Wave buh-bye to Tom Delay as The Exterminator leaves Congress. He’s resigning.

So long, Tom, and don’t let the door hit you on the ass.

Don’t tell me this was anything to do with partisanship. I do believe Jack Abramoff has done us all a favor by ridding us of one of the nastiest human beings ever to serve in Congress.

Time to do a little happy dance.

I keep telling you folks: I am not a conservative. Don’t expect me to do anything but cheer over this one.

So the “20th hijacker” is going to get the death sentence.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A federal jury found al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible Monday to be executed, linking him directly to the horrific Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and concluding that his lies to FBI agents led to at least one death on that day.

A defiant Moussaoui said, “You’ll never get my blood, God curse you all.”

Actually, yeah, we will get your blood. Virginia isn’t New Jersey. If you get a death sentence, it will be carried out.

I have to say, though, I’m conflicted on this. I think he’s lying about his involvement in the 9/11 plot. His claims about Richard Reid have been contradicted by others who have no reason to lie about Moussaoui. On the other hand, he’s clearly part and parcel of the terrorist movement that wants to destroy America.

But there’s one thing I don’t understand. Since we keep on hearing about how Israel is the reason all this terrorism has been carried out by Al Qaeda — even from our buddies Walt and Mearsheimer — howcome Moussaoui didn’t mention Israel in his testimony?

Or did I miss that part?

Buh-bye, Zack. We won’t miss you.

At least, that seems to be the theme of this AP article.

JERUSALEM (AP) - A private Jewish group has taken over two buildings in largely Arab east Jerusalem, provoking clashes with Palestinian neighbors.

Elad, a nonprofit organization that buys Arab properties in east Jerusalem for Jewish settlers, purchased the two buildings “more than a few months ago,” said Adi Mintz, a member of the group’s board of directors.

Several Jewish families moved in last week after the Arab sellers moved out, Mintz said.

Jewish organizations, often funded by wealthy American Jews, have bought up dozens of properties in Arab areas of Jerusalem, touching off riots and generating animosity among the Palestinian residents of the disputed city.

Israel says all of Jerusalem is its capital, while Palestinians claim the eastern half for the capital of a future state. The fate of the city and of its holy shrines has been one of the major obstacles in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

The two buildings Elad bought are on the Mount of Olives, about 100 yards from an ancient Jewish cemetery. Israeli security guards armed with assault rifles and walkie-talkies guard the three-story buildings, which are fronted by metal gates shut with a heavy padlock and chains.

Hm. Mount of Olives, Mount of Olives. Why does that name come up in my memory? Oh, that’s right. Because the Arabs, under Jordanian rule, desecrated the Jewish cemetery there.

And then there’s the fact that Jews lived in East Jerusalem until 1947, when Jordan invaded and threw them out, dividing the city for the first time in its three-millennia history.

So in effect, Jews are paying twice for what was once theirs — and the world calls it stealing palestinian land.

Once again, the anti-Israel bias of the media is explicit. And once again, it’s our old pal Ramit Plushtick-Masti heading the jeerleader squad. Nasty Masti, head jeerleader. Yeah, that works for me.

How can a woman get equal rights in Saudi Arabia? Why, by going overseas and mutilating herself, of course:

Al Watan newspaper said the five women underwent sex change surgery abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a “psychological complex” due to male domination.

Women in Saudi Arabia, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam, are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.

The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.

What? There’s no verse in the Quran specifically dictating how to persecute transgendered women? You’d think that Allah would have told Mohammed about sexual-reassignment surgeries soon after telling him not to let the womenfolk drive automobiles.

Being the curious fellow I am, I figured I’d try to learn a bit more on the issue. And sure enough, al-Fatiha is an organization which speaks out for gay, lesbian, and transgender issues in the Islamic world, but it appears to be down for the moment. This page at Wikipedia doesn’t say much, although it speaks volumes with:

In 2001, Al-Muhajiroun, an international organization seeking the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate, issued a fatwa declaring that all members of Al-Fatiha were murtadd, or apostates, and condemning them to death.

Well, that’s not very nice of them. Death to transgendereds and Death to cartoonists and Death to Jews. Whatever happened to a good wholesome pillow-fight or a lively debate?

Digging deeper… let’s see… as for the Safra Project, I’m finding it rather hard to navigate.

Maybe I should just wait for Dame Edna to do a report on it?

The Sunday Telegraph is quoting British defense sources as saying an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites by American forces is “inevitable.”

It is believed that an American-led attack, designed to destroy Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear bomb, is “inevitable” if Teheran’s leaders fail to comply with United Nations demands to freeze their uranium enrichment programme.

[...] The United States government is hopeful that the military operation will be a multinational mission, but defence chiefs believe that the Bush administration is prepared to launch the attack on its own or with the assistance of Israel, if there is little international support. British military chiefs believe an attack would be limited to a series of air strikes against nuclear plants - a land assault is not being considered at the moment.

But confirmation that Britain has started contingency planning will undermine the claim last month by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, that a military attack against Iran was “inconceivable”.

[...] Tactical Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from US navy ships and submarines in the Gulf would, it is believed, target Iran’s air defence systems at the nuclear installations.

That would enable attacks by B2 stealth bombers equipped with eight 4,500lb enhanced BLU-28 satellite-guided bunker-busting bombs, flying from Diego Garcia, the isolated US Navy base in the Indian Ocean, RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Whiteman USAF base in Missouri.

It is understood that any direct British involvement in an attack would be limited but may extend to the use of the RAF’s highly secret airborne early warning aircraft.

Fascinating. Because I was about to reverse my long-held idea that when it happens, the USAF planes will have the Israeli flag painted on them to give the U.S. plausable deniability. Now, I’m more and more inclined to believe that the IAF will be flying side-by-side with the USAF.

Or maybe the IAF will paint its planes with the USAF logos. Hmmm.

I do think the attacks on the facilities are inevitable, because I don’t think Iran will stand down.

Let us count the minorities: She’s black. She’s Ethiopan. She’s Jewish. And she’s an Israeli diplomat.

Belaynesh Zevadia said she is a minority in every sense of the word — a black, Jewish, Israeli, Ethiopian woman living in the South.

But Zevadia is also deputy consul general of Israel to the southwest United States and the first Ethiopian woman in the Israeli Diplomatic Service.

[...] Zevadia has served as an Israeli delegate to the United Nations, a counselor in the Religious Affairs Bureau at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and the consul of Israel to the Midwest United States.

The horrors of Israel, the “racist, apartheid” state, in action.

A column on anti-Semitism in the Boston Globe, which is quickly becoming my favorite mainstream newspaper. And unless I miss my guess, the author is not Jewish (though according to some, that doesn’t mean he’s not part of the “cabal”).

Anti-Semitism, with its racial overtones, is a modern phenomenon. Contempt for Jews and Judaism is ancient. Such impossible threads weave invisibly through attempts to reckon with Israel’s dilemma, forming a rope that trips up the well-intentioned and the unaware, even as others use it, as so often before, to fashion a noose.

The London Telegraph notices the vitriol flung at Jill Carroll by conservative bloggers.

Speaking of Jill Carroll, she’s in Boston. And damned happy.

”I finally feel like I am alive again,” Carroll told reporters from her newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, who accompanied her on the crowded flight to Logan International Airport. ”To be able to step outside anytime, to feel the sun directly on your face, to see the whole sky. These are luxuries that we just don’t appreciate every day.”

Members of Hamas are in the top of arrestees involved in terror attacks. Gee, I thought there was some kind of “calm” they were supposed to be observing. I guess not so much.

Hamas, which is not directly involved in terror attacks, has kept its place at the top of the list of arrestees – 234 since the start of the year compared to 266 in the first quarter of 2005.

“That figure just shows that under the surface Hamas is involved in attacks, albeit not directly,” explained the source.