Here we go, folks. There may be no diplomacy that can save the world from an all out religious World War III now.

Al-Qaida issued a call today for Muslims to rise up in a “holy war” against Israel and its allies and join the fighting until Islam reigns from “Spain to Iraq.”

In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now views “all the world as a battlefield open in front of us.”

The Egyptian-born physician said that the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and Palestinian militants would not be ended with “cease-fires or agreements.”

“It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails” al-Zawahri said. “We will attack everywhere.”

Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims for more than seven centuries until they were driven from power in 1492.

Al-Zawahri accused some Arab regimes allied with Israel and the United States of being accomplices.

“My fellow Muslims, it is obvious that Arab and Islamic governments are not only impotent but also complicit,” he said. “You are alone on the battlefield. Rely on God and fight your enemies. Make yourselves martyrs.”

He also called for the “downtrodden” throughout the world, not just Muslims, to join the battle against “tyrannical Western civilization and its leader, America,” al-Zawahri said. “Stand with Muslims in confronting this unprecedented oppression and tyranny. Stand with us as we stand with you against this injustice that was forbidden by God in his book (the Quran).”

Kamal Habib, a former member of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad militant group who was jailed from 1981 to 1991 along with al-Zawahri, said the outreach to Shiites and non-Muslims was unprecedented and reflected a major change in tactics.

“This is a transformation in the vision of al-Qaida and its struggle with the United States,” he said. “It is now trying to unite Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims and calling for non-Muslims to join the fight.”

Al-Zawahri wore a gray robe and white turban in the video. A picture of the burning World Trade Center was on the wall behind him along with photos of two other militants. One appeared to be a bearded Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks. The other was Mohammed Atef, also known as Abu Hafs al-Masri, a former top lieutenant of bin Laden who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001.

“The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition,” al-Zawahri said. “Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price.”

The message was al-Zawahri’s 10th this year. Bin Laden has issued five messages in a particularly active year of messages from the top al-Qaida leadership.

AP: Al-Qaida Calls for Holy War Against Israel

Analysis

Previously, these video messages have been followed by suicide bombings, including the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. So experts expect dramatic attacks to follow. But for reasons that can only be construed as political public relations in a mid-term election year, the U.S. Homeland Security Department has not ramped up the color-coded security alert system.

But be warned, especially if you live in one of the major population centers targeted by al-Qaeda. That means New York and Washington, D.C. in the U.S. If you have a bunker to escape to, get in it.

But first, call your Representatives in Congress and urge them to impeach Bush. It is his administration’s arrogant and incompetent policies that are responsible for this slippery slope to all out religious world war.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter introduced legislation on Wednesday to challenge President George W. Bush’s assertion that he can bypass sections of bills that he signs into law.

The Judiciary Committee Chairman’s bill would empower Congress to file lawsuits in federal court to test the constitutionality of Bush’s signing statements, in which Bush has reserved the right not to enforce certain provisions of laws he believes impinge on his authority or interpretation of the Constitution.

“This bill simply seeks to safeguard our Constitution,” Specter said.

Under Specter’s bill, courts would be told they cannot rely on signing statements in interpreting federal laws.

An American Bar Association task force issued a report Monday saying Bush has flouted the Constitution by issuing more than 800 challenges to provisions of laws he has signed - more than all other U.S. presidents combined.

Bush signed a bill banning the torture of U.S.-held prisoners, for example, but used a signing statement to signal that he might bypass the ban. So when is torture not torture? Bush has also ignored provisions in an anti-terrorism law seeking more congressional oversight, and rejected a requirement that government scientists transmit findings to Congress uncensored.

The legislation is expected to have broad support among Democrats, who have accused Bush of a power grab, although Republicans have voiced objections.

Reuters: Specter Proposes Challenge of Bush’s Power on Laws

While a Republican majority in both houses of Congress might fail to pass Specter’s law, Democrats might very well use the issue in the November mid-term elections to show the American people we have a president who thinks he is above the law. Either we are a nation of laws and everyone is subject to them, including the president, or the radical extremists who called Americans “infadels” just might have a point.

If you are ever inclined to call or write your Congressman and urge him or her to do anything, you might suggest supporting Specter’s bill. We say it should pass overwhelmingly. Any lawyer in Congress who opposes it should be disbarred.

A cowardly federal judge appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T from giving telephone records to the government for use in the so-called war on terror, citing national security.

“The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government’s intelligence activities,” U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said in his ruling.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other activists who said their constitutional rights were violated because of a National Security Agency program of gathering phone company records on American citizens.

Bush Justice Department attorneys argued it would violate the law against divulging state secrets for AT&T to say whether it had provided telephone records to the supersecret spy agency, while the ACLU argued that the practice was no longer secret, since numerous news reports made it clear phone records were given to the agency.

But the judge, covering his ass and not knowing what the fuck he is talking about, said the news reports amounted to speculation and in no way constituted official confirmation that phone records had been turned over. He also ruled that Terkel and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which sought class-action status, had not shown that their own records had been provided to the government, so they lacked standing to sue the government.

AP: Judge Dismisses Phone Records Lawsuit

Well in that case, we’ve got a source with an iron clad case - if only there were a kick-ass liberal lawfirm in these parts willing to pursue the case and risk the full wrath of Karl Rove and the Bush Republican smear machine.