Testifying at his war crimes trial in the Hague last week, former Liberian President Charles Taylor said (paraphrasing), “Pat Robertson was my man in Washington.”

The revelations came in the midst of a U.N.-backed trial of Taylor at The Hague on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s 1990s civil war. Taylor is accused of directing a Sierra Leone rebel group, the United Revolutionary Front (RUF), in a campaign aimed at securing access to the country’s diamond mines. The rebel movement stands accused of committing mass atrocities in the late 1990s in the West African country, including the mutilation of thousands of civilians.

The international prosecutors contend that Taylor offered concessions to Western individuals in exchange for lobbying work aimed at enhancing his image in the United States. The prosecution maintains that Taylor also spent $2.6 million on lobbying firms and public relations outfits in the hopes of influencing the policies of former President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Under cross-examination, Taylor said that Robertson had volunteered to make Liberia’s case before U.S. administration officials, and had spoken directly to President Bush about Taylor. He also confirmed that Robertson’s company, Freedom Gold Limited, signed an agreement to exploit gold in southeastern Liberia, but that it never generated any profit.

“Mr. Taylor, indeed at one point you said that you can count on Pat Robertson to get Washington on your side,” he was asked by the lead prosecution counsel, Col. Brenda Hollis, a former U.S. Air Force officer. Taylor replied: “I don’t recall the exact words, but something to that effect.”

A spokesman for Robertson, Chris Roslan, confirmed that Robertson was awarded a gold exploration concession by the Liberian government during the 1990s. But he said that there was “no quid pro quo” to provide the government with anything in return. Roslan said the company, Freedom Gold, is no longer in operation and has never found any gold.

Insanely great mandolin shredding by Chris Thile and Mike Marshall, playing “Fisher’s Hornpipe” from the album Into the Cauldron. (And here’s the iTunes Store link.)

On “The View” today, Meghan McCain called out Tom Tancredo for his shocking dog whistle racism speech at the Tea Party Convention in Nashville.

McCain: Congressman Tancredo went on TV and he was the first opening speaker and he said, ‘People who could not even spell the word vote or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House whose name is Barack Hussein Obama.’ And then he went on to say that people at the convention should have to pass literacy tests in order to be able to vote in this country, which is the same thing that happened in the 50’s to prevent African Americans from voting. It’s innate racism and I think it’s why young people are turned off by this movement. And I’m sorry, but revolutions start with young people, not with 65-year-old people talking about literacy tests and people who can’t say the word ‘vote’ in English.

The news is just coming out that Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) has died at the age of 77, of complications following gall bladder surgery. Our sympathies to his family.

During the 2008 Presidential election one of my main concerns about Barack Obama was that he would take a soft line toward the Hamas terrorist gang. And there were reasons to be concerned; to name just a couple, Obama was closely acquainted with several well-known Palestinian advocates in the US, and the leader of his church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, published a newsletter that can only be described as virulently anti-Israel.

So far, though, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that the President has shown no sign of weakening America’s support for Israel, and no sign of weakening the US refusal to negotiate with Hamas until they recognize Israel’s right to exist.

And a reliable indicator that our policies haven’t hopenchanged: head terrorist Khaled Meshaal is in Russia, whining about it. Hamas leader says U.S. blocking Palestinian unity.

MOSCOW, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal on Monday accused the United States of undermining Palestinian unity efforts and said he saw no chance for peace in the Middle East under Israel’s current leadership.

Shunned in the West because his Islamist group refuses to recognise Israel — a position he said stands — Meshaal used a hospitable Russia as a platform to blame Washington and Israel’s hardline government for a lack of progress.

His remarks underscored barriers on the road to Palestinian reconciliation and to renewing Middle East peace talks.

Hamas wants a reconciliation deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ rival Fatah movement “as fast as possible”, Meshaal told a news conference after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who invited him to Moscow.

“Unfortunately, there are a whole series of hurdles to a swift reconciliation, first of all external influence and concerted pressure from the United States,” he said, which he said was using “various means” to scuttle the efforts.

Meshaal did not elaborate, but said portions of an Egyptian-drafted reconciliation deal had been changed without consultation with Hamas and that the group would not sign it unless they were restored.

Orly Taitz, queen bee of the Birther movement at the Nashville Tea Party Convention, uncorks some classic paranoid fantasies in this video clip; Obama has 39 Social Security numbers, according to Taitz, one of them issued to a man born over 100 years ago.

“So what,” you might say. “Any random nutjob could show up at this event and say anything they want. This has nothing to do with the real tea party movement.”

Except that when Joseph Farah of World Net Daily gives a keynote speech calling for theocracy in America and raving about Obama’s birth certificate, and receives a standing ovation for it, that excuse seems just a tad … weak.