Whew, free speech survived my outburst. TTP apologizes for blurting out an opinion about cute, cuddly puppies. I’m sure some are offended…Michael Vick, for one. But the important lesson is, free speech survived.

And it will survive this, too:

Ahmadinejad questions 9/11, Holocaust

NEW YORK - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is addressing the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday after defending Holocaust revisionists and raising questions about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in a tense showdown at Columbia University.

In fact, he sorta makes sense at times:

“If the root causes of 9/11 are examined properly — why it happened, what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved, who was really involved — and put it all together to understand how to prevent the crisis in Iraq, fix the problem in Afghanistan and Iraq combined,” Ahmadinejad said.

And miracle of miracles, so did Bush:

President Bush said Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia “speaks volumes about, really, the greatness of America.”

Indeed it does. Thank you, President Bush for reminding us.

James Mann is an idiot

And if you want to read the item in question, click here.

MoveOn to Pay Full Times Ad Rate

On the issue of an issue that just hasn’t moved on, the liberal activist group MoveOn.org announced this afternoon that, in light of today’s column by The Times’s public editor, Clark Hoyt, it would pay the full advertisement rate of $142,083 for its controversial “General Betray Us?” spot in the A-section of the newspaper nearly two weeks ago.

TTP has resisted discussing this stupid, much ado about nothing free speech debacle faux controversy over the MoveOn ad. Mainly because it is simply another excellent example of the far from mainstream GOP performing a classic magicians hand fake in order to avoid having to actually discuss anything of merit- such as the war. Or torture. Or health care. Or…ok, you get the picture. And of course when the whiners want maximum coverage for their hypocritical sobbings about how partisan and shameful this exercise of free speech is they do a quick comb-over to cover their horns and slither into Faux News, where the Ministry of Truth functions 24/7.

Heres two important aspects to keep in mind about this ridiculous spectacle:

One, 19 US troops have died in Iraq since the ad was run. All of the debate, all the crocodile tears of the keyboard commandos and their chickenhawk idols, it only keeps people from discussing the issue, which is how do we get our ass out of our illegal war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Secondly, from all accounts General Petraeus is a bright fella, bright enough in fact to have written an army manual on fighting an insurgency.

Which he and the army aren’t following.

So if you want to screech about something, screech about that. We don’t have the forces in place to put down the insurgents- and we won’t without a draft- so what, exactly, are we doing there? That is what this nonsense about an ad is willfully obscuring- that we’re waging an illegal occupation of a once sovereign nation- on the cheap. We deserve to be- and will be- beaten like dogs until we leave. This is not the troops fault, they go where they are told.

The fault lays at the feet of a tyrannical president, a shamefully craven congress, a media who’s posture when reporting involves a head in the sand and a butt in the air, waiting to receive the latest spurting of propaganda, and a general too politically charged to have the strength to follow his own recommendations- or quit.

U.S. Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read

International travelers concerned about being labeled a terrorist or drug runner by secret Homeland Security algorithms may want to be careful what books they read on the plane. Newly revealed records show the government is storing such information for years.

Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore’s choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he’d packed for the trip.

“everywhere you go…”

Tracking Political Prosecutions

In the last two weeks, two sources, one of them inside of the Justice Department, have told me that a scheme was hatched in the upper echelons of the Bush Administration shortly after it took office in 2001 or early in 2002. The project identified John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as likely Democratic challengers to President Bush, and identified prominent trial lawyers around the United States as the likely financial vehicle for Edward’s rise. It directed that their campaign finance records be fly-specked, and that offenses not be treated as administrative matters but rather as serious criminal offenses.

The scheme contemplated among other things that raids be staged on the law offices involved, and that the records seized not be limited to campaign finance—there was an acute interest in all politically oriented documents, in order to seize valuable intelligence on strategic planning from the enemy camp.

Dirty tricks, anyone?

This bodes well:

Dylan Joined by Costello and White in Nashville

Elvis Costello and the White Stripes’ Jack White made surprise appearances during Bob Dylan’s Wednesday night (Sept. 19) concert at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Although he and Dylan are officially scheduled to begin a tour together on Saturday (Sept. 22) in Duluth, Ga., Costello told the crowd he asked to open the show after learning Dylan was playing at the Ryman. Opening with “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” Costello walked onstage unannounced and performed a nine-song acoustic set that included “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” and “Veronica.” During Dylan’s set, White showed up with an electric guitar and sang “Meet Me in the Morning,” a song from Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album. After White provided the lead vocals for most of the song, Dylan joined him at the microphone for the final verse.

Even that big bad evil Saddam- under sanction, no less- was able to hold off an epidemic of cholera:

First Cholera Case Confirmed in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AP) – The World Health Organization confirmed on Thursday the first cholera case in Baghdad since 2003, raising fears the disease is spreading from the north of the country where it has struck more than 1,000 people.

Cholera is endemic to Iraq, with about 30 cases registered each year. But the last time there was an epidemic in the country was in 1999 when 20 cases were discovered in one day, said Adel Muhsin, the Health Ministry’s inspector-general.

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright

09/20/07 “The Telegraph” — – Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.

The Fed’s dramatic half point cut to 4.75pc yesterday has already caused a plunge in the world dollar index to a fifteen year low, touching with weakest level ever against the mighty euro at just under $1.40.

Now, I know jacksquat about economics, but this doesn’t sound good to me. Perhaps the esteemed Jackson Whirlwind (we know you’re out there…) can offer his take on it…?

GOP Rep. : There Are ‘Too Many Mosques In This Country’

New York Rep. Peter King, a prominent House Republican, said there are “too many mosques in this country” in a recent interview with Politico.

“There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam,” King said. “We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them.”

If the name Peter King rings a bell, its because of this little bon mot:

Alex Pelosi’s new film “Diary of a Political Tourist” catches a tipsy Congressman Peter King making a comment at a White House function before the election had been finished that, “It’s already over. The Election’s over. We Won.”

When Pelosi asks, “How do you know that?” King replies, “It’s all over but the counting. And we’ll take care of the counting.”

Can’t really blame him too much. It’s not as if we can expect a GOP congressman to actually believe in the tenets of this country like religious freedom and voting, can we?

Senate Blocks Bill on Iraq Combat Tours

WASHINGTON — Democrats’ efforts to challenge President Bush’s Iraq policies were dealt a demoralizing blow Wednesday in the Senate after they failed to scrape together enough support to guarantee troops more time at home.

The 56-44 vote _ four short of reaching the 60 needed to advance _ all but assured that Democrats would be unable to muster the support needed to pass tough anti-war legislation by year’s end. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was seen as the Democrats’ best shot because of its pro-military premise.