Alan Keyes is one of the most powerful and dynamic speakers on the Right today, and I was privileged to see him speak last night. Captain’s Quarters describes Keyes’ performance thusly:

Until tonight, I have never experienced the powerful oratory of a man who may well be the modern master of the form. Watching Keyes dominate the stage and thunder, whisper, muse, and cajole his message to the CLC’s convocation felt like being transported back decades, perhaps even a century, to when public oration determined the measure of the public man.

Too right. To get the full impact of the man you must see Keyes live.

I did not support Keyes’ run for the presidency when he last ran because, frankly, I thought he is too extremist. This came out clearly in his run for the Illinois Senate in 2004.

But listening to him last night, I must admire his passion and his conviction.

As for whether he is somewhat of a nut, I give you two sides of the debate, both very well articulated and both, in their own way, absolutely correct.

Ed Morrissey was "impressed with and dismayed" with the "talented and troubling" Dr. Keyes.

Warner Todd Huston thinks that Keyes is a "pussycat" when compared to our founders, and although Keyes may be a bit dangerous, "we may be approaching a day when a bit of danger is the right prescription for what ills are infecting the US."

Read both reviews. Then see for yourself by clicking the links below to hear and see what we saw last night. Though again, the recording does impart the powerful impact of seeing the man up close and personal.

Alan Keyes on abortion.

Alan Keyes on Mitt Romney.

Alan Keyes on Fred Thompson.

Alan Keyes on the importance of the 2008 election.

Alan Keyes on values.

Alan Keyes on American principles.

Alan Keyes’ closing remarks.

Though lightly attended, the CLC conference has been pretty good so far. The first speaker today was Dick Armey. I recorded a portion of his speech for your viewing pleasure, although I was sitting on the second row so the sound isn’t great. But it’s pretty good for someone sitting thirty feet away with a hand-held camera.

To view, click here (caution: 1.6 MB download, not streaming media).

To get the highlights, jump over to Captain’s Quarters. Ed live-blogged the speech.

Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say ‘what should be the reward of such sacrifices?’ Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

— Samuel Adams in a speech to the State House of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1 August 1776)

The Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom has released the early results of their upcoming Religious Freedom in the World 2007. Some highlights:

• The greatest persecutors of religion are Islamist and communist regimes.
• Regimes that respect religious freedom also have more civil liberties, more prosperity, better health for their people, and less militarized societies.
• All of the most religiously free countries are democracies.
• Religiously free societies encourage private initiative and entrepreneurship.
• Almost all of the most religiously free countries are culturally Christian in background.

Marshall also pointed out that some tyrannies, and their apologists in the West, prioritize “economic rights” and supposed “Asian” and “Islamic” values over religious freedom for individuals.   But non-Western and historically poor countries such as Mongolia, Thailand, Mali and Senegal have achieved relative religious freedom, without sacrificing their culture or their religion.  ”It is a moral travesty of the highest order to maintain that because people are hungry or cold it is legitimate to repress their beliefs as well,” Marshall riposted.

So who did the best? The top “free countries” were:

And the most repressive places on Earth:

I haven’t commented on the Scooter Libby situation, and won’t other than to say I didn’t think Bush had the balls. He surprised me.

But I have to pass on this tidbit from the Ace of Spades (via Dr. Sanity):

Our long national nightmare silly fantasia is over.

Suggestion: Bush should have reduced the fine to a more reasonable $50,000, which just so happens to be how much Sandy Berger was fined for stealing and destroying classified documents and lying about it to investigators (he wasn’t charged for the latter, but subsequent revelations has made it clear he did just that).

Making the fine $50,000 would have been more in line with Libby’s transgressions, and it would have made it harder for Democrats to argue against it. The penalty — no jail time, $50,000, probation — would have been so similar to Berger’s that one could scarcely mention it without also mentioning Berger.

Four days ago, Michael Yon covered an al Qaeda massacre in a small village in Iraq:

Soldiers from 5th IA [Iraqi Army] said al Qaeda had cut the heads off the children. Had al Qaeda murdered the children in front of their parents? Maybe it had been the other way around: maybe they had murdered the parents in front of the children. Maybe they had forced the father to dig the graves of his children.

Yon’s latest dispatch addresses the fact that the MSM has studiously avoided reporting the tragedy:

But for those publications who actually had people embedded in Baqubah when the story first broke and still failed to cover it, their malaise is inexplicable. I do not know why all failed to report the murders and booby-trapped village: apparently no reporters bothered to go out there, even though it’s only about 3.5 miles from this base. Any one of the reporters currently in Baqubah could still go to these coordinates and follow his or her nose and find the gravesites. . . .

If much of mainstream media does not recognize barbarity, clearly their readers can and do. Readers throughout the world might consider contacting their local papers and favorite websites with the link to this update. The story is very important in that it is well-documented with photos and video, and the Iraqi and American soldiers who were present are named and easily reachable. Those mainstream reporters currently in Baqubah could readily take up the baton.  

The UK Daily Mail prints an article written by a Muslim that was at one time an actual member of the network that planned and attempted to execute the recent bombings in London and Glasgow:

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network – a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology – I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this “Blair’s bombs” line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

As we celebrate our freedom in this country, it is important to remember that there is evil in this world whose objective is to destroy us, that we have young men and women fighting that evil as they help rebuild a nation that is experiencing that evil every day.

Support Michael Yon as he brings us the truth.

Support those who sacrifice by giving to these charities rated A+ by the American Institute of Philanthropy:

• Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (100% of contributions raised by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund go towards support of our troops and their families; all administrative expenses are underwritten by the Fund’s Trustees.)
• Fisher House (Only 3% of funds go towards administration and fundraising)

Happy 4th. Enjoy and be safe.

After a small slew decisions today, the WaPo has come to the conclusion that the Supreme Court Leans Conservative:

Four of the five cases announced today were decided by the conservative majority led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., as the divisions that narrowly but decisively split the justices on social issues were on full display. . . .

Today’s decisions added to the court’s rising number of 5 to 4 votes this term, substantially higher than last year’s total. A few of them favor the court’s liberal wing, but conservatives are on a recent roll.

Predictably, the Red Rag NY Times is up in arms about the decisions, printing a small slew of articles and editorials in protest. Indeed, the editorial spells out the Times’ view in no uncertain terms: Three Bad Rulings.

Whether the rulings are “bad” or not depends entirely on one’s point of view.

The court upheld the right of a principal to suspend a student who promoted drug use by creating a banner that proclaimed, “Bong Hits 4 Jesus”. In light of the lack of discipline in our public schools, I don’t know that a restriction on children’s free speech is uncalled for.

The court split hairs in ruling that tax money could be funneled to faith-based initiatives if the source was the executive office rather than congressional decree (which is prohibited by precedent). But the unspoken conclusion is that precedent may be overturned by this court if the proper case presents itself. In other words, a bad precedent created by a liberal court may be overturned in the future.

But the high point of the day had to be the loosening of restrictions on free speech as a result of the Constitution-shredding McCain-Feingold. The court ruled that the only advertisements that can be kept off the air in the days before an election are, in the words of Chief Justice Roberts, “susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate.”

Describing and then dismissing the rationale for the advertising restrictions, Chief Justice Roberts used a phrase that seemed to sum up the new majority’s view toward campaign finance regulation. “Enough is enough,” the chief justice said. . . .

It may be only a matter of time before the court reconsiders its 2003 decision upholding the constitutionality of the entire law, or at least expands its Monday decision to strike down any restriction on advertising. Three of the five justices in the majority, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas, declined to sign the chief justice’s opinion because it did not take that step.

Even before the last election I was vocal in my feelings that Bush’s domestic policies are little short of disastrous. But the conservatation* of the Supremes offsets that a little.

* Shakespeare made up over 3,000 words. Allow me this one.

Update: Liberal spin is gearing up on this one. Check out this headline: Supreme Court Sides With Administration, Corporations In New Decisions.

Memorial Day grew out of the horror of the great Civil War which ripped this nation asunder. It is a day that has been set aside that we may remember our fallen heroes, those that have died while defending our noble experiment, the greatest nation in the history of Man.

This is the sixth Memorial Day in a row in which we find our nation confronting a great evil. While liberals moan about keeping Islamofascists locked up on a Caribbean island, our soldiers are kicking down doors in Iraq to find torture chambers.

A recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house turned up crude instruments of torture and an instruction manual that graphically depicts how they are to be applied, such as using a power drill to drill through a hand or applying a hot iron or even a blowtorch to the skin. The instructions do not tell captors to provide religious materials, legal counsel or cultural-specific meals. They do show how to break limbs and gouge an eye from its socket.

A month ago five people were rescued from just such a torture house, one of them a mere boy and all of them beaten daily with chains and cables. This is the evil that the enemy brought to our shores.

Makes “waterboarding” look like a walk in the park, doesn’t it? Makes getting your picture taken with a collar on and girl holding the end of a leash a little tame, doesn’t it.

The media is virtually ignoring the story of the al-Qaeda torture manual and victims rescued. It does not fit their agenda the way that months of Abu Ghraib coverage furthered their cause.

Similarly, the media is under-reporting the freeing of 42 Iraqis, one as young as 14, from an al-Qaeda prison. Some had been held as long as four months, suspended from ceilings, beaten and tortured. Some had broken bones.

Our troops are doing good things in Iraq.

On this Memorial Day we should remember all our soldiers, active and retired, alive and deceased. We should be grateful to those who have given their all and support those currently facing the horrors of war.

I encourage you to fly an American flag in memory of soldiers no longer with us, and open your hearts and wallets to support today’s soldiers and their families. Some suggestions:

Disabled American Vets
Operation Gratitude (Read a news story about Operation Gratitude)
Adopt a Platoon
Treats for Troops
Operation Top Knot
Fisher House
Operation Hero Miles
Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund
USO

Alternatively (or in addition to), you can support former Green Beret and current photojournalist Michael Yon as he publishes the most unbiased truth about the situation in Iraq.

It’s that time of year again!

The Memphis chapter of Friends of NRA will host a shoot to benefit FONRA and St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Proceeds from the shoot will be divided between the two.

FONRA is a non-political, charitable organization that offers education and monetary support for advancing shooting sports.

St. Jude Children’s Hospital is one of the premier pediatric treatment and research facilities in the world.

Show up between 1 and 6 on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 23^rd at  Range U.S.A. There will be a variety of weapons to shoot, including submachine guns and exotic handguns in large calibers. For updates see the Memphis FONRA web site.

Donations for ammo are needed! As far as I can tell, these donations are tax deductible.

Technorati tags: Machine Gun Shoot, Charity Shoot, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Friends of the NRA, FONRA, Range USA.