryl has a law practice for crying out loud.

And the HRC pays their board members??  What kind of a racket is that?!?  This is a non-profit, charitable organization.

Hey, I want in on this gay ponzi scheme.

I guess we know which part of John Edwards’ “Two Americas” the HRC staff lives on.  All funded by you crazy gay people who give them your money.  Not I !

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Andrew Sullivan has discovered a new force in the universe.  Those who commit acts of aggression are most certainly victims rather than criminals.  In fact, Andrew is onto something very big here!! 

It is actually more than excusing Iran for kidnapping British sailors against the Geneva Conventions because of the “Bush-Cheney torture regime.”  No, in fact, Sully’s comparison can be taken to a more fundamental level.  Everyone who does something wrong obviously has no ill intent of their own — they were just driven to extremes by examples they’ve seen in modern society.  Let’s call it the “Sully Theorum.” 

So the first test of the Sully Theorum is obviously this story from Germany:

Desperate mothers are being urged to drop their unwanted babies through hatches at hospitals in Germany in an effort to halt a spate of infanticides that has shocked the country.

At least 23 babies have been killed so far this year, many of them beaten to death or strangled by their mothers before being dumped on wasteland and in dustbins.

Police investigating the murders are at a loss to explain the sudden surge in such cases, which have involved mothers of all ages all over the country.

It is obviously Michael Jackson’s fault that this “solution” is even being considered at all.  The Sully Theorum in practice!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Well, it must be true… the New York Times sez so.

More than 20 months ago, the United States secretly sent Iran a diplomatic protest charging that Tehran was supplying lethal roadside explosive devices to Shiite extremists in Iraq, according to American officials familiar with the message.

The July 19, 2005, protest — blandly titled “Message from the United States to the Government of Iran” — informed the Iranians that a British soldier had been killed by one of the devices in Maysan Province in eastern Iraq.

The complaint said that the Shiite militants who planted the device had longstanding ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, and that the Revolutionary Guards and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia had been training Iraqi Shiite insurgents in Iran and supplying them with bomb-making equipment.

“We will continue to judge Iran by its actions in Iraq,” the protest added.

Iran flatly denied the charges in a diplomatic reply it sent the following month, and it continues to deny any role in the supply of the lethal weapons. But the confidential exchange foreshadowed the more public confrontation between the Bush administration and Iran that has been unfolding since December.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this.  It seems like one of those convenient leaks from the State Department when they think it would help.  But I’m not sure it will help.

I think a well-lobbed, yet “off target” missile from US forces in Iraq delivered to Iran in 2005 would have sent a more potent message:  Stop killing US & British Forces, dammit!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Roger L. Simon hints that may well be the case.

I have heard various rumors that the McCain for President campaign is de facto over and today’s Hotline report on the candidate’s poor fund-raising only makes them seem true. Campaign strategist John Weaver was left to pick up the pieces. “These are moments, none of which at the end of the day impact winning the nomination. We’re on track to do that. Every campaign would trade places with us. We wouldn’t trade places with anyone else.”

Okay, John, it is so if you think so. Meanwhile, in the non-Pirandello real word, things look pretty grim for the Arizona Senator.

Couldn’t make me happier if Sen. McCain made an early exit.  To coin a phrase, “Better slice a vein than vote for McCain.”

Of course, I haven’t made my video podcast of the shredding of the many mailings from McCain that have arrived at the Patriot Household in the past few weeks.  I just haven’t gotten around to it…. kind of like potential donors to John McCain.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Be an obnoxious ass, using racist and homophobic language in responding to a prospective recruit whom you initiate contact with on official military email. Sgt. Ramode, take a good hard look in the mirror the next time you wear your uniform. If you are fortunate you might keep your stripes but don’t expect to get any more. I’d like to thank Sgt. Ramode though, she has shown quite clearly what DADT truly is all about: bigotry, nothing more and nothing less.

Hat tip: Pam’s House Blend

UPDATE: SLDN has more on this.

Despite their self-proclaimed “mandate”, the House Democrats barely bribed together enough votes for the “cut and run” appropriations bill last Friday.  But despite the Democrat Party’s rush toward American humiliation in World War III, the surge in the Iraqi Theater is showing more and more results — while the Democrats try to starve our troops in combat.

US Captures Carbomb Ringleaders – USA Today

U.S. forces have arrested the leaders of one of the deadliest car-bomb-making networks in Baghdad, a military spokesman said.

After months of intelligence gathering, U.S. troops captured the ringleader of the Rusafa car bomb network and three of his lieutenants on Wednesday, Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said in an interview Saturday with USA TODAY.

The group, named after the area in Baghdad where it operated, has been linked to at least 14 car bomb attacks since early February that claimed the lives of 265 Iraqis and wounded 650 others, Caldwell said. Among the attacks was a blast Feb. 3 that killed more than 100 people in a Shiite market in downtown Baghdad, he said.

“This car bomb network was a major one operating in Baghdad,” said Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. “They were responsible for a horrific amount of civilian casualties.”

It was the biggest bust of car bombmakers since the start of the Baghdad security plan last month, Caldwell said.

Each Picture In Iraq Is a Piece of the Landscape of War – ABC News (h/t – Confederate Yankee)

Even in Baghdad, some residents are tired of al Qaeda. In one neighborhood residents have been told not to smoke or wear short pants. The bodies of al Qaeda victims litter the streets. In the past week the men on the street corners have been whispering, “Let’s get rid of them one by one”.

According to the U.S. military, a group of al Qaeda in Iraq fighters recently entered a small village east of Baghdad and announced they would be back and would take several houses for their base. When they returned two days later, their convoy was attacked by villagers. The military found out when the villagers told them to come out and pick up bodies and prisoners.

The numbers of civilian deaths are down a little but that’s only a small part of the story. It’s the little things together that make the difference. It might be too early to tell if this is a tipping point in the war, but it does appear as though the momentum has changed. 

So the heroes of the US Armed Forces and the Iraqi people have stepped up to do their part.  But back at home, we watch one political party hoping and moving us toward defeat, while our military across the globe is taking the War on Terror into the terrorists’ backyards.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

…and realizing that I’ve worn shorts all week and we were sweating today in Charlotte.

*sticking tongue out at all of my longtime friends north of Richmond, VA*

I hate to tell you, but CHARLOTTE ROCKS!  (Just don’t move here…. we don’t want anymore people!  *grin*)

PS – GP Gang — Sorry I didn’t blog a lot last week.  Just a ton of work going on in my mortgage-paying job!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

A GP reader sent me this and I asked if I could reprint.  It is a perfect example of how liberals preach and preach and preach the Gospel of Tolerance… but are the very last to actually practice it.

My two high-school age sons performed with their band at a youth group meeting at a Catholic church near where we live. Some kids from their high school were there to see them perform, including two girls they know, one of whom is an out lesbian and the other a self-proclaimed Satanist.  What struck my sons is how disrespectful the girls were toward the Catholic church while they were there, using foul language, talking during the prayers, and even being disrespectful to one of my boys’ band-mates when he gave a religious ‘witness,’ saying ‘That’s what we hate about church people, always talking about how great their (f’ing) religion is.”

My sons, to their credit, thought it was just bad manners to disrespect people when you were in ‘their house.’ But they also remarked that these same girls were always complaining (actually, they used the b-word) about how intolerant and small-minded people at their high school were for not “accepting” them. As one son put it, “How can people who are always (complaining) about other people’s intolerance then go and be intolerant of other people’s religion?”

If teenagers get it, why can’t the so-called adults of the flaming left?

Maybe I should mention, this church’s chapel was destroyed by an arson fire last year.

Disgusting, but typical behavior from The American Liberals these days.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Damn. Enough to make one misty-eyed. I would rather that he lived, but the noble sacrifice of Cpl. Jason Dunham makes this high honor well-deserved. Bravo Zulu and requiem in pace, Marine.

Hat tip: Euphoric Reality

I apologize for not blogging much this week. I have been working on two papers for my grad program, one on the Faust legend where I addressed one of the oft-unmentioned costs of Faust’s bargain. Thomas Mann makes it explicit in his Doctor Faustus : The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend where his Faust-figure is forbidden love as part of his pact: “A total chilling of your life and of your relations to humans lies in the nature of things—indeed it already lies in your nature.” As part of his bargain with the devil, Adrian Leverkühn, Mann’s Faust, must renounce human relationships.

And while Goethe does not make this prohibition explicit, the tragedy of the First Part of his Faust involves how his actions lead to the dishonor and death of the one woman he truly loves, whose image provides him with a vision of domestic happiness. Like Leverkühn, Goethe’s Faust too must spend his life on earth without really relating to his fellow man. And that must truly be a bleak — and empty — existence.

I believe that human relationships are the very stuff of life; they make life worth living. Indeed, I would argue that all movies, indeed, nearly all great stories which truly move us have, at their core, a compelling relationship. I had hoped to blog more on this as I wrote, but that paper (as well as another) took a lot out of me and words did not seem to flow so easily this week.

It is with great sadness that I learned a few moments ago that blogger Cathy Seipp passed away earlier today. I had met her at several gatherings of L.A. bloggers as well as at a number of events, including a tribute to her last September. She has been on our blogroll soon after I discovered her blog, ironically in a listing of “must-read” blogs in the Advocate in 2005.

I liked her from the moment first met her in April 2005. I recall how she laughed when I told her I her how I had discovered her blog and learned that despite her listing in the gay & lesbian biweekly, she herself was not a lesbian. I believe it was the night after I met her that I first listed her on our blogroll.

She maintained her good spirits even as she became increasingly aware of her approaching death. Diagnosed five years ago with lung cancer, she remained upbeat until the end, writing when she could, ever attentive the needs of her friends and family, particularly her daughter Maia.

And she was a pioneer in the blogosphere.

Others have offered better tributes than I ever could. Pajamas offers a list of those paying tribute. The LA Times‘ obituary is here. Perhaps because of her political differences with Cathy, Susan Estrich’s tribute is among the most touching. She described the late blogress exactly as I experienced her, “Smart, funny, tough, loving.” Cathy, as Estrich put it, “was a conservative by choice, not by upbringing, and she delighted in exposing liberals for their elitism and insensitivity.“

She was a truly independent voice on the right, slave to no ideology, calling things as she saw them, always speaking her mind, always with insight and frequently with passion. While I am fortunate to have met her, I regret that I didn’t have much time to get to know her.

As we mourn her death and pray for her and her family, I, a man of faith, ask the question so many believers have long asked, the question Rabbi Harold Kushner addresses in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It is so sad when such a powerful voice is silenced at such a young age, when a good woman dies, denying her family and friends her companionship and her ideas, her wit and her wisdom and above all, the comfort of her presence.

Cathy Seipp will be sorely missed.

As a tribute to this late, great lady, please join me in making a contribution in her name to the Lung Cancer Alliance.

- B. Daniel Blatt (GayPatriotWest@aol.com)

UPDATE: In her touching tribute to Cathy, neo-neocon writes:

There’s an ancient Talmudic saying that when anyone saves a single life it is as though he saves a world. The reverse seems true as well: that whenever anyone departs from this life, it is as though we lose a world.

That about sums it up.

This is disgusting and pathetic.

House Democratic leaders are offering billions in federal funds for lawmakers’ pet projects large and small to secure enough votes this week to pass an Iraq funding bill that would end the war next year.

So far, the projects — which range from the reconstruction of New Orleans levees to the building of peanut storehouses in Georgia — have had little impact on the tally. For a funding bill that establishes tough new readiness standards for deploying combat forces and sets an Aug. 31, 2008, deadline to bring the troops home, votes do not come cheap.

Some conservative Democrats who had been expected to vote no on Thursday are wavering.

To get them off the fence and on the bill, Democrats have a key weapon at their disposal: cold, hard cash. The bill contains billions for agriculture and drought relief, children’s health care and Gulf Coast hurricane recovery.

Um… I thought the Democrats had a “mandate” on Iraq?  Why do they need to buy votes?  And why are they loading pork projects on the backs of our Armed Forces?

One of Glenn Reynolds’ readers at Instapundit wrote: “Coalition of the bribed! I heard that somewhere, once.”

Indeed.  “Most ethical Congress in history.”  More like most morally and patriotically bankrupt Congress in history!

Via Move America Forward.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)