THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 24 Oct.

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Barbarians are Crashing the Gates

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

A Taliban commander has told Sky News that the militants are for the first time plotting to attack Westerners in Britain and the rest of Europe. In a rare interview, the commander insisted the militants had stockpiles of weapons and would never give-up exacting revenge from what he called "the foreign invaders."

"The ordinary people of these countries are behind this - so we will not spare them. We will kill them and laugh over them like they are killing us and laughing at us."

CNN recently defended the network's effort to present the "unvarnished truth," which led it to televise portions of a video that shows insurgent snipers targeting U.S. military personnel. It comes as some surprise, then, CNN's decision to restrict an on-air discussion covering a new book dealing with the Iraq war because peace activist Cindy Sheehan threatened to sue over provocative claims about her in the book, says a report from CNS.

"American Mourning" examines how the death of two U.S. soldiers in Iraq affected their families. One of the two is the Sheehan family.

"I'm not really going to get into what the conversation was between the booker and Melanie," Iamunno said, "but I will tell you that Glenn felt that there were plenty of other issues with Cindy Sheehan to discuss that weren't hearsay, which is what he felt this element of the book was."
However, Kristen Schremp, a publicist for Morgan and Moy, told Cybercast News Service that the authors "thoroughly researched and documented each and every fact in this book. There are over 600 phone records, emails, instant messages and FEC documents that back up these facts."

"We hope for the sake of Ms. Sheehan's loved ones that we are not forced into litigation," Morgan and Moy said Monday. "But, if the documents are subpoenaed, we will have no choice but to act in accordance with the court's requests, therefore making the documents public."
It interesting that more people are talking about CNN than actually tune in to CNN. It's no wonder Fox News rules cable.

Anti-war groups are trying to rally active troops to speak out against the war in Iraq _ a political tactic they hope will sway voters Nov. 7, reports AP. A small group of active-duty members opposed to the war created a Web site last month intended to collect thousands of signatures of other service members. People can submit their name, rank and duty station if they support statements denouncing the U.S. invasion.

Michael J. Fox's campaign ads have caused quite a stir. Fox has thrown his support behind a ballot item called the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. In all, Fox has become the campaign pitchman for five Democrats who support stem cell research.

Michael J. Fox

as Jim Caviezel and friends say in this video

Response Ad to Michael J. Fox

The WCF Courier reports Republican Iowa House District 20 candidate David Wieland and Iowa House Speaker Christopher Rants of Sioux City have denounced a political advertisement released this weekend against Wieland showing what appears to be a covered cadaver on a gurney, assailing his position on stem-cell research.

Here's proof that making great music doesn't automatically make you an idiot. NNE reports The Killers' Brandon Flowers has criticised Green Day for what he sees as their calculated anti-Americanism. The Killers' frontman said he believed that his band's new album 'Sam's Town' is a much better representation of America.

"You have Green Day and 'American Idiot'. Where do they film their DVD? In England," The Killers' frontman told The Word. "A bunch of kids screaming 'I don't want to be an American idiot' I saw it as a very negative thing towards Americans. It really lit a fire in me."
"I just thought it was really cheap," he explained. "To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren't taking it the same way that he meant it. And he [Billie Joe Armstrong] knew it."
"People need to see that, really, there are the nicest people in the world here!" he declared. "I don't know if our album makes you realise that. But I hope it's from a more positive place."

Wall Street wobbled through a listless session and closed mixed Tuesday as investors awaited the results of this week's Federal Reserve meeting. Modest gains in the Dow Jones industrial average were enough for the index to set new trading and closing records, reports AP.

According to AP, trailing in the polls, Democrat Ned Lamont called the Iraq conflict Sen. Joe Lieberman's "war of choice" and compared his rival to former Republican President Nixon.

Lamont recalled that during the Vietnam War, former President Nixon voiced support for bringing the troops home even as he continued to pursue the war at a cost of 9,000 lives. He noted Lieberman has spoke recently of wanting to end the war as soon as possible.

"That's about as credible as Richard Nixon was almost 40 years ago," he said.
Lamont, like Democrats in general, has offered no plan for Iraq. President Nixon cleaned up the mess left by Democrat presidents Kennedy and Johnson, the latter of whom also had no plan, which set events in motion that would insure America could never prevail in Indochina. (Edits for typos.)