It is common for politicians in trouble to seek scapegoats for their own incompetence and wrong-headedness, but when this begins getting widespread popular support, both the people's liberties and pocketbooks are in danger.

Given its history, one would think Germany's people would be particularly resistant to demagogy. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Recently, Franz Muntefering, head of Germany's left-wing Social Democratic Party (the SPD), which also is the lead party in the governing coalition, accused business leaders of being "anti-social" and like "swarms of locusts." Rather than denounce him for attacking businesspeople and "international capital," other SPD leaders joined in the denunciations.

The chairman of Lufthansa airline and a director of the "Invest in Germany" organization, Jurgen Weber, replied to the SPD leaders: "If it turns out that this criticism of capitalism has a fundamental nature, then we don't need an Invest in Germany organization any more."

[Just after Rena Cohen wrote this on July 12, she learned of a Moslem terrorist attack in Netanya, Israel, killing two and wounding several others. Her daughter is spending the summer in Netanya and was nearby when the suicide bomber hit. Thankfully she was unhurt.]


Before our horrified eyes, terrorism has just struck again in London, killing and wounding scores of innocent civilians, as terrorism always does. The pictures of bloody carnage are now becoming so familiar, from New York to London, from Jerusalem to Madrid, from Baghdad to Moscow, from Riyadh to Kashmir, from Bali to Manila.

Just a few short days ago on July 4th, the American people celebrated freedom, and honored the courage of the men and women who have given so much to keep it and to protect our country. That same day, a deadly charade was being carried out in another part of the world under the banner of democracy.

While Israel is pulling out of Gaza and parts of the disputed territories of the West Bank to foster peace, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its allies are preparing for the next terror war.

Terri Schiavo has committed no crime, yet she has been sentenced to death by Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer, who steadfastly jettisoned due process in her case.

The fundamental issue in Terri's case is disability rights -- not the right to die. Throughout all the extensive media coverage of the case, there has been only slight mention, but usually none at all, that nearly every major disability-rights organization has filed legal briefs to prevent what they regard as judicial murder. The protests are not only from pro-lifers and the Christian Right.

Mrs. Schiavo -- who collapsed in 1990 from what may have been a potassium imbalance that temporarily stopped her heart and cut oxygen to her brain -- has never been comatose, brain dead or in a persistent vegetative state, despite what some physicians have stated and others have denied.

Michael Schiavo has forbidden therapy or rehabilitation for Terri since 1991, or any further tests since 1993. Terri has never even had an MRI or PET scan, let alone a complete neurological examination.

A private Israeli intelligence service reports that Al Qaeda is shifting more than 1,000 of its operatives from Iraq for terror offensives in Europe and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The countries it named as targeted were Britain, Italy, France, Denmark, Russia -- with the UK and Italy at the top of the list; and in the Middle East, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Note the US is not on the list.

One reason is that, except in liberal news reports, the war in Iraq has been going poorly for Al Qaeda.

More than 400 people have been killed in Iraq in the last two weeks, including at least five U.S. Marines taking part in Operation Matador in western Iraq. A reader wants to know if, in light of this upsurge in violence, I still believe, as I wrote on March 1, that the war in Iraq was All But Won . My answer is emphatically yes.

The insurgency is now dominated by al Qaeda. The news media describes this as ominous, as they describe every development in Iraq as ominous. But the opposite is true. Al Qaeda is coming to the fore through subtraction. Many of the "former regime elements" who dominated the insurgency are giving up. The Marines say the insurgents they're fighting in Operation Matador are almost all foreigners, and that they're well trained, well armed, and fighting like cornered rats. That's because they are.

[Cuban-born writer Humberto Fontova has just published Fidel: Hollywood’s Favorite Tyrant ]


It gets old. It really, really gets old.

I refer to all the moralizing and humbug by U.S. political and business hucksters when they visit Cuba. Take Louisiana's own Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco, on her visit to Castroland last week. If the woman had simply told us: "Look, Cuban-Americans, there ain't enough of you voting in Louisiana to make any difference to me. Worse, all you Cubans are Republicans and didn't vote for me or contribute to my campaign anyway. I owe you people nothing." How refreshing it might have been!

But no. She insists on warbling about the "strictly business" aspects of the visit and how this "builds bridges with the Cuban people," and how this "positions Louisiana for dealing with Cuba after the transition," etc., etc. The best came when she rationalized her luncheon with the mass murderer himself. She did it, said her spokesperson, "out of respect for the Cuban president."

Mrs. Blanco, I realize you're very busy with state business, but in case you haven't heard: There have been no "presidential" elections in Cuba for the past 46 years, ma'am.

From the moment President Bush set his war policy after the 9-11 attacks, our country has been divided into two factions. The first faction supports the President because it believes he’s doing the right thing, while the second faction opposes the President because it believes he’s doing the wrong thing.

Now a third faction has emerged, comprised of those who believe the President is doing the right thing - but that he isn’t doing it very well.

For many families of the 3,000 American citizens murdered on September 11, 2001, the worst that could happen would be for their loved ones' sacrifice and loss to be forgotten. To ensure that didn't happen, federal, state and local authorities have put millions of tax dollars toward a memorial on the site of Ground Zero -- where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood in Lower Manhattan.

Incredible as it may seem, those charged with translating that laudable commitment into reality have come up with plans that could surpass even the September 11 families' worst fears: A scheme for the design and use of the Ground Zero complex that threatens, at best, to obscure and, at worst, to defame the memory of those lost on that day.