CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Four Charged With Plotting Terror Attacks In L.A

Reuters reports that the imprisoned founder of a radical Islamic group and three followers were indicted on Wednesday for plotting attacks on Los Angeles-area military facilities and synagogues, the Israeli consulate and El Al airlines.

The four men had purchased firearms with silencers, investigated making bombs and were ready to carry out attacks when two of them were caught robbing a gas station to fund the operation, U.S. Attorney Debra Yang told a news conference in Los Angeles.

"The evidence in this case indicates that the conspirators were on the verge of launching their attack," she said, adding that the arrest had exposed "a chilling plot based on one man's interpretation of Islam."

I was feeling pretty good that they caught the bad guys before they carried out thei evil plans. Then I read that the evil doer wannabees robbed 11 gas stations across Southern California before they were caught.

Giuliani and Pataki To Endorse Pirro

UPDATE: The article that was the basis of this post, seems to have removed from the Daily News' website.

The New York Daily News reports that former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Governor Pataki are going to endorse U.S. Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro.

According to the Daily News, Pataki is expected to announce his support for Pirro as early as next week. A Guliani and Pataki endorsement would clear the way for Pirro to concentrate on challenging Senator Hillary Clinton. Former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer and Edward Cox, son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon are also seeking the Republican nomination.

Cox and Spencer both oppose abortion and gun control and argue they are therefore better positioned than the pro-choice Pirro to win the backing of the Conservative Party.

Fewer See Dems As Religion-Friendly

The Democrats' efforts to improve their image with religious voters after their 2004 presidential election defeat backfire.

The Associated Press reports a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that fewer people now see Democrats as friendly to religion now than felt that way a year ago:

That number has dropped from 40 percent in August 2004 who thought the Democrats were friendly to religion to 29 percent now.

"The change is seen across all groups," said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center, which conducted the poll for the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

After President Bush's reelection, the Democratic National Committee initiated numerous efforts to strengthen its standing with religious voters:

The DNC hired someone to coordinate religious outreach, encouraged state parties to work more closely with the religious community, and had Chairman Howard Dean meet with clergy and others in the religious community during his travels around the country.

According to the poll's findings, the Democrats have experienced a sharp erosion in the number of Americans who believe the party is friendly toward religion. Only about three-in-ten (29%) see the Democrats as friendly toward religion, down from 40% last August.

This reaction might be the result of the talk amongst the Democrat's leaders about how the must improve the perception that they are not religion friendly. It will take the Democrats a long time to change the perception. The perception won't change just because Democratic leaders say they are going to be religion friendly. They we have to demonstrate that they are in fact more religion friendly by the positions and actions they take.

The poll was conducted July 7-17 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percent. The poll's findings are available here.

500 Die In Baghdad Stampede

Reuters reports up to 500 people died when a crowd of Iraqi Shi'ites stampeded off a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad on Wednesday, fleeing rumors of a suicide bombing threat:

"So far we have 500 dead," Jalil Al-Shumari, the deputy minister, told Reuters.

The crowd, on its way to the Kadhimiya mosque for an important religious ceremony, panicked as rumors spread that a suicide bomber was preparing to blow himself up.

Earlier at least seven people died in three separate mortar attacks on the crowd.

A Review of "Over There" from Over There

At Thunder Six, Danjel Bout, currently serving in Iraq, had occasion to see an episode of the FX show “Over There.”

Watching the show, Bout and his XO were moved to tears:

They were tears of laughter.

I don’t have the words to express how tragically flawed the show really is.

[. . .]

But I will say that the show did an excellent job of showing the audience one thing. That Hollywood has no clue what our experience on the ground is really like.

As they say, read the whole thing.

U.S. Aircraft Destroy Terrorist Hideouts Near Iraq's Syrian Border

Bloomberg reports that suspected al-Qaeda fighters were killed in western Iraq today when precision guided bombs destroyed three terrorist hideouts in two cities near the Syrian border:

Four bombs were dropped on a house "occupied by terrorists" outside the city of Husaybah in the first strike, the military said in a statement e-mailed from the capital, Baghdad. Then at 6:20 a.m. local time two bombs were dropped on a second house, killing a man identified as "Abu Islam, a known terrorist" and several others, the military said.

At about 8:30 a.m. another attack was conducted, this time on a house in the city of Karabilah, six kilometers south east of Husaybah, where some of Islam's followers are believed to have fled, the military said. Several terrorists were killed, according to the statement.

President Bush Declares Disasters In Louisiana and Mississippi

President Bush on approved major disaster declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi The declarations will allow federal funds to start being used to deploy resources to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in those two states.

The Associated Press reports Hurricane Katrina weakened overnight to a Category 4 storm and made a slight turn to the right before making landfall at 6:10 a.m. CDT near the bayou town of Buras. Katrina passed just to the east of New Orleans as it moved inland. Although New Orleans avoided the worse case scenario, the hurricane caused lots damage:

Elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, the storm flung boats onto land in Mississippi, lashed street lamps and flooded roads in Alabama, and swamped highway bridges in the Florida Panhandle. At least a half-million people were without power from Louisiana to Florida's Panhandle, including 370,000 in southeastern Louisiana and 116,400 in Alabama, mostly in the Mobile area.

At New Orleans' Superdome, home to 9,000 storm refugees, the wind peeled pieces of metal from the golden roof, leaving two holes that let water drip in. People inside were moved out of the way. Others stayed and watched as sheets of metal flapped and rumbled loudly 19 stories above the floor.

Building manager Doug Thornton said the larger hole was 15 to 20 feet long and four to five feet wide. Outside, one of the 10-foot, concrete clock pylons set up around the Superdome blew over.

Elsewhere in the city, the storm shattered scores of windows in high-rise office buildings and on five floors of the Charity Hospital, forcing patients to be moved to lower levels. At the Windsor Court Hotel, guests were told to go into the interior hallways with blankets and pillows and to keep the doors to the rooms closed to avoid flying glass.

At VodkaPundit, Will Collier has posted links to a few "live" media weblogs from New Orleans and Biloxi, Mississippi.

As bad as Hurricane Katrina is, just be thankful that the storm didn't achieve all that it could have.

Trying To Split The Immigration Baby

The Associated Press reports that President Bush is moving toward allowing illegal aliens who came to the U.S. before February 2004 to qualify for guest-worker visas. Illegal aliens arriving after that date would be deported:

"They're trying to split the baby," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said of the White House plan, "and I don't think they can do that."

The proposed McCain-Kennedy approach to immigration reform would create 400,000 three-year visas for guest workers and would let undocumented workers stay in the U.S. while they apply for the program. The Cornyn-Kyl proposal would create two-year visas and require that guest workers and illegal aliens leave the U.S. before they can apply for the chance to work legally in the country.

According to the Associated Press, President Bush does not favor requiring illegal aliens to be sent home to apply for the visas. That's too bad because any proposed reform permitting those here illegally to participate in a guest worker program without leaving can only be perceived as an amnesty. Such a plan will only encourage more illegal immigration.

I agree with Senator McCain that the administration won't be able to split the immigration baby. The administration will have to choose sides between the Cornyn-Kyl and McCain-Kennedy approaches.

Fatwa Bans Suicide Bombings

Agence France-Presse reports that a prominent London-based militant Islamic scholar has issued a fatwa banning suicide operations:

"To my mind, these operations are closer to suicide than to martyrdom-seeking, and they are taboo and not permissible" for a number of reasons, wrote Syrian-born Abdul Menem Mustafa Halimeh, alias Abu Baseer al-Tartussi, on his website.

The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, which reported Tartussi's fatwa on Saturday, described him as a top ideologue for Islamist militants and said his edict had provoked angry reactions on Islamist websites, with some accusing him of letting down Al-Qaeda followers.

Tartussi cited several reasons for banning suicide operations including:

Suicide violates dozens of (Islamic) religious texts; and

Suicide bombings often "wrongfully killing innocent and sacred souls, be they Muslim or otherwise."

Tartussi's fatwa is one more step towards victory in the War Against Terrorism.

Governor Rell Plays Hard To Get

Even though no one can get her to actually come out and admit it, the Greenwich Citizen reports that "you can bet the farm that Gov. M. Jodi Rell will run for election in November, 2006:"

"I am this close to making up my mind," said Rell, as she brought the tips of her thumb and index finger within touching distance, when asked by the Citizen if she is going to run for a four-year term in 2006.

[. . .]

"I don't have a timetable," she smiled in an attempt to keep a circle of suspense about her.

The Hartford Courant also reports that Governor Rell still cannot quite commit to seeking a four-year term as governor in 2006:

It is the one question that invariably flusters the 59-year-old Republican governor.

"I promise in the future - I don't want to say in the distant future, the near future - sometime in the future, I will give you an answer," Rell said Thursday. "I need to, I want the time to be right for me, and we have a lot of work going on right now."

Most Republicans express confidence that Rell, who spread the word in June that she was leaning toward running, soon will erase whatever limited doubts she has about fighting to keep an office the GOP has held for 10 years.

According to the Courant, Lewis Rome, the GOP's gubernatorial nominee in 1982, said Rell's refusal to announce that she will run is part of her allure:

"She is the most talented non-political political figure I have ever seen," Rome said.