October 31, 2010
Jack Kemp's "Blue Dog Anger" at American Thinker
Jack Kemp discusses Blue Dogs and Lame Ducks at American Thinker.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/10/will_blue_dog_anger_thwart_lam.html
Here is a little taste:
"I know a number of readers are now saying I'm engaging in wishful conservative thinking, and, to an extent, they are right. But
the fearful Reptilian Brains that Obama chastised the Tea Party/Republican voters for being stuck in, the ones that were
unfortunately - for Mr. Obama's Party - reactivated by the news of package bombs being flown towards the United States
from Yemen - are not the sole property of conservatives. Spite, revenge, feelings of betrayal and being "used and abandoned"
are not limited to human beings who support only one major American political party or sit on one side of the Congress's
chambers. Recall the PUMAs and the recent open letter to Rush Limbaugh."
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A commenter on the original post at Amer. Thinker pointed out that I gave Willie Nelson credit for a song by Johnny Paycheck. I am trying to correct the original text but I guess this city slicker isn't up to date on his country western music.
Posted by: JackKemp at October 31, 2010 04:55 PM (gpucF)
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Obama environment agenda under threat from incoming Republicans
Environmental agencies brace themselves for aggressive investigations after expected Republican majority in midterms
Suzanne Goldenberg US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 October 2010 17.36 GMT
Article history
Darrell Issa and other Republicans have threatened to revisit last year's climate science controversy sparked by hacked emails out of University of East Anglia. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Republican leaders have begun gathering evidence for sweeping investigations of Barack Obama's environmental agenda, from climate science to the BP oil spill, if as expected, they take control of the House of Representatives in the 2 November mid-term elections, the Guardian has learned.
The new Congress will not be installed until next January, but Democrats and environmental organisations say they are braced for multiple, aggressive investigations from the incoming Republican majority.
Republican leaders have also raised the possibility of disbanding the global warming committee in Congress, established by the Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
"We are already getting posturing from some of the potential committee chairs that they will turn their committees into investigating committees," said Kate Gordon, who oversees energy policy at the Centre for American Progress Action Fund. "I think there is a potential for the EPA and the entire administration to be called into hearing after hearing after hearing."
Staff working for Darrell Issa, the California Republican poised to head the powerful house oversight and investigation committee, have already contacted a watchdog group that is suing the Obama administration for emails and memos related to the BP spill.
Issa and other Republican leaders have also said they are looking for ways to revisit last year's climate science controversy, sparked by hacked emails from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia.
Jeff Ruch, the director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said his organisation had been contacted by Issa's staff looking into charges that the Obama administration knowingly played down estimates of the oil spill.
He said he expected a far more aggressive investigation than any of those seen so far. "They won't pull punches and will put people under oath and will pursue it until they get something," Ruch said. "They will be looking for heads, not just the facts."
The investigative zeal is fuelled by the rise of Tea Party candidates for whom climate change denial verges on an article of faith.
"I think a clear majority does not accept human causality in climate change. It's definitely not within the orthodoxy of conservatism as presented by Sarah Palin and folks like her," Bob Inglis, a Republican member of the house science and technology committee who lost to a Tea Party candidate, told NPR.
A Pew Research Centre poll last week showed just 16% of Republicans say the earth is warming because of human activity, compared to 53% for Democrats.
The Tea Party candidates also tend to be fiercely opposed to government regulation.
That combination – libertarian and anti-climate science – puts the EPA at the top of a Republican hit-list that seeks to limit the authority of the agency.
Already, a number of Republican leaders have demanded the EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, justify the potential cost to industry or employment of dozens of pollution controls – not just those regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
"They have made it clear they are going to go hog-wild in investigating the EPA," a lobbyist for an environmental organisation said. "They said they want to keep Lisa Jackson tied up in a chair in front of Congress committees."
In a Washington Times piece, Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who is the favourite to head the energy and commerce committee, accused the EPA of over-reaching regulations that were costing Americans their jobs.
"If the EPA continues unabated, jobs will be shipped to China and India as energy costs skyrocket. Most of the media attention has focused on the EPA's efforts to regulate climate-change emissions, but that is just the beginning," he wrote.
Meanwhile, Upton's main rival for committee post, Texan Joe Barton, wrote a letter to the agency demanding a review of the potential costs to industry and effects on unemployment of dozens of regulations."
Barton's list does not stop at greenhouse gas emissions, but would force the EPA to justify the potential costs to industry of tightening standards for hazardous air pollution from oil refineries, chemical factories, or mining operations as well as hospital incinerators that dispose of medical and infectious waste.
It also asks the EPA to re-visit regulations governing the use of leaded aviation fuels, or airborne mercury pollution.
A number of Republican leaders have also said they would immediately disband the select committee on global warming.
"The American people do not need Congress to spend millions of dollars to write reports and fly around the world. We must terminate this wasteful committee," Upton wrote.
However, other Republicans including Jim Sensenbreener, a Wisconsin Republican, want to keep the committee, but as a platform to review climate science and the controversy over the hacked emails from East Anglia.
"They want to continue a 20-year assault on climate research, questioning basic science and promoting doubt where there is none," Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece.
Some people to watch
Fred Upton: Michigan Republican who was first elected in 1986, favoured to lead the Energy and Commerce Committee. Says the EPA has gone too far, but does believe global warming is real. He told the energy committee early last year: "I have said at nearly every climate change hearing that for me I don't dispute the science. Right or wrong, the debate over the modelling and science appears to be over."
Joe Barton: First elected in Texas in 1984. Won notoriety this summer when he apologised to BP's Tony Hayward for the White House deal establishing a $20bn oil clean-up fund. Barton called the fund a "shakedown". If denied the energy and commerce committee, Barton could be a contender to head the science committee, which would provide a platform for climate science deniers.
Darrell Issa: A high school drop-out who was arrested in his youth for stealing a Maserati, Issa, who represents the San Diego area, was first elected in 2000. The senior Republican on the House oversight and investigations committee, he says it is time to give a closer look to climate science. "That doesn't mean that global warming isn't happening," Issa told The Hill last month. "It means that we have to make sure that when we recalibrate what's happening, why it's happening, how much it's happening, we need to ensure that we get a careful relook at the figures so that we're accurate.
Jim Sensenbrenner: Senior Republican from Wisconsin who is on the select committee on energy independence and global warming, and would like to take it over – even though he does not believe in global warming. At the height of the controversy over hacked emails from East Anglia last year, he warned of "a massive international scientific fraud" and science "fascism".
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 31, 2010 05:54 PM (K7x36)
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October 31, 2010, 3:28 PM
Thin Crowd for Cleveland Campaign Rally
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG NYT
CLEVELAND — President Obama wrapped up a weekend of last-minute campaigning in Ohio on Sunday, addressing Democrats in an indoor arena that, in a sign of the “enthusiasm gap” that the president is working so hard to close, was little more than half full.
About 8,000 people attended the Democratic National Committee’s Moving America Forward’ rally at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center, a hall where the capacity is 13,000. The rafters were largely empty.
Organizers noted the president was competing on a Sunday afternoon with church, football and Halloween. And Mr. Obama drew a huge crowd of about 35,000 when he was in nearby Columbus, Ohio, in an earlier October rally. Still, the thin crowd was perhaps a foreboding sign in the waning days of the midterm races, when Mr. Obama, who was joined Sunday by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., considers getting Democrats to the polls his most important mission.
Mr. Obama was in Ohio to give a final push to Gov. Ted Strickland, who is in a tight race for re-election. Lee Fisher, the lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate candidate, also attended, and Mr. Obama gave a pitch for him as well, though he is trailing badly behind his Republican opponent.
“We’ve got to get Cleveland out to vote!” Mr. Obama said. “We’ve got to get everybody in Ohio out to vote.’’
He made a pitch for early voting: “There is early voting just a few blocks from here, so you can go right after this rally if you haven’t voted. Because if everyone who fought for change in 2008 shows up to vote in 2010, we will win this election, I’m confident that we will.’’
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 31, 2010 07:39 PM (K7x36)
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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2010
Spinning the Democrat Loss
By Alan Caruba
It is now generally agreed that the Democratic Party will sustain large losses in the midterm elections. It will be interesting to see how their candidates and leadership explain why they lost.
My guess is that we shall hear a lot of talk about racism. This is the chief charge leveled against the Tea Party movement and it is utterly without substance. Democrats, however, are very likely to spin the loss as bigotry in general and, in particular, directed against America’s first black president. Obama has been rejected for reasons obvious to anyone who is unemployed, has had their home foreclosed, and an electorate aware of multi-trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see.
The next fallback position will be, of course, to blame the economy, but the Democrats literally own the economy and have owned it going back decades to the 1930s when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected and reelected while prolonging the Great Depression for ten years until the economy was rescued by a full-employment program called World War Two.
Those were the years when Social Security, a huge Ponzi scheme, was introduced, followed by Medicare. Both are now insolvent and, like all socialist schemes, have “run out of other people’s money.”
The effort to take over one-sixth of the nation’s economy with Obamacare is a major reason for the Democrat failure at the polls. Forced through a Democrat controlled Congress through bribery and arm-twisting in the face of enormous public rejection and protest, the Democratic Party experienced a paroxysm of hubris that ignored the will of the People.
There is, too, a widespread sense that Congress, including some RINOs, Republicans in Name Only, has failed the People. The critical role of the “independents”, voters who do not identify with either party, will be manifested and it can no longer be ignored by either party. Last week, a Rasmussen Reports poll revealed that an astonishing 65% say that Congress has failed to perform its critical duty to maintain the welfare of the nation.
The statistics of government failure whether it is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, all give voice for a return to the founding principles of the nation; a smaller, limited central government.
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, John Fund noted that “It took Democrats in the House of Representatives 40 years to become out-of-touch enough to get thrown out of office in 1994. It took 12 years for the Republicans who replaced them to abandon their principles and be repudiated in 1006. Now it appears that the current Democratic majority has lost voter confidence in only four years.”
What those inside the D.C. Beltway have failed to comprehend is that, in an era of the Internet and instant access to encyclopedic amounts of information about the legislative actions of Congress, they no longer can fool all of the people all of the time, nor even some of the people all of the time. A core of about 25% believes in liberalism. The rest of the population does not.
The voters, too, will have rejected a vicious Democrat campaign of personal destruction directed against Republican candidates, accusing them of sexual misbehavior, witchcraft, and other misdeeds that were not only lies, but totally irrelevant at a time when the nation’s economy is in serious trouble.
Along with the Democratic Party, the nation’s mainstream media will suffer a continuing loss of the credibility necessary to their existence. In media critic, Bernie Goldberg’s words, it was “a slobbering love affair” with Barack Obama that got him elected.
I think, too, that many saw the rally staged by Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert of the Comedy Channel as an insult to the seriousness of the nation’s problems. Having people like Muslim convert, Cat Steven, participate, or Sheryl Crow who advocates bizarre environmental ideas, simply degraded the event further. There were few laughs to be had from the small crowd that attended.
There will be payback as daily newspapers grow thinner, as news magazines like Newsweek get sold for $1 and the assumption of its debt. The network news programs will continue to lose viewers, while Fox News channel continues to thrive, along with a bevy of conservative radio hosts and commentators.
Ultimately, though, this is a loss to be laid at the feet of the first openly socialist president of the United States, Barack Obama, and it is testimony to the rejection of his political philosophy and his determination to “transform” the nation.
Washington, D.C., with its legions of lobbyists and the need to raise huge amounts of money to get reelected does strange things to the judgment of those in Congress. No matter how the numbers turn out following the election, Republicans must keep in mind that they did not so much “win”, as the Democrats lost.
The same forces are at work and will be on a faster schedule if Republicans do not prove responsive and fail to make the changes necessary to save the nation from economic ruin.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
Posted by: R. de Haan at November 01, 2010 08:39 AM (3Pddd)
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Fifteen Missouri Counties have more Voters than Adults
Timothy Birdnow
Voter roles in 15 Missouri counties show more people registered than eligible resident, according to U.S. Census Bureau and Missouri Secretary of State data. http://missouri.watchdog.org/5822/fifteen-missouri-counties-have-more-voters-than-census-population/?utm_source=MO_Subscriptions&utm_campaign=5210b86f7d-More_voters_thab_census_population_in_Missouri&utm_medium=email (Hat tip: Jack Kemp courtesy of Atlas Shrugged http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/10/voter-fraud-alert-fifteen-missouri-counties-have-more-voters-than-population-.html)
The following counties have over %100 voter registration in the state:
Reynolds County, 125.8 percent
Putnam County, 109.9 percent
Butler County, 104.3 percent
Gentry County, 103.9 percent
Mercer County, 103.6 percent
Shelby County, 103.2 percent
Schuyler County, 101.6 percent
Carter County, 101.5 percent
Worth County, 101.4 percent
Ozark County, 100.8 percent
Dade County, 100.7 percent
Holt County, 100.6 percent
Pemiscot County, 100.6 percent
Howard County, 100.4 percent
Ralls County, 100.1 percent
A spokesman for Robin Carnahan, the current Secretary of State in Missouri and candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Christopher Bond, points out that these counties are largely rural, and blames the problem on underfunded and understaffed county offices. Carnahan's office claims they just haven't purged their voter roles.
But 12 of these counties had the same problem in 2008 - and in 2005. Robin Carnahan was elected in Nov. of 2004, and has had 6 years to deal with this problem. (Carnahan took over for the rather hapless Matt Blunt, who served one term after three Democrats going back to 1993.)
What interested me about this was the counties involved, and their location on the map. Nine of the 15 are border counties, 3 are next to the "tainted" border counties. Why should that be? Four lie along the Iowa border with on panhandling south, one lies on the Nebraska border, two along the Arkansas border with two "panhandling", one along the Kentucky border (on the Mississippi River) and one on the Illinois border with on panhandler. Only two lie in the interior of the state.
Which is ideal if you want to have people vote in two states; a person could vote in Ozark County and be in Arkansas within the hour to vote there. Bad voter rolls in these counties could allow double voting.
But there are problems with this; these are small population areas, and the pickup is not going to be that great; a matter of maybe a couple of dozen votes per county. In such small areas, it's hard to pull off a vote scam, because the locals all know each-other and would ask "who are you?" when someone strange enters the polling place. Still, if Democrats control the local committees we could witness such behavior.
But that does make it a difficult situation, as all of these counties lie in strongly Republican districts, and have tended heavily to vote for the GOP. Below is a record of how each county voted in the last election:
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/datagraph.php?fips=29&year=2008&off=0&elect=0&f=0
>Butler Obama 30.7% 5,316
McCain 68.1% 11,805
Other 1.3% 217
>Carter Obama 34.0% 984
McCain 63.5% 1,840
Other 2.6% 74
>Dade Obama 28.8% 1,184
McCain 69.6% 2,864
Other 1.6% 64
>Gentry Obama 37.5% 1,235
McCain 59.7% 1,964
Other 2.8% 93
>Holt Obama 30.5% 802
McCain 68.1% 1,794
Other 1.4% 37
>Howard Obama 41.9% 2,036
McCain 55.8% 2,708
Other 2.3% 11
>Ozark Obama 35.4% 1,661
McCain 62.3% 2,918
Other 2.3% 107
>Mercer Obama 29.7% 519
McCain 66.9% 1,169
Other 3.4% 60
>Pemiscot Obama 43.0% 3,029
McCain 56.1% 3,954
Other 0.9% 64
>Putnam Obama 29.7% 695
McCain 68.0% 1,591
Other 2.3% 53
>Ralls Obama 40.1% 2,041
McCain 58.8% 2,987
Other 1.1% 56
>Reynolds Obama 43.1% 1,418
McCain 54.2% 1,782
Other 2.6% 8
>Schuyler Obama 39.1% 775
McCain 57.4% 1,139
Other 3.5% 69
>Shelby Obama 33.6% 1,114
McCain 65.3% 2,166
Other 1.1% 36
>Worth Obama 36.4% 427 McCain 60.2% 707
Other 3.4% 40
So, every one of the offending counties went for John McCain in the last election. What does this mean?
It suggests a couple of things; the first of which is that Rob 'em Robin Carnahan is incompetent and has no business being promoted to a position in the U.S. Senate; she couldn't even get these GOP counties to have accurate voter roles! It's one thing to be easy on your own side, but the opposition?
I don't buy it, and I don't buy the notion that Republicans are going to try to steal elections out in podunk with a handful of votes. What I think is happening is the old shell game; the Democrats have every intention of stealing the election (they try every election cycle) and the real power in that game lies in St. Louis city, St. Louis County, and Butler County - home of Kansas City. Thousands of votes can be manufactured there, as well as in some of the bigger towns like Joplin. Some votes could be stolen in these rural counties simply by registering people from out-of-state and it would be hard to purge them from the rolls, but the primary reason to do such a thing is to suggest vote fraud in these rural areas BY THE GOP. It is the old trick of pointing out the spec in another's eye to hide the beam in your own. I suspect Carnahan is fully aware of the problem, but felt it a good idea to ignore it since it would distract attention from the massive vote fraud in St. Louis and Kansas City. In short, this could be a red herring.
And it could STILL bring in quite a few bogus votes. I do not know who controls the local governments in these communities; but it would not be unfair to assume that Democrats could still win local contests in states that vote for the GOP.
Real Clear Politics explains the political divisions in Missouri:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2010/senate/mo/missouri_senate_blunt_vs_carnahan-1066.html
"Missouri politics are dominated by four competing geographic divisions. The Democratic base is in central Kansas City and St. Louis, while the Republicans run strong in the rural southwest, which has long been Republican. The third division is found in the Republican-tilting suburbs, while the fourth division is basically the rest of the state, which is essentially a salient of the south jutting into the heart of the state. Democrats’ successes are normally dictated by how well they run in these latter areas.
The fourth division historically voted Democrat, and kept the state in the Democratic column. But in the 1970s, three Republicans remade the states’ map: John Danforth, John Ashcroft and Kit Bond. Bond broke a 32-year Democratic stranglehold on the Governor’s mansion in 1972, lost in 1976, and was re-elected in 1980. In 1986 he won a Senate seat and, after four terms, called it a career.
[...]
Carnahan’s problem is the state’s demographics. In the 1990s, her father pulled together a coalition of suburbanites and rural voters to win handily statewide; Bill Clinton’s wins had a similar flavor. Claire McCaskill pulled together a modified version in 2006; she was able to hold her own in the rural areas but was not able to break through. As a result, her win was narrow. In 2008, Obama was not able to break through at all in rural areas, and was unable to carry the state despite a strong turnout effort in the cities. He remains deeply unpopular in the state."
So, rural Missouri is newly Republican, but has the traditional sympathies for Democrats found in most farming and trucking communities. Logging, too; much logging is conducted on state owned land, and anyone in the logging industry would be a blue dog Democrat. The people in each and every one of these counties is unlikely to be doctrinaire Republicans so much as Harry Truman Democrats.
Reynolds county is a prime example; I own property there (the famed Ozark Hilton) and enjoy the solitude the region affords. It has two major tourist attractions; Clearwater Lake and Johnson Shut-Ins. Clearwater Lake is an Army Corps (that's pronounced CORE, Mr. Obama) of Engineers lake created by the damming of the Black River. The Corps manages the entire Black River watershed, and tourism is dependent on the actions of the Corps. Tourism is one of the primary industries in Reynolds County, along with logging. The Mark Twain National Forest is there, and so are several state forests. Hunters are thick as mosquitos during dear season, too, and the government-owned land and nature preserves are critical to that particular industry. (Johnson Shut-Ins is a canyon-like rock formation on the Black that constricts the river so it forms a delightful water park of chutes and small waterfalls. There is a good cliff one can jump off into a deep pool, too. The park was decimated by the Taum Sauk reservoir dam break a few years ago, but is back in operation.)
At any rate, Reynolds County is largely dependent on government for it's livelihood. So are most of the other counties mentioned. Farm communities are generally solid Democrat strongholds because of farm subsidies, for instance. That these regions have trended Republican speaks more to the leftward lurch of the Democrats in recent years. It seems quite likely that there would still be many of the old guard in the seats of electoral power in these counties.
And a few votes is a few votes. The Democrats will take whatever they can get.
Robin Carnahan is down by quite a bit in her race against Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate, but it may well be possible to put this into a court battle. chaos has been the weapon of choice for Democrats since before the election of 2000. At least they have plausible deniability; after all, these irregularities were in counties that trend GOP! It fits with the way these people think.
Now, multiply this all over the country!
Now you're getting it! The Chicago Way.
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Soros Conquers the Judiciary
Jack Kemp forwards this:
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=220849&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
LAW OF THE LAND
Exposed! George Soros' scheme for 'elite' judiciary
'How many Elena Kagans and David Souters can America tolerate?'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: October 30, 2010
1:00 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
EXCERPT QUOTES:
How does it happen that a California judge can upend millennia of accepted standards for society by saying that gender plays no role in marriage? Or a court can approve a Florida school district's deal with liberals to ban teachers from praying – even when they're off-campus?
A new report by John Gizzi of the Capital Research Center, to be released within the next few days, has an explanation: A powerful move by very wealthy interests across the United States to reshape the judiciary in the mold of progressives who believe the Constitution should be interpreted through the filter of personal desires.
And the primary force behind the move? George Soros, the hedge fund billionaire who personally provides the money for a number of liberal advocacy organizations such as MoveOn.org.
Learn what happens when the government breaks its own laws, in "Constitutional Chaos"
SECTION OMITTED
So what's the problem with judges being nominated by attorneys?
"Of the appellate nominees in Missouri (where judges are nominated by special commissions and appointed) since 1995 who made any campaign contributions, 87 percent gave more to Democrats than Republicans and only 13 percent gave more to Republicans than Democrats," the report said.
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The Well-Trodden Path to Marxism
Steve Rankin sends this our way:
Mary Ruwart is from Texas and ran for the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential nomination.
Steve
"In 1847, Marx and Engels proposed ten steps to convert the Western nations to Communist countries without firing a shot. Most of these ideas have been successfully implemented in our own country with little, if any, resistance! ... One of the ten steps called for "centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly" just like our own Federal Reserve! ... Another of the ten steps called for instituting "a heavy progressive or graduated income tax" just like our own federal income tax! ... Another step proposed by Marx and Engels was "abolition of all right of inheritance," which we come ever closer to as inheritance taxes increase. Taking wealth at gunpoint, if necessary that one person has created and given to another person is theft. Whether the wealth creator is alive or dead, the act and the impact are the same. Another step was "free education for all children in public schools." Although our country still has many private schools in addition to the public ones, the content of both is dictated by aggression-through-government, to teach aggression. Marx and Engels also recommended the "extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state." In the past century, more and more services have become exclusive, subsidized government monopolies (e.g., garbage collection, water distribution, mass transit, etc.). As a result, we pay twice as much for lower quality service! Marx also called for the "centralization of the means of communications and transport in the hands of the state." Television and radio stations are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. A station that does not pursue programming considered "in the public interest" is stopped at gunpoint, if necessary from further broadcast. ... Radio stations have an elite ownership as well. Those who benefit from aggression-through-government have little incentive to tell the public that licensing is a tool of the rich! ... Another of the ten steps calls for "confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels" ... [O]ur law enforcement agents can seize the wealth of anyone suspected of drug crimes without a trial!
he Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has also been seizing the assets of taxpayers without a trial if the IRS thinks they might have underpaid their taxes! The wealth we have created can be taken from us at gunpoint, if necessary without a formal accusation or a chance to defend ourselves! ... In addition, Marx and Engels called for "abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes." In other words, land would not be privately owned. No homesteading would be permitted. Our federal and local governments have title to 42% of the land mass of the United States. Most of the remaining land is under government control as well. For example, today's homeowners can pay off their mortgages, but must still pay property taxes to the local government. If they stop payments, their property is taken from them. They are, in essence, renting their home from the local government."
-- Dr. Mary J. Ruwart
(1949- )
Source: Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle, Ch 19. (1992)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Mary.Ruwart.Quote.FC0C
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Are Demons for Real?
Dr. Don Bailey
The resounding answer to the question raised by the title of this article
is... Yes! Yes they do exist. Satan, however, would rather that men and
women not believe in the existence of him and his evil spirits. C.S. Lewis
in his well-known work, The Screwtape Letters, has Screwtape, the chief
demon, writing to his underling demon, Wormwood: “My dear Wormwood ... Iwonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient inignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the presentphase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command.... I do not think that you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence
begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red
tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old
textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.” —
Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters 271,2, SanFrancisco: Harper
Publications, 2001. Obviously, Satan would rather men, women, and children believe he is only an imaginary figure dressed in red, with horns protruding from his forehead, holding a pitch fork, with a pointed tail sticking out from beneath a black cape. Human beings put themselves in a most precarious position through disbelief in his existence. There are, at least, fourevidences that prove Satan and his emissaries exist: (1) Biblical evidence,(2) extra-Biblical evidence (3) drug-abuse evidence, and (4)
religious-practice evidence.
1. Biblical Evidence. The Bible testifies to the fact that it is God’s
Word to a world that has been corrupted by Satan from the very beginning of the human race, but man looks at it otherwise. Note with interest the
negativity of Thomas Pain toward the Bible: “Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. Thomas Paine (1737–1809), Anglo-American political theorist, writer. The Age of Reason, pt. 1, “Examination of the Old Testament” (1794). It is strange indeed that Pain did not hesitate to admit the existence of demons, even though he was an atheist.
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Mr. Pain, a skeptic and a sworn enemy of the Bible, may have examined the Old Testament, but he came up with nothing more than biased conclusions (influenced by you know what). He was never more mistaken in his life. The Bible is not the word of a demon; it is God’s Word, a great part of which is a record about the Devil and his demons; about how they have corrupted and brutalized mankind; and is the true picture of the history of man and how demonic activity has influenced him down through the ages. It depicts all of the ugliness of man and his
malevolent behavior toward his fellow man. Man has no other explanation
that makes any sense as to why things are the way they are (the condition of
man’s present situation) apart from the Bible.
That demons exist goes without saying, when one studies (with an unbiased
attitude) the subject from the Bible’s viewpoint. Dr. Merril F. Unger,
former Professor of Old Testament Interpretation, Dallas Theological
Seminary, an authority on demonology, stated: "The evidence of revelation is
put first, not because it is expected more effectively to impress the
skeptic (he seems unimpressed by any scriptural declaration) but because
intrinsically it is the most important witness. Demons do exist, first and
foremost, for God in His word says they exist. That the shedhim (Deut.
32:17; Ps. 106:36,37) of the Old Testament were real demons, and not mere idols, is proved by the Septuagint translation of the term daimonia
(demons); the Jews regarded idols as demons who allowed themselves to be worshiped by man (Bar. 4:7; LXX Ps. 95:5; I Cor. 10:20). It seems certain moreover, that the seirim were also demonic conceptions (Lev. 17:7; 2 Chron.
11:15; 13:21; 34:14)."
The New Testament affords ample proof that demons are real. The demons
existence; (James 2:19; Revelation. 9: 20); nature (Luke 4:33; 6:18);
activities (I Tim. 4:1; Revelation 16:14); exorcism (Luke 9:42); satanic
organization (Matt. 12:26; Eph. 6:12); and their abode and doom are set
forth in the following Scripture: James 2:19; Rev. 9:11, 20; 16:4; Luke
4:33; 6:18; 8:31; 9:42; and I Tim. 4:1. From the foregoing passages, there
is not the slightest doubt that Jesus and those associated with Him believed
in the existence of demons and Satan.
2. Extra-Biblical Evidence. Extra-Biblical proofs exist that show mankind
is beset by such wicked creatures. Men have believed in evil spirits from
the beginning of time. One can hardly read a book without some allusion
being made to unseen demonic activities and influence upon man. Socrates
acknowledged that he was guided and inspired by his "Demon." Dr. Carl Jung, a world famous psychiatrist was influenced by demons. Thomas Edison's parents were spiritualists who conducted seances in their home. Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was involved in Spiritism. Upon reading Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the works of Poe, as well as others, one will discover that each is replete with demonic influence.
Hitler's idea of a race of supermen was demoniacally conceived. Hitler
believed these beings existed and claimed to have been in touch with them.
"The new man," says Hitler, "is living amongst us now! He is here! ... I
will tell you a secret. I have seen the new man. He is intrepid and cruel.
I was afraid of him" (The Morning of the Magicians, pages 218, 219). Hitler was a cruel and false messiah who was used by demonic powers to bring the world under satanic control. One writes, "Might there not be, behind all these movements, something far more dangerous which their leaders perhaps know nothing about, being themselves in turn unconscious tools of a higher power?" (The Morning of the Magicians, page 222). Yet, there is no doubt but that men make deals with Satan and his ministers, thereby allowing them entrance into their lives; otherwise, it is difficult to explain why they commit such horrific acts on the scale of the evil determined and carried out by Hitler against, over six million Jews.
Hitler, Satan’s dupe, did his best to destroy a whole nation. In fact he
has tried to do that throughout history. History is a record of proof.
There are two reasons among many as to why Satan has attempted to annihilate the Jewish people: The first reason is that they are explicit proof of the existence of God, it defies explanation that they could have endured the
evil committed against them had there been no God, and because of that Satan is less effective in deceiving men that God does not exist, so when men see the Jew, they know there is a God. The second reason for Satan’s attempt to destroy God’s chosen people is that the Jew is one force of argument to prove that the Bible is true. It is a true record of their history and their relation to the Gentile nations to the present, and no matter how hard Satan tries to convince men that the Bible is just another book among many, it is impossible for him to do so because when men go to it to check the facts, they find that its recorded history of the Jewish nation is, in fact,
true. Satanic and demonic influences upon the lives of men, such as Hitler,
not only have been the dynamics of wickedness, but they are also irrefutable
evidence that their reality is without question.
A rapid rise of the occult in both literature and television programming is
also another evidence that demons are for real and seek to destroy the souls
of men. As a result, many adults as well as young people are indulging in
seances, Ouija boards, satanic worship, and witch parties.
3. Drug-abuse Evidence. Dr. V. Raymond Edman, late President of Wheaton
College said, "Demonism today is a dreadful reality, not a figment of
imagination nor the product of a pagan religion…. " Dr. Edman made that
statement in the 1960s. We have, no doubt, seen a gradual rise in demonic
activity since the 1960s. Individuals, through the use of drugs, have
allowed themselves to become slaves to Satan’s influence. Dr. Timothy O’
Leary, a psychologist, and the guru of the counter culture praised the drug
LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide), which was very much in vogue during the
60s and early 70s. Young people flocked to him, like flies to honey. He
was instrumental in the destruction of the psyches of, literally, thousands
of young people. I remember lecturing at a Chicago college to a class of
nursing students on the effects of LSD on the American culture during that
time, and reminded them that LSD was a perfect acronym for three names of man’s ancient enemy: Lucifer, Satan, and the Devil. I had no idea then what a heyday Satan would have in America up to the present time. He has
destroyed millions of lives, and will do so in the future.
Demonic activity began with the fall of Lucifer reaching the first of its
high points just prior to the flood, which brought judgment on the planet.
Then, at the first coming of Christ it erupted again. Christ had to contend
with those awful creatures on a daily basis. The last eruption will break
out during the Tribulation (a horrible time of trouble) with greater
intensity preceding His second coming and will last for a period of 3 1/2
years. During that time, demons will exert themselves through the influence
of drugs and their activity will be at an all time high.
It is my opinion, and I strongly believe, that the whole of Planet Earth is
now stuck in the muck of drug abuse and misery, especially as is seen in the
ugly change that has occurred throughout American society since the 1960s.
Drugs have almost destroyed the American culture; many neighborhoods are gang infested, and the school system is so drug-ridden that one wonders if it will ever be restored, made fit and safe for children to learn.
Irresponsibly, some States are in the process of having them legalized.
Satan has so beclouded the minds of men that they actually believe drugs are the answer to America’s problems.
America’s irresponsible Government refuses to close the border between
Mexico and the US, knowing the danger of the devastating situation that
exists, which could easily spill over into this Country at any given moment.
How can one explain the nature and intensity of drug abuse in America, and
the war now occurring in Mexico, apart from demonic activity? Obviously,
something very sinister and evil is going on behind the scenes in the
spiritual world. The world is in the state of preparation for a demonic
takeover during the Tribulation. The book of Revelation states that drug
abuse will be one of the major factors preventing men from repenting of
their evil at that time; the original Greek word for sorceries in Revelation
is pharmakeion (pharmacy = drugs) (Rev. 9:21; 18:28). The gates of Hades will be opened and all the demons of that awful place will be turned loose on an unsuspecting world? “Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time” (Rev. 12:12).
4. Religious-Practice Evidence. The first strategy Satan used from the
very beginning was to turn mankind against God through religious practices.
That, he has done very well. As a result, men have maimed and killed one
another in the name of religion throughout history. One of the most
dangerous and violent religions in our midst today is that of Islam. Muslim
terrorists, in the name of their god, Allah, are hell-bent in taking over
the world. They are demonically driven to do so. Their every evil deed
emanates from a sense that they are pleasing to Allah. They believe in
their satanically warped minds that all of the murder and mayhem they cause
throughout the world is for good, therefore, they have no qualms of
conscience about doing it. The attack on the World Trade Center by demons clothed in flesh demonstrates to what end they will go to satisfy their
bloodthirsty gullets.
They teach children to hate with such passion that they deem it an honor to
strap on a bomb and blow innocent people to bits. Of course, this is
nothing new; Satan had individuals serving him in the same manner during the Old Testament period only he went under a different guise, that of “Molech, the name of the national god of the Ammonites, to whom children were sacrificed by fire. He was the consuming and destroying and also at the same time the purifying fire. In Amos 5:26, “your Moloch” of the Authorized Version is “your king” in the Revised Version (comp. Acts 7:43). Solomon (1Kings 11:7) erected a high place for this idol on the Mount of Olives, and from that time till the days of Josiah his worship continued (2 Kings 23:10,13). In the days of Jehoahaz it was partially restored, but after the Captivity wholly disappeared. He is also called Molech (Lev. 18:21; 20:2–5, etc.), Milcom (1 Kings 11:5, 33, etc.), and Malcham (Zeph. 1:5). This god became Chemosh among the Moabites.”
Moloch, the demon that he is, still exists and is worshiped today by those
who sacrifice their children as human bombs. He decieves them into thinking
that his name is Allah, but he is still the same demon entity--the fire god,
Moloch. One shudders to think of such an abominal practice, but demons
working through Muslim terrorists love it. Demons work through various
religions; in this case it is the Muslim religion. I know of no other
religion on Planet Earth so violent. The Muslim religion was born out of
violence (one should read the history of Islam and how it was founded). It
is the most violent religion on the earth, although it boasts of being a
religion of peace. Well, let me tell you, the religion of peace will strike
again and again with demonic violence. The fact that demons are invisible
does not make them less than real. The wind, electricity, oxygen, and
gravity are each invisible but no one will deny their existence and
influence.
The above evidences attest to the fact that demons are very real and are
powers to be reckoned with. There are three dangers in which modern man
places himself: (1) ignorance of their existence, (2) denial that they
exist, and (3) an inordinate interest in them. If one will inform oneself
relative to (1), he may be able to overcome (2). The excessiveness of (3)
is always a danger; be careful in this area. An insatiable appetite for the
wrong kind of literature, movies, and practices could risk one’s spiritual
well being.
In order to stand firm against demonic influence, it is imperative that one
" Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces
of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places" (Eph. 6:10-12--NASB). There is only one answer for the darkness
that surrounds and threatens to overpower us, and that is the Gospel of
Jesus Christ which changes an individual’s heart to do right toward another.
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October 30, 2010
More on Nazi Environmentalism
Mark Musser has another great piece on the "wearin' O the Green" by the Brownshirts. Don't miss it!
http://www.aim.org/guest-column/how-and-why-the-nazis-went-green/
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2010
Goodbye Global Warming, Hello Biodiversity
By Alan Caruba
After three decades of trying to push the global warming scam to a point where billions could be made selling and trading bogus “carbon credits”, the global schemers have abandoned it in the wake of 2009 revelations that a handful of rogue climate scientists were literally inventing the data to support it.
If there is one lesson to be learned from and about environmentalists, it is that they are utterly relentless. The ultimate goal is one-world government directed from the United Nations by unelected bureaucrats who are soulless strangers to the truth, to morality, to humanity.
The United States supports this abomination to the tune of billions every year.
The United Nations is a place where some of the world’s dictatorships have delegates representing them on its Human Rights Council, where a vast Oil-for-Food scandal flourished while Saddam Hussein held power in Iraq, where a single agency’s sole purpose is to ensure that Palestinians remain refugees six decades after the rebirth of Israel.
It is an organization where all manner of international treaties are ginned up to extend its control over the entire land mass and all the waters of the earth.
It is where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) practiced its deceit, regularly documenting a rise in the earth’s average temperature even when a new natural cooling cycle began in 1998.
Everything that could be attributed to a phony global warming to keep the people of the world scared flowed from this enormous lie. It caused governments to invest billions into the worst forms of energy, wind and solar, along with endless other equally worthless “Green” programs.
So, now, permit me to introduce you to the NEXT Big Lie—biodiversity!
It is the claim that a “Global extinction crisis looms, new study says.” That’s the headline on an October 27 Washington Post article by Juliet Eilperin, the Post’s designated shameless scaremongering reporter.
In June, the delegates from 200 nations gathered in Busan, a South Korean port city, under the banner of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a platform just like the discredited IPCC, but with the goal of denying vast areas of the earth from the development needed to feed six billion people and provide the raw materials vital to the energy required for a modern technological society dependent on electricity and on transportation fuels.
The “reason” for this is the alleged extinction of “nearly 26,000 species across the globe.” The list was compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature that purports to count all the mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish in the world to determine how “imperiled” there.
The very idea evokes incredulity. It is laughable and it is impossible. In the same fashion people were told that the global warmers could predict the temperature of the Earth fifty to a hundred years from now, we are expected to believe that all current species are imperiled. Just as humans were blamed for a non-existent rise in the Earth’s temperature, human are blamed on a massive and fictional extinction.
Consider that, from the earliest forms of life on earth to the existence of present species all have been engaged daily in the act of killing and eating one another. Ruminants that dine on grasses and other vegetation remain the prey for predator species.
Consider that of all the species that ever existed on Earth, 99% are extinct.
Nicholas K. Dulvy, a co-author of the list of alleged endangered species, complained that “We’ve transformed a third of the habitable land on earth for food production.” Oh, heaven forbid that humans should have enough food!
So, naturally, as reporter Eilperin noted, “Environmental groups are pushing for a goal of protecting 25 percent of all land on earth and 15 percent of the sea by 2020” even though, under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, roughly 14 percent of terrestrial areas and less than one percent of the ocean are already subject to so-called “environmental safeguards.”
Expect to begin hearing from yet a new group of “scientists” claiming that every creature from antelopes to zebras, from anteaters to weasels, albatrosses to vultures, crocodiles to vipers, and all the fish in the seas are doomed! Doomed! Doomed!
Billions of dollars that should go to feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and all manner of humanitarian needs will be siphoned off by this new group of United Nations grifters and charlatans for endless “research” grants and, of course, more international meetings to discuss this horrible new crisis.
This is how the cruel enviro-mafia works. We have all had a taste of it since the late 1980s when the global warming hoax was first perpetrated. The biodiversity lie needs a quicker death.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 30, 2010 11:46 PM (K7x36)
2
Hi Tim.
The problem with your sidebar is in the post "The Well-Trodden Path to Marxism" - there's something in the HTML of that post that is breaking the formatting of the blog.
The easiest way to fix that is to copy-and-paste the text into Notepad (or something similar), which will remove the formatting, and then delete the text from that entry and copy-and-paste from Notepad back into the blog.
You can reach me any time at help@mee.nu.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 31, 2010 02:50 AM (PiXy!)
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at October 31, 2010 11:16 AM (e6n2C)
4
Merapi eruption threat persists, three more volcano's brewing.
Increased activity sends thousands fleeing just as another Indonesian volcano begins showing signs of eruption.
Last Modified: 31 Oct 2010 17:37 GMT
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Mount Merapi's latest eruption sent thousands of residents fleeing the surrounding villages on Sunday [EPA]
An Indonesian volcano has unleashed more searing ash clouds, sending thousands of people who risked a trip home fleeing its slopes.
Officials said there were no deaths reported in Mount Merapi's eruption on Sunday, which sent massive clouds of ash down the less-populated southern and eastern slopes.
Experts said the volcanic cloud flowed about 3.5km down the mountain's southern side.
The 46-minute eruption sent dust about two kilometres into the air and a cloud of hot ash a kilometer down Merapi's eastern and southern slopes.
Surono, the head of Indonesia's Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, told Al Jazeera the hot clouds of gas and ash from Mount Merapi are the real threat this time.
"The mountain is very a dangerous volcano because the eruptions are followed by pyroclastic flow that can reach speeds of up to 1,300 kilometres per hour," he said.
"A pyroclastic flow is volcanic material made up of sand and rock of different dimensions. It is extremely hot with temperatures that can reach up to 800 degrees Celcius, and a velocity of up to 300 kilometres per hour."
Surono cautioned that heavy rain on Sunday increased the danger of another larger eruption because water falling into the fiery crater can create sudden vapour pressure in the lava dome.
Increasing activity
Nearly 40 people have been killed since Mount Merapi began erupting earlier this week.
Since Saturday's large eruption, Merapi has had 63 lava bursts and nine small gas emissions, according to Subandrio, an official with the volcano's monitoring agency.
"The trend seems to be that the volcanic activity is increasing."
Authorities have been frustrated that many of the more than 53,000 evacuated since the eruptions began on Tuesday keep going back during the daylight hours, ignoring warnings of the danger.
More than 2,000 troops had to be called in on Saturday to force men, women and children to leave.
Bambang Ervan, a spokesman for the transportation ministry, said Sunday's eruption forced the airport in the city of Solo, 40km east of Merapi, to close for at least an hour due to volcanic dust that fell like rain.
Pujobroto, a spokesman for the national carrier, Garuda Indonesia, said flights have been re-routed from the airport at Yogyakarta indefinitely out of concerns that the volcanic dust from the mountain about 30 km to the north would damage jet engines.
More volcanoes
Amid these developments, another volcano has begun pushing clouds of ash and molten rock into the air, signalling an impending eruption.
Officials have raised the alert level for Anak Krakatau to "high", and have issued warnings for people to stay away from the area.
The volcano was formed after the original Krakatoa blew itself apart in a catastrophic eruption in 1883.
Officials have also warned that two more volcanoes are threatening to erupt.
Mount Karangetang, on Siau island in North Sulawesi, and Mount Ibu, on Halmahera island in North Maluku, have had their alert level raised to standby, just one below a full eruption.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and eruptions as it straddles a series of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.
The country - comprised of an archipelago of islands - has about 500 volcanoes, of which nearly 130 are active.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 31, 2010 08:51 PM (3Pddd)
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Good chance of Grímsfjall eruption following the glacier flood
Posted on October 31, 2010 by Jón Frímann
According to Icelandic news there is a good chance of a eruption in Grímsfjall. Following the glacier flood from Grímsvötn glacier lake. That is at least the opinion of Páll Einarsson, a geologist at University of Iceland. This is not going to be a big eruption in Grímsfjall in Páll opinion. But it is most likely going to be similar in size to the eruption in Grímsfjall in the year 2004. But no damage did happen from that eruption and it did not erupt international flight paths (just domestic ones). In the news Páll also says that the pressure inside Grímsfjall magma chamber appears to be slightly higher then in the year 2004. But otherwise the situation in Grímsfjall is almost identical to the one in the year 2004.
Icelandic News. Please use Google Translate where possible.
Miklar líkur á gosi (Rúv.is)
(News stream is going to be added here when it appears on Ruv.is web page)
Líkur á eldgosi í Grímsvötnum (mbl.is)
Meiri líkur en minni á gosi í Grímsvötnum (DV.is)
Earlier this week Kliuchevskoi and Shiveluch at Kamchatka erupted sending ashplumes into the stratosphere.
So here we have it:
A cooling planet coinciding with an increase in seismic and volcanic activity.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 31, 2010 08:55 PM (3Pddd)
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Voting “The List”
By tom joseph
If you really think about it, Congress may have already solved the problem of choosing people to serve as our representatives in next year’s 112th Congress.
“The List” has nothing to do with what everyone calls ObamaCare even though all the members of Congress who voted for it are on the list. The fact is that when they voted for the two bills that are ObamaCare, they also voted against some things that are more important. They knew the majority of Americans opposed this form of health care and voted against the Will of the People. In other words, they chose not to represent the People.
Our Congressional choices began to narrow when the House of Representatives started working on the President’s Health Care Reform in July, 2009. Members of Congress toddled off for their August summer recess and ran right into public opposition. Some of their Town Hall meetings became so contentious that quite a few Representatives and Senators skipped having them. They all returned to Washington knowing that a sizeable number of Americans were against the President’s goal to nationalize health care.
So what did they do? On December 24, 2009, the Senate ignored the Will of the People and passed their version of health care called the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” The vote was 60 for and 39 against. All of the Democrats and Independents in the Senate voted to pass their act. All of the Republicans voted against it.
The political games in Washington now became very serious. Politicians who were against the bill were bullied and bribed. The President brought leaders of the medical care establishments into the White House for his version of the bully and bribe act. When the Congressional Budget Office released numbers that didn’t match the White House calculations, they were instructed in Oba-math and soon had more favorable numbers.
Since the situation in the House was more complicated, it took Speaker Pelosi until March 21, 2010 to pass the Senate’s “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Again, all 178 Republicans voted against the bill. Even though they were joined by 34 Democrats, Pelosi won the day with 219 votes for the bill.
On the same day, the House passed its Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 by 220 to 211 votes. This is also known as the “fixes act” because it fixes problems with the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” This bill had to be passed in the Senate before becoming part of the President’s Health Care Reform.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got it done by a 56-43 vote on March 25, 2010. The only problem was that the Senate amended the bill. It was immediately sent back to the House and the amended “Health Care and Reconciliation Act of 2010” passed the House by a vote of 220-207 on the same day.
In the process of making ObamaCare the law of the land, it should be noted that the politicians on the list didn’t ignore the Will of the People only once. Remember that it took two bills to do this undemocratic deed. Therefore, they voted twice for it.
All of this is not an example of democracy because We the People did not have honest representation in Congress. Too many members of the House and the Senate chose to represent Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi and President Obama instead of us. Imagine, they voted for legislation that they had not read and knew little or nothing about.
This is what dictatorship is like. We have been ordered to accept it and we have been ordered to pay for it, like it or not.
Representing the People is a sacred trust that once broken can never be restored. Without representation, we will not be living in a democracy. A vote for a member on the list of those who supported ObamaCare is a vote against democracy.
It is time to protect America. Vote for Democracy. Vote for our Constitution. And above all else….
VOTE FREEDOM !
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October 29, 2010
Iran at Heart of Iraqi Insurgency
This from The Federalist Patriot:
"Speaking of Iran, the documents (Wikileaks) prove that Iran was behind the so-called "insurgency" that then required the U.S. troop surge in 2007. Although the Leftmedia portrayed the insurgency as a popular uprising, it was Iran that instigated and fed it. Iran had Hezbollah train Iraqi Shiite insurgents in kidnappings and suicide bombings, and Iran's Revolutionary Guard shipped missiles and explosives to insurgents battling U.S. troops in Fallujah and other cities. Combined with documents showing that Iran bought off Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, who has admitted to receiving "bags of cash" from Iranian agents, it would appear that Iran has been at open war with U.S. forces for a number of years. All this points to the dire need to keep the Mad Mullahs of Iran from going nuclear."
End excerpt.
I have one thing to say; "TOLD YOU SO!"
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2010
Al Qaeda Sends a Message Again
By Alan Caruba
On March 11, 2004, just days before general elections in Spain, bombs went off on trains in a series of coordinated attacks that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800. An investigation determined that were the work of an al Qaeda “inspired” terrorist cell, though it was said at the time there was no direct connection.
The ruling party, Partido Popular, had supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a policy that was generally unpopular with Spaniards. The result was that its opposition won the elections.
I do not believe in coincidences and news that two explosive devices were found on cargo planes headed for America just days before our general elections suggests a pattern.
The larger pattern, of course, has been a number of recent terrorist attacks from the Christmas Eve “underwear bomber” to the more recent Times Square bomber. The only thing that seems to have protected Americans from being murdered as infidels is the sheer incompetence of those involved.
That kind of luck does not last forever.
Ironically, on October 27th I posted a commentary that was intended to be a reminder that, as we got ready to go to polling places on November 2nd, we have been too distracted from the fact that outside of America there is still a dangerous world.
Al Qaeda has sent us a message. The first part of the message was that they are still around and still at war with the Great Satan, America. The second was that they believe they can influence the outcome of our midterm elections. Though unintentional, the third part of the message is that they are a bunch of incompetents who, unlike Timothy McVeigh of Oklahoma City infamy, cannot put together a decent bomb.
That, of course, is an overstatement because Arabs, whether al Qaeda or not, have been blowing up each other’s mosques with regularity throughout the Middle East. There’s an Arab saying that goes something like “I against my brother. My brother and I against our cousins. My brother, my cousins, and I against the world.”
Even the Mafia had more internal cohesiveness than these sons of Allah whose biggest problem in life is who to kill next.
Unlike the Spaniards who voted to run away from the Iraq conflict, these would-be bombers have seriously misunderstood how Americans think. You attack us, we send in the Marines—and the Army—and the Air Force—and we park a couple of Navy carrier groups off the coast..
If the Yemenese do not get serious about their jihadists, finding and killing them, they will eventually get a visit from Uncle Sam. They don’t have that many friends in the world and that includes their neighbors in Saudi Arabia, so it’s likely to get very nasty for them.
The American military will be exiting Afghanistan in 2011 because President Obama never wanted to be there in the first place. I hate to agree with anything the man says or does, but in this he is correct. The Afghanis are tribal. When not finding a reason to fight one another, they will join together to fight anyone from outside. And that is likely to include the Taliban at some point.
The troops we are leaving in Iraq will be there when our grandchildren have grandchildren. The U.S. has a long history of never leaving a nation once we have invaded. Just ask the Germans, the Japanese, or the South Koreans, all of whom appear to have found that arrangement to their advantage.
Aside from the operational failure of this latest terror attack, what stands out is the lack of terror among Americans. Even the stock market took it in stride on Friday.
On Tuesday Americans are going to clean house in a Congress whose members are so unpopular that the survivors and the new winners will have gotten the message voters will have sent.
That’s not just a problem for Democrats. It’s a problem for al Qaeda, too.
© Alan Caruba, 2010
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 29, 2010 05:22 PM (EAZOV)
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Obama: Two explosives on US-bound cargo planes for Chicago synagogues
DEBKAfile Special Report October 29, 2010, 10:53 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags: air cargo terror Al Qaeda UK US
Device found at East Midlands, UK, airport
President Barack Obama, in a special statement Saturday, Oct. 29, dismissed speculation of an Al Qaeda dry run and disclosed "a credible terrorist threat to the United States" by means of two packages containing explosives originating with al Qaeda in Yemen and planted on UPS and Fedex cargo flights bound for the US. Obama disclosed that two Jewish places of worship in Chicago were among the targets of the package plot.
The threat to the US and its allies is still in force, the US president warned. He stressed the importance of cooperating with the Yemeni government to destroy Al Qaeda.
Security agencies on three continents went on high terror alert after being tipped off by allied intelligence that explosive packages had been addressed to the White House and Chicago synagogues from Yemen. The first suspect package, a photocopier ink cartridge rigged with wires and white powder, was found on a Chicago-bound UPS flight from Yemen at the British East Midlands airport. The second was confiscated at the Fedex facility at Dubai airport.
US authorities are unclear how the explosive substances were to have been detonated. Much still remains to be investigated.
DEBKAfile reported earlier:
The tipoff by an allied intelligence service of an air cargo terror plot reached Washington Thursday night, Oct. 28. After that US, British, French, German and Gulf counter-terror and aviation security agencies went into round-the-clock mode. Saturday, they decided to quarantine three cargo flights at Philadelphia and Newark, NJ, international airports for intensive sweeps of freights from Yemen.
The Chicago Jewish Federation was warned to be extra careful because some of the suspect parcels containing black power were addressed to local synagogues.
Security measures were tightened at all US airports for passengers as well as freight and the public was advised to be extra vigilant. As confusion mounted over the nature of the "attack", dozens of alarms were phoned in during the day from different parts of America. They included sightings of two UPS pick-trucks in Queens and Brooklyn, an unaccompanied bag on a street bench which caused part of San Francisco's financial district to be temporarily evacuated and a backpack in bushes outside a courthouse in Portland, Maine.
A special new counter-terror center was established in the UK with labs for screening suspicious articles.
DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources report three theories current about the motives behind the air mail plot:
1. The small number of suspect packages - apparently less than the fingers of one hand - was used to probe the intercontinental aviation security systems for cargo planes and airports handling freights to the United States preparatory to a major attack.
2. The imposition of heightened security for air cargo comparable to that applied to passenger traffic would throw the mail industry into chaos, causing extreme financial losses and disrupting an important branch of the Western economy.
3. Getting one of the suspect packages delivered at the White House in Washington would have given al Qaeda a tremendous propaganda boost - especially in the run-up midterm congressional elections.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 29, 2010 05:25 PM (EAZOV)
3
With two aircraft carriers with sufficient punching power to make WWII look like a walk in the park the USA, Israel, France and the UK are ready to take on Iran's Revolutionary Guards and send them into the stone age.
There will be a backlash from Syria, Hezbullah, Hamas and other wannabe martyrs who prefer death over life.
The time has come to give them what they long for and send them on the road to eternity before they do the same to us.
The longer we wait, the bigger the mess.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 29, 2010 05:40 PM (EAZOV)
4
Could It Be Obama’s October Surprise?
By Ron Ewart Friday, October 29, 2010
We’ve been waiting for it and expecting it, knowing that it would happen. Obama’s October surprise has landed (pun intended), or so it would seem.
How convenient! Five days before the November 2nd election, Obama comes up with a so-called “credible” security alert and takes the opportunity to “brief” Americans (on TV of course, with the ubiquitous teleprompter) on how competent he is and how in-control the government is of this terrorist threat from Yemen. F-15’s were reported to be shadowing an airplane that was coming in from Yemen, over Canadian airspace, before it landed at JFK. As we all know, Yemen is the hotbed of Al Queda-sponsored terrorist activity, at the hands of an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who turned traitor, or so we are told. Does anyone trust what government tells us these days?
Anwar al-Awlaki was seen having dinner at the Pentagon, before he bolted America to take up residence in Yemen and direct some dastardly attacks on America. (i.e. the Christmas underwear bomber, the Fort Hood shooting and the Times Square Bomber) Yeah, you bet. Al-Awlaki must be a bad guy, no doubt.
Now it is possible that the October 29th threat was real and that Obama is doing what he is supposed to be doing as Commander-in-Chief and our intelligence agencies are johnny-on-the-spot with all the current international intrigue and terrorist plots. We certainly hope so. But damn the timing is suspect.
Having said all that, let’s take another tack on this potential October surprise. Many in the world, at the highest level, (government elite, money changers and power brokers) want to see Obama and the Democrats remain in power in America, for a whole host of reasons. Could it be that this whole event was a staged terrorist attempt to challenge American security (with a little help from Great Britain), five days before the American election, knowing full well that we would discover the plot and Obama would be able to go on Television and look all presidential, thereby influencing the election?
Or, could it be that the top echelon in the Obama administration knew all this was happening weeks ago and scrambled our fighter jets on a Yemen passenger airplane this very day (by presidential order), in order to heighten the event to an international news story? Clever, if it is so.
People in America have grown so cynical about their government, that these kinds of thoughts run through their heads on a daily basis. Secrecy has replaced transparency. Closed door meetings have replaced open government. A huge segment of the American people believe in the most outlandish conspiracy theories. Hmmm! We wonder why?
Legislation, that is contrary to every element of freedom and liberty under our Constitution, is shoved down America’s throat by this president and the Democrat-controlled Congress, with arrogance and malice aforethought. Trust, honor, integrity, honesty and morality have gone the way of the now extinct Do-do bird. In their place we find corruption, double dealing, waste, fraud and abuse of our money and our government institutions. Everything is for sale to the highest bidder, whether they are international interests, corporations, unions, or special interest groups.
Whether the October 29th threat is real, or is an attempt to influence the election, November 2, 2010 must be a repudiation of everything that Obama and the Democrats stand for. America has few chances of survival as a Republic before it descends into irretrievable socialism and national bankruptcy. November 2nd had better be a substantial start of taking back a country that has gone horribly wrong, under a regime and a party that talks all nice and fuzzy about American values, freedom and liberty and then turns around and spits in America’s eye with every stroke of their traitorous pens.
Long live our Constitutional Republic, under a proud flag of freedom.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 30, 2010 03:56 AM (3Q2G2)
5
Think Again: A double standard for Islam
By JONATHAN ROSENBLUM
10/29/2010 16:21
Hate speech laws are applied in West against those critical of Islam, but never against Muslim imams who mock Jewish, Christian infidels.
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Islamists everywhere demand respect for Islam, the prophet and the Koran, and threaten murderous mayhem should that demand not be honored. At the same time, they do not hesitate to express their contempt for other religions and their adherents, as well as the system of democratic rights protecting the freedom of religion.
Nor are those threats to be taken likely. More than 50 people died in violence triggered by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1989 edict against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, and all those connected with its publication or distribution. Dozens of Europeans are now in hiding or under police protection because of death threats from Muslims.
Sadly, the West has to a shocking degree acquiesced in this double standard. The Washington Post removed from its website a cartoon including the words “Where’s Muhammad,” even though it contained no depiction of him; South Park’s producers edit episodes mentioning Islam but not those ridiculing Christianity; Yale University Press deleted all the actual cartoons from a book on the Danish cartoon controversy. Australian preachers were fined for quoting the Koran, and leading Dutch politician Geert Wilders was put on trial for his strident criticism of Islam.
Hate speech laws are applied in Europe against those critical of Islam, but never against Muslim imams who mock Jewish or Christian infidels. Even here, Tatiana Susskind was sentenced to two years in jail for posting a cartoon of the face of Muhammad on the body of a pig, but preachers from the Islamic Movement can broadcast what they want about Jews and Judaism.
The double standard conveys to the Islamists two dangerous messages. First, violence works; the West is terrorized. Second, Islam is the one true religion: Behold, even Westerners treat it with a deference not shown to Christianity or Judaism.
INTELLECTUALS AND cultural elites have played a major role in fostering the West’s acceptance of voluntary dhimmitude by manipulating the level at which the debate takes place whenever it touches issues of Islam. In part, intellectual attitudes are motivated by fear; in part by a refusal to acknowledge a civilizational struggle between the West and expansionist Islam. For some, the frisson of seeing their own bourgeois society under attack contributes to the fun.
The recent uproar over the threat of an obscure Florida pastor to burn the Koran provides a classic example of the different ways the debate is framed depending on whether Islam is perceived as the “aggressor” or the “victim.”
The Koran burning would undoubtedly have been protected “symbolic speech” under settled First Amendment doctrine. Burning the American flag, another highly charged act, has been protected by the Supreme Court. At the same time, it must be conceded that the Koran burning is highly offensive to Muslims and has no purpose other than to offend.
Let’s compare the response to the threatened Koran burning to another recent hot-button issue: the Ground Zero mosque. In discussing the proposed mosque, President Barack Obama focused, or at least claimed to focus, on the impermissibility under the First Amendment of banning only mosques from a particular area. He expressed, or claimed to express, no opinion on the propriety of the project.
The issue of the propriety of the project or the implicit message it would convey to the broader Islamic world was beyond the pale of legitimate discussion, proclaimed New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. He professed to be totally uninterested in the fact the project’s initiator, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an advocate for the spread of Islamic law (Shari’a) or that he has assigned America part of the blame for 9/11 or that he initially described the site of the mosque as so close to Ground Zero that debris from one of the hijacked airplanes fell on it. That the building of the mosque will be viewed by Islamists worldwide as an example of Islamic religious structures replacing those of the conquered infidels is irrelevant.
Pastor Terry Jones, by contrast, was immediately condemned by Obama (“un-American”), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (“disgraceful”) and Supreme NATO Commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus. The latter argued that the Koran burning would endanger allied troops and make the Taliban’s recruiting easier.
In short, critics of Jones – just about every single person in America – framed the discussion of his proposed action in terms of its propriety or impact, and ignored its protected status under the First Amendment, while defenders of the Ground Zero mosque talked only of the First Amendment, and ruled out of court issues of propriety or the boost the mosque would give to the Islamist narrative of Islam triumphant.
Even more striking is the contrast of the calumny heaped on Jones, with the public discussion of grossest offenses to Christianity. Christians who protested the taxpayer-supported Brooklyn Museum of Art’s display of a picture of Jesus’s mother on a background of buttocks and female genitalia or the use of a National Endowment of the Arts grant to produce a jar with a plastic crucifix in urine (Piss Christ) found themselves pilloried by their cultural betters as philistines and lectured on the privilege of living in a society in which even the most transgressive art can find a public forum.
Only transgressive art that might rile notoriously irritable Muslims gets a pass. US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer seriously entertained the idea, in response to a question from George Stephanopoulos, that Koran-burning might be compared to shouting fire in a crowded theater if Muslims in Afghanistan would go on murderous rampages in response. He thereby treated Muslims as possessed of rage response instinct that completely bypasses all higher brain function.
THE DISPROPORTIONATE media attention focused on Jones served the Islamist cause by giving credence to the charge of Islamophobia, which is constantly used to exclude discussion of Islam from the free marketplace of ideas. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, for instance, felt compelled to “apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness directed at you.”
Yet Islamophobia is largely a fiction. Jones, one person in a nation of more than 300 million, did not constitute a wave of anything. Hate crimes against Muslims are exceedingly rare in America – even after 9/11, the Fort Hood massacre, the attempted Times Square bombing and a dozen other foiled terrorist attempts. Hate crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions are eight times as common as those against Muslims.
The Western media consistently downplays the scope of Islamic threat, perhaps in an effort to calm its fears. The overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide are peace-loving fellows, we are assured, and only a handful of bad apples spoil the image of the rest. Ignored are the worldwide network of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi mosques and the vast number of Muslim Brotherhood-inspired offshoots – not just al-Qaida and Hamas, but groups in Western countries promoting Shari’a as the only legitimate system of law.
Endemic problems in virtually the entire Arab and Muslim world are ignored. On a Freedom House scale of freedom (on which seven is the least free) the median for Arab nations is 5.5. For the rest of the world it is 2.5. Whether it is child brides in Gaza, institutionalized selection of dancing pre-pubescent boys as mistresses by older males in Afghanistan or widespread clitoridectomy in much of the Muslim world, the media take a pass. All these phenomena deserve more attention than Jones’s antics.
When Khomeini pronounced it the duty of every Muslim to kill Salman Rushdie and all those promoting his book, British intellectuals rallied to his defense. Recently, when Mollie Norris, a cartoonist for a Seattle alternative weekly, had the misbegotten idea of promoting “Draw Muhammad Day,” she was advised by the FBI to change her identity and go underground. Her own paper contented itself with a laconic announcement, “Mollie Norris no longer exists.”
The story of an American journalist fearing for her life in America received scant coverage.
No wonder Paul Berman titled his recent book on Western responses to Islam The Flight of the Intellectuals.
The writer is the director of Jewish Media Resources. He has written a regular column in The Jerusalem Post Magazine since 1997, and is the author of eight biographies of modern Jewish leaders.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 30, 2010 04:44 AM (3Q2G2)
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Swing Voters Are Flocking to GOP
By PETER WALLSTEN AND NEIL KING JR.
The Democrats' final push to woo undecided voters appears to have fizzled, potentially putting dozens of competitive House races beyond reach and undermining the party's chances in at least four toss-up Senate seats, according to party strategists and officials.
Independents, a crucial swing bloc, seem to be breaking sharply for Republicans in the final days of the campaign.
One nonpartisan prognosticator, Stuart Rothenberg, said Friday he thought the Republicans could pick up as many as 70 House seats—something no party has achieved since 1948. The Republicans need 39 seats to take the majority. Fading Democratic support among independents is also keeping alive the GOP's longer-shot hopes of taking the Senate.
Party strategists say their biggest problem of the Democrats now is swing voters' frustration with the president, prompting some to start fretting about the impact of this disenchantment on the 2012 elections.
Democratic pollster David Beattie said independents were voting against Democrats because of Mr. Obama. The Democrats "are being called 'Obama liberals,' and it's working," Mr. Beattie said. "This race is all about President Obama."
Nationally, independent voters, who backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008, have swung to the GOP. In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 52% said they would vote Republican next week. The survey found Mr. Obama, who won 52% of independents nationally in 2008, has a job-approval rating of just 40% among that group.
With enthusiasm ebbing on the left, Democratic candidates needed this year to win over even more independent voters than Mr. Obama did in 2008, strategists said. Candidates who have been banking on making up this ground in the closing days have instead seen independent voters flocking to the GOP.
Virginia's Rep. Rick Boucher, who has comfortably held his seat for 14 terms, is one of many prominent House Democrats who have suffered in recent weeks from a sharp drop in support among independents. Just a month ago, his own polls showed him up by more than 12 points over his opponent, Republican state lawmaker Morgan Griffith.
The race is now so close, Mr. Boucher said, "that it will all come down to who is better at getting out the vote on Election Day." Mr. Boucher attributed that slump mainly to a drop in support among independents.
Mr. Griffith, his opponent, said a big factor was Mr. Boucher's ties to the president. Mr. Boucher was one of the first Democrats in Virginia to endorse Mr. Obama in 2007. "Mr. Obama and his policies are very unpopular here," Mr. Griffith said.
In New Jersey, 11-term Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone has seen his lead over the Republican tea-party favorite Anna Little narrow rapidly as undecided independents have broken in Ms. Little's favor.
"If Little wins, it will represent a complete annihilation of the Democrats in this race, and it could well happen," says Patrick Murray, who directs the state's Monmouth University Polling Institute. Across the state, he said, "independents are going for Republicans more than I've ever seen before."
In the Senate races, Democrats have managed to solidify their lead in several key states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware and West Virginia. That makes it difficult—but not impossible—for the Republicans to get the 10 seats they need to capture that chamber.
Ebbing support among independents is keeping that door open.
Republicans are favored to pluck four seats held by Democrats in Wisconsin, North Dakota, Indiana and Arkansas. In addition, Democrats are fighting close races to retain their hold on Senate seats in Nevada—home to Majority Leader Harry Reid—Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington. To take the Senate, Republicans must win all those races, plus at least one of those seen as more safely in the Democratic column.
In Mr. Obama's home state of Illinois, Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk has moved in the past month from winning 38% of independents to now winning half of them, according to a Chicago Tribune poll published last week. Mr. Kirk is locked in a dead heat with Democrat Alexi Giannoulias.
In Pennsylvania, where Mr. Obama won independents by 19 points, Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey is winning them by 13 points over Democrat Joe Sestak, according to a CNN survey this week. The race appeared to tighten earlier this month, but in recent days Mr. Toomey seems to have moved back into a lead.
Democrats say Mr. Sestak's trouble with independents could pose less of a challenge than in other Senate races, as Democrats hold a 1.2 million-voter edge in party registration in Pennsylvania, while only about one in 10 voters there is unaligned with the major parties.
A strong turnout effort by the party and allied labor unions could be enough. Still, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell conceded losing independents makes the job much harder for any Democrat. "Can we win without getting our normal share of independent voters?" said Gov. Rendell. "We can, but it makes it much more unlikely."
The same trend is presenting a down-to-the-wire challenge for Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who is locked in an apparent tie with Republican challenger Ken Buck.
A Democratic poll this week showed Mr. Bennet winning a narrow plurality of independent voters, 41% to 34%. But party strategists say the senator needs about 60% of that bloc, about a third of the electorate, in order to make up for expected lower Democratic turnout.
"Independents who helped Obama win in '08, are now giving GOP candidates significant edges, from the U.S. Senate to state legislative races across the country," said Republican pollster Neil Newhouse.
Democratic strategists said independents were taking out their frustrations against Democrats up and down the ballot, even in state legislative and citycouncil races.
Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant who served as a senior adviser to the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry, said the trend was striking this year. "They are behaving like Republicans," Mr. Devine said of independent voters.
Write to Peter Wallsten at peter.wallsten@wsj.com
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 30, 2010 05:36 AM (3Q2G2)
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I rest my case. Islam is a violent and dangerous ideology determined to destroy the West.
Not because we think so, but because they say so.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/shock-radical-muslim-cleric-describes-islam-for-cnn/
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 30, 2010 05:43 AM (3Q2G2)
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Hidden Campaign Cash
This from the Federalist Patriot:
In the final days of the campaign, Democrats are still complaining that the GOP outspends them in "undisclosed" expenditures by a vast amount: $75 million to $10 million. But, in fact, Republicans are pikers when compared to the Democrats' own use of "undisclosed" spending. Public sector unions such as AFSCME, SEIU and NEA provide an unending supply of ready attack cash. These unions have soaked their members for more than $171.5 million in forced "donations" in the 2009-2010 election cycle. AFSCME's $87.5 million alone exceeds the $75 million Republicans have received from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this month's faux villain of the Left. Rounding out this group is the conservative-leaning American Crossroads, but even with that, the GOP's infamous "undisclosed" war chest still reaches only $140 million.
The Democrats continue to spout their unproven accusations of bad money tainting Republican coffers, though, because they're desperate to stave off an electoral disaster at the gubernatorial level. Money can be a decisive factor in close elections, and the Republican Governors Association plans to capitalize on this. The RGA has raised $31 million in the last three months, whereas in prior cycles they didn't reach that in a year. Democrats, by contrast, are suffering an enthusiasm gap, pulling in just $10 million in the same period. The RGA has made its presence known in the South Carolina race, forcing the Democrats all but to abandon the state. There could be more of those coming.
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Reduce them under Absolute Despotism; H.R.5741
Here it is! Charlie Rangel, ethical disaster, has proposed Obama's internal militia aka the American Oprichnina.
http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.5741:
According to the bill:
"SEC. 102. NATIONAL SERVICE OBLIGATION.
(a) Obligation for Service- It is the obligation of every citizen of the United States, and every other person residing in the United States, who is between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of national service as prescribed in this title unless exempted under the provisions of this title.
(b) Forms of National Service- The national service obligation under this title shall be performed either--
(1) as a member of an active or reserve component of the uniformed services; or
(2) in a civilian capacity that, as determined by the President, promotes the national defense, including national or community service and service related to homeland security.
(c) Age Limits- A person may be inducted under this title only if the person has attained the age of 18 and has not attained the age of 42."
What Rangel is calling for is nothing short of universal service to the State - something that is absolutely anathema to our Constitution and our beliefs. Youths would be forced by law (meaning, ultimately, at gunpoint) to either serve in the military or in a manner to be decided entirely by the President i.e. a national service corps (that's pronounced core, Mr. President) for the purposes of national security goals i.e. an internal militia.
This is a personal Praetorian Guard for Obama, if implemented. Consider Section 105:
SEC. 105. IMPLEMENTATION BY THE PRESIDENT.
(a) In General- The President shall prescribe such regulations as are necessary to carry out this title.
(b) Matter To Be Covered by Regulations- Such regulations shall include specification of the following:
(1) The types of civilian service that may be performed in order for a person to satisfy the person's national service obligation under this title.
(2) Standards for satisfactory performance of civilian service and of penalties for failure to perform civilian service satisfactorily.
(3) The manner in which persons shall be selected for induction under this title, including the manner in which those selected will be notified of such selection.
(4) All other administrative matters in connection with the induction of persons under this title and the registration, examination, and classification of such persons.
(5) A means to determine questions or claims with respect to inclusion for, or exemption or deferment from induction under this title, including questions of conscientious objection.
(6) Standards for compensation and benefits for persons performing their national service obligation under this title through civilian service.
(7) Such other matters as the President determines necessary to carry out this title.
(c) Use of Prior Act- To the extent determined appropriate by the President, the President may use for purposes of this title the procedures provided in the Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. App. 451 et seq.), including procedures for registration, selection, and induction.
What will the purpose of this militia be? "national defense, including national or community service and service related to homeland security." One must be very concerned here, as the government has repeatedly attempted to link conservatives with domestic terrorism. Will the President use such a force against political enemies? There is absolutely no reason not to, if those enemies are deemed BY THE PRESIDENT as potential domestic terrorists.
This is a powergrab of unprecedented proportions. The Constitution of the United States says;
"Section 2 - Civilian Power over Military, Cabinet, Pardon Power, Appointments
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."
Please note; nothing is said about internal military EXCEPT "the Militia of Several States", which means the President has no internal authority inside of the individual states.
Amendment 10 states:
Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Requiring two years of service of the American citizenry during peacetime is abominable - something more in line with the Egyptian Pharoah, or the old Soviet state. Granting the power to determine exactly what that service will entail to the Executive Branch is an act of tyranny, and would have led to Mr. Rangel's censure at a bare minimum in a more freedom-loving time.
Our government is clearly treading close to the line Jefferson drew:
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Clearly, establishing an internal militia to be ruled by an imperial president is designed to "reduce them under absolute Despotism".
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Bond King calls Bernanke the Lyin' King
Jack Kemp
When the owner of the world's biggest bond fund openly calls out Ben Bernanke, you know the administration is in trouble.
Here's a quote or two:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/bond_king_bernanke_schemer_e2bMBKc0hLePjpqBIz1u6J
"The world's bond king says Ben Bernanke is pulling off the mother of all Ponzi schemes.
Bill Gross, head of the world's largest bond fund, Pacific Investment Management Co., stunned investors yesterday by trashing the Federal Reserve chairman's new plan..."
"Bernanke's move, dubbed QE2 for the second round of quantitative easing, or the buying of government debt..."
END OF QUOTES
QE2 is also the nickname for the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth the Second. I think Bernanke's QE2 is more like the Titanic 2.
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October 28, 2010
Bill Clinton stumps for Cuomo - and himself - in the Brooklyn Twilight Zone, Pt.1..
Bill Clinton stumps for Cuomo - and himself - in the Brooklyn Twilight Zone
Jack Kemp
Bill Clinton came to downtown Brooklyn to a gathering of around 500 people, a full house, in the auditorium of New York City College of Technology. A press member told me that the crowd was mostly political volunteers for Cuomo and one of the speakers - former Comptroller Bill Thompson - referred to the audience as "leaders" to get out the vote, which reinforces that claim. This is one of the bluest Blue State onclaves in America.
To an audience that included Congress members and Borough presidents, Bill Clinton started out by saying that he created 22 million jobs, turned around a national deficit and created a "great surplus." Of course, if the audience wants to compare those figures to those of the current administration and decide they might want the Clintons in the White House in 2012, well... This opening could be used as a stump speech in the 2012 presidential primaries without changing a word.
Clinton also addressed the opposition party's arguments, saying that the Republicans have said "the Democrats have left the country in a "hole, on the brink of socialism." Countering that with folksy generalization, he claimed the Republican were "previous coaches who went 2-9 repeatedly" while the Democratic "coaches (the Obama administration) went 7-9," slowly turning things around.
Obama's debt level is roughly four times that of George Bush's (and I'm not defending Bush's spending excesses here), but this audience was not about to contradict their rock star attraction or question his calculations. To give you an idea how enthralled this crowd was, at one point in the speech, Clinton spoke of Repubicans who also created large government programs - with a twist...
"Years ago, Eisenhower thought he was a conservative (not really, Mr. Clinton) and he created the Interstate Highway system (true). Thirty years ago, Nixon thought he was a conservative (another stretch by Mr. Clinton) and he created the EPA!," Clinton emphatically said at the podium. And the audience clapped! Only Bill Clinton could get a group of Democrats to applaud Richard Nixon and his programs. No one booed the former President from Whittier's name. And Rod Serling did NOT come out on stage to tell us we were all in the Twilight Zone, much to my personal surprise.
Clinton went on to say the Democrats had stopped digging and were using tax cuts for middle class businesses and creating green energy jobs. If a copper pipe on a Gulf Oil rig gets oxydation from lack of use and turns green, I guess you can call that "green energy" if you are a slick Arkansas lawyer. But most of those green companies (and their jobs) need a government handout to break even, making them development level companies at best and big government handouts at worst.
Clinton went on to even say a nice word about the Tea Parties, saying that they don't want any runaway government expenses such as TARP and that "I (he) "sympathizes with that." But then he went into chastizing the Republicans for wanting/allowing "future failures" in business.
I don't think the Republicans want future failures, but they know every business isn't a success and the government can't guarantee you'll sell some item or service that people want. But I guess the buggy whip, travel agency and pay phone businesses now know which party to vote for to get a subsidy to keep them afloat. Just add it to the deficit, Mr. Clinton - and don't create a new tax on your book royalties and speaking fees to pay for it.
Clinton was just getting into a wind up. "Thiry years of relentless (Republican) propaganda. Anything that goes wrong is the government's fault. But it wasn't their fault. We need more government not less."
Well, I have to give Mr. Clinton credit for honestly putting the Democratic political philosophy right out there on the table. If one believes we need more government, not less, then they can vote for the Democrats next Tuesday. We'll see how many agree with Clinton around the country - even if he probably has many people in Brooklyn who do.
"We should change the Healthcare bill, not repeal it," Clinton went on to say - and the part he wants to repeal is the profits that go to the insurance companies. This brought large applause for demonizing the insurers, but they are very regulated and being driven out of the health insurance business as recently happened with one major supplier. We can speculate on whether people in doctors' offices will cheer as loudly under Obamacare as they did for Clinton's remarks. The poor reputation of the British National Health System is well known, with its higher death rates from many kinds of cancers, as the higher cancer rates in Canada and France.
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A presidency heading for a fiscal train wreck
By Nouriel Roubini
Published: October 28 2010 20:48 | Last updated: October 28 2010 20:48
What has been the fiscal performance of President Barack Obama? He inherited the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, as well as a budget deficit that – after much needed bail-outs and a series of reckless tax cuts – was already close to $1,000bn. His stimulus package, together with a backstop of the financial system, low rates and quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve, prevented another depression. Mr Obama also deserves credit that the US, alone among advanced economies, currently supports a “growth now”, rather than an “austerity now” path.
But this is but one half of the picture; we must also judge his first two years on his ability to anticipate what the economy will need tomorrow. Here the picture is much less positive. Given the likely path of fiscal policy after next Tuesday’s election – with the expiration of existing stimulus and transfer payments, and even with most of the 2001-03 tax cuts being kept – the US economy will soon experience serious fiscal drag just when it needs a further boost. Problematically, the administration’s failures leave it relying on the Fed, which is bent on further QE, likely to be announced next Wednesday. But studies show this will have little effect on US growth in 2011, so fiscal policy should be doing some of the lifting to prevent a double dip recession.
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In an ideal world Mr Obama would also have been able to move towards reforming and reducing entitlement spending, with commitments to measures that could be phased in over the next few years, therefore avoiding short-term fiscal pain. He would also have committed to increase, gradually over the next few years, less distortionary taxes such as a VAT and a carbon tax. This would have reduced the fiscal deficit, and created a climate in which no investor would worry about additional stimulus.
Sadly, this has not happened. In fact the opposite will now take place. The term stimulus is already a dirty word, even within the Obama administration. After the Republicans make significant electoral gains further stimulus is even less likely. Medium-term consolidation, meanwhile, will be all but impossible as the 2012 presidential election begins to loom large.
In truth the only window of opportunity is 2011. Here the president deserves credit for setting up a bipartisan debt commission, which is most likely to propose a sensible combination of entitlement spending cuts and increases in taxes. But sadly the chance that these recommendations will be implemented in 2011 is close to zero. Republicans will veto any tax increase, while Democrats will resist unpopular entitlement reform.
The upshot is that the current gridlock in Congress will soon get much worse. Of course, Mr Obama cannot entirely be blamed for his limited progress, when the Republicans take that Leninist approach of “the worse the better”, and offer no co-operation on any issue. That they now see Mr Obama as a one-term president will soon mean the worst open warfare inside the Beltway in 30 years.
The coming stalemate will only be made worse by the lack of a reason to act on the deficit. The bond vigilantes are asleep, while borrowing rates remain unusually low. Near zero rates will continue as long as growth and inflation are low (and getting lower) and repeated bouts of global risk aversion – as with this spring’s Greek crisis – will push more investors to safe dollars and US debt. China’s massive interventions to stop renminbi appreciation will mean purchasing yet more treasuries too. In short, kicking the can down the road will be the political path of least resistance.
The risk, however, is that something on the fiscal side will snap, and the bond vigilantes will wake up. The trigger could be a debt rollover crisis in a major US state government, or perhaps even the realisation that congressional gridlock means bipartisan solutions to our medium-term fiscal crisis is mission impossible. Only then will our politicians suddenly remember that, on top of our federal debt, the US suffers from unfunded social security and Medicare liabilities, state and local government debt, and public pension bills that add up to many multiples of US GDP.
A bond market shock is thus the only thing likely to break the impasse. Mr Obama may take some comfort from the fact that the worst of the coming fiscal train wreck will be prevented by the Fed’s easing. But the risk is he will then preside not over a bout of inflation but a Japanese style stagnation, where growth is barely positive, and deflationary pressures and high unemployment linger.
The Obama administration did the right thing early, and avoided another depression. He is still doing the right thing now in pointing out the risks of early austerity. And he is limited by an unco-operative Republican party trapped in a belief in voodoo economics, the economic equivalent of creationism. Even so, he and his party have been unwilling to tackle long-term entitlement spending. Two years in, and this means the US remains on an unsustainable fiscal course.
The result will soon be the worst of all worlds: neither short-term stimulus nor medium-term fiscal sustainability. Fiscally the only light at the end of the tunnel may be that which causes the upcoming crisis. With two years of gridlock in prospect, it will fall to the next president in 2013 – whoever he or she may be – to start fixing America’s fiscal mess. Whether that is Mr Obama or not, that he may leave this challenge may become the worst of his legacy.
The writer is chairman of Roubini Global Economics, Professor at the Stern School of Business, NYU and co-author of Crisis Economics
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 29, 2010 04:46 AM (EAZOV)
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Bill Clinton stumps for Cuomo - and himself - in the Brooklyn Twilight Zone, Pt. 2
I recall talking to a physician at a demonstration last April 15th near
the Main New York City Post Office, Dr. Ronald Hoffman (of WWOR Radio
fame). Dr. Hoffman stated that in Russia only women become general
practicioner physicians. I assume that men who traditionally support
their families have to work in another field in Russia, be it a medical
specialty or entirely different line of employment, in order to make a
living. I have nothing against women general practicioners - in fact,
mine is a lady from Russia. But what Dr. Hoffman didn't say - and I will
- is that a socialist government sets up economically unrealistic
conditions that drive many would-be skilled physicians away from
persuing that line of work because of the low government prescribed
wage.
In his conclusion, Clinton then went out to discuss voter turnout
predictions with dramatic numbers. He stated that the polls predict that
40 percent fewer Afro-Americans will vote on this upcoming Election Day
compared to the 2008 Presidential Election. But the audience could
wipe out that predicted drop by turning out at the polls. Frankly, I
haven't seen that 40 percent figure discussed in public and was
surprised Clinton would even mention such a huge number as the predicted
dropoff. Perhaps he was lowering the bar so that it can be easily
cleared by Democratic African-American voters and whatever the final
totals are, he can put a positive spin on it. Clinton also offered
similar figures for dramatic drops in turnout among Hispanics and
others, urging the crowd to exceed those predictions.
Bill Clinton finished his speech and there were roughly 15-20 people who
walked out of the auditorium as gubenatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo
took the podium. Clinton politely took a seat at Cuomo's side, as the
Lt. Governor commented on Carl Paladino's remarks about taking a
baseball bat to Albany and other remarks that Paladino will probably
live to regret on November second. Cuomo then gave a standard stump
speech, talking about Republicans wanting to redeploy State Police to
arrest illegal aliens and deport them and also create a referendum on
racial profiling. I'm not familiar with the second claim made by Cuomo,
but as to the first one - isn't that called enforcing the immigration
laws? New York State unemployment figures exceed ten percent. Minority
unemployment figures are higher. Cuomo felt no need to explain how he
expected to lower those figures while having a large pool of illegal
workers who undercut the going wages in many fields, be they the federal
minimum wage or a higher figure for FICA and other tax paying workers
(and tax matching employers). Like I said, it was the Twilight Zone and
everyone got to feel good, being told what they wanted to hear. Rod
Serling was, in fact, from Binghamton, New York, and the state probably gave him the inspiration for his surreal stories.
In July of 2009, Matt Taibbi took Goldman Sachs and Andrew Cuomo's HUD
to task in a monumental Rolling Stone investigative article
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/06/goldman-sachs-engineering-every-major.html
about the housing crisis. It was entitled "The Great American Bubble
Machine." I suggest those that haven't read it to do so and then decide
if Andrew Cuomo can reverse the job and housing losses of New York
State.
I predict New York politics will, once again, resemble a Twilight Zone
marathon. And like Mr. Bemis, who broke his glasses when he had all the
time in the world, the ending will be very blurry for many state
residents in the years to come.
http://www.imdb.com/video/cbs/vi1440614169/
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Bill Clinton stumps for Cuomo - and himself - in the Brooklyn Twilight Zone, Pt.1
This version has a tech problem with no separation between paragraphs. Deleted.
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Darkness at Noon
Jack Kemp
Finally a guy writes an article with all the politeness of yours truly...LOL.
Jack
http://www.teapartynation.com/profiles/blogs/where-the-sun-dont-shine-barry
Where The Sun Don’t Shine, Barry…
Posted by Richard Allan Jenni on October 27, 2010 at 11:44am
Obama’s rusty freighter has so many leaks that it might well sink even before the election. As you’ve no doubt heard, Rhode Island’s raging Democrat Frank Caprio told Barry to take his endorsement and “shove it.”
And why are so many soon-to-be shipwrecked Obamacrats in peril? Could it be Barry’s failed and foundering Presidency? Nope! It’s all that “secret money” funding Republican attack ads. And WHERE are Republicans gonna sit, Barry? “In the back?” Barack Hussein Obama, you are one pathetic camper.
There are many issues facing America, but looking back on the uncivil, even violent, civilian dissent during the Vietnam years, I’m surprised the Afghan War isn’t more of an issue in 2010. For any of you who need a refresher course on the Vietnam War, or for whatever reason wish to revisit its agony, please click this link for a photo essay marking 35 years since the fall of Saigon.
Like Vietnam, the Afghan War is a costly quagmire. As General David Petraeus assessed, “I don’t think you win this war. I think you keep fighting... This is the kind of war we’re in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids’ lives.”
Afghanistan is a political hot potato few politicians are willing to touch- even among the Taxed-Enough-Already. Rand Paul, to his credit, recently remarked that while he would always vote to fund our troops in harm’s way, he questions how long we should remain mired in this never-ending and expensive conflict.
In addition to a tax-dollar tally, the human costs of this senseless conflict are staggering. When do we finally say enough’s enough?
From September 1965 to September 1968, I served as a US Army trumpet player. Sounds like easy duty- except that while in the 6th Army Band at the Presidio of San Francisco, I often found myself at the bitter end of Vietnam’s combat chain. I sounded Taps at so many military funerals in ‘66 and ‘67 that I soon lost count. The most in one day? 25. I get it. Believe me, folks- I get it…
Obama touted Afghanistan as the right war- even deprecating our efforts in Iraq. And hanging Saddam Hussein? Would to God we had ended Adolf Hitler’s military career so soon. Called to active duty in the Air Force during Desert Storm, I only regret we didn’t finish the job then, GHWB…
And I for one find it impossible to justify risking American life and limb in Afghanistan while our national security is so heavily threatened along the southern border by heavily-armed Mexican drug cartels.
A border fence alone will not stop illegal intrusion. Neither will electronic gadgetry. There’s no substitute for our Ultimate Weapon. No- not the atomic bomb. Sufficient boots on the ground. Enough American Soldiers.
I trust a full scale American military invasion will never become necessary, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the Mexican government will continue to weaken unto total collapse- succumbing to ruthless drug lords and providing an easy beachhead for the relentless Red Chinese.
Feisty Tiffany Hartley had it right when she told Barry recently, “Wake up!”
At the least, we need to seal the southern border with our military might- and reclaim those areas already invaded by drug traffickers- such as the Buenos Aires Wildlife Refuge in Arizona. Remember those signs Barry posted?
Moreover, I submit there is now a greater danger to our national security represented by terrorist interests in Mexico than by al-Qaeda’s dwindling presence in Afghanistan. That includes the deadly scenario of a dirty suitcase bomb surreptitiously crossing our southern border.
Will we finally “wake up” when our all-volunteer military has been essentially defunded and demoralized by the endless burden of a foreign quagmire- even as our own native soil is left unprotected? An extreme view? Ask folks in Texas and Arizona who live along that border. What will it take to bring our troops home and get the job done?
Add the WikiLeaks fiasco to our outstanding military liabilities. I find it hard to believe those thousands of leaked documents regarding Iraq and Afghanistan won’t further enrage militant Muslims and endanger American lives.
And if Mexico’s drug traffickers can easily waltz their way so deep into Arizona, do you really think that long-range Chinese military planning has overlooked the low-hanging fruit of Mexico? Do you really think al-Qaeda hasn’t realized that America went to sleep with her backdoor unlocked?
Hate to admit a Democrat was actually on the money, Barry- but you really should “shove” your support. As the old saw goes, kid- with friends like you, we don’t need enemies…
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Posted by: Richard Allan Jenni at October 31, 2010 07:00 AM (6D2oC)
2
" With friends like you we don't need enemies"
That covers is all right, Thanks for this personal and hilarious
contribution.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 31, 2010 10:19 AM (K7x36)
3
Thank you for visiting, RAJ!
Jack appreciates the kudos from you, too, Ron.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at October 31, 2010 11:20 AM (e6n2C)
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Obama's ACORN connection and his lies about it
Dana Mathewson
From the beginning, Barack Obama has tried to cover his association with ACORN. And his water-carriers in the MSM have been more than happy to help him do just that.
Luckily, not everyone is complicit in this. "As Stanley Kurtz demonstrates in his terrific new book Radical-in-Chief, Obama's statement to ABC and his statement to the nation during the debate are both false. In reality, Obama was involved with ACORN when he ran something called Project Vote in 1992. In fact, Obama himself has linked his work on Project Vote to ACORN. When he sought the endorsement of ACORN for his presidential bid, he said, "when I ran Project Vote, the voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it." So much for Obama not having a relationship with ACORN until the subsequent Motor Voter litigation." http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/10/027547.php
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1
US President Barack Obama's trip to India next month is set to be the biggest ever by any US president in terms of the protocol and logistics.
Headlines Today accessed the details of elaborate arrangements that will be in place to guard Obama. He will be accompanied by US first lady Micehlle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha.
Earlier, Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia were not to be part of the trip. But sources revealed that Michelle's opinion prevailed and now the girls would accompany the first American couple to India.
The US president will make a historic trip to the Taj Mahal along with his family. His visit is historic in terms of logistics which is the largest ever for a visiting US president.
Elaborate security arrangements
The presidential entourage will have 40 aircraft, including the Air Force One that will ferry the president. There will be six armoured cars, including four Barack Mobiles and a Cadillac.
Cadillac is equipped with a mini communication centre to enable Obama to be in touch with the White House, US vice president and the US strategic command. It also has the US nuke launch codes and it can withstand a chemical or germ warfare and a bomb attack.
Two secret service command posts will be set up in Delhi and Mumbai to act as the communication nerve centres. These will monitor the president's movement with real time satellite monitoring.
Three Marine One choppers will be reassembled in India to ferry the president and his family and to evacuate them in case of any emergency.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 29, 2010 07:18 AM (EAZOV)
2
PM slams UNESCO's classifying Rachel's Tomb as a mosque
By JPOST.COM STAFF
10/29/2010 18:23
Government responds sharply to cultural body's request that Israel remove Rachel's Tomb and Cave of the Patriarchs from list of national heritage sites; Netanyahu calls decision "absurd."
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday slammed world culture organization UNESCO's decision to characterize the site of Rachel's Tomb as a Muslim mosque.
"The attempt to separate the nation of Israel from its cultural heritage is absurd," said the prime minister.
RELATED:
US slams Israel's heritage sites list
'Rachel's Tomb was never Jewish'
A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office read, "It is unfortunate that an organization that was established with the goal of promoting the cultural preservation of historical sites around the world, is attempting due to political reasons to uproot the connection between the nation of Israel and its cultural heritage."
The PMO's statement came in response to a report publicized by UNESCO that referred to Rachel's Tomb as a mosque and requested that Israel remove Rachel's Tomb -near the West Bank city of Bethlehem - and the Cave of the Patriarchs - in Hebron- from the Israeli list of national heritage sites.
UNESCO's requests comes after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in March, according to Saudi paper Al Wattan, claimed that the al-Aksa Mosque, the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb “were not and never will be Jewish sites, but Islamic sites.”
Erdogan was referring to Israel’s inclusion of the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb on its national heritage list at the beginning of the year, but it was unclear why he mentioned the Aksa Mosque, since that site was not included.
Posted by: R. de Haan at October 29, 2010 12:37 PM (EAZOV)
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October 27, 2010
Putting the Juan Williams / NPR case into perspective
Dana Mathewson
Andrew McCarthy writes in the "pages" of National Review Online:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/250784/npr-test-case-republicans-andrew-c-mccarthy
McCarthy says, for example, "Williams’s firing is plainly unjust. But it is not without poetic justice. Mr. Williams, whom I don’t know, has always struck me as a decent, honest guy, and a passionate progressive. But that insoluble combination makes him a bundle of contradictions: a commentator who calls it like he sees it . . . except to the extent his doctrinaire leftism won’t allow him to connect the dots, in which case he calls it like he’d like to see it — whether or not that’s how it is. Consequently, I’m having trouble working up much sympathy for him. When he is not decrying the political correctness that suffocates our discourse, he works to exacerbate it."
END QUOTE
"Calls it like he'd like to see it..." Doesn't that describe just about everyone on the left? At least, those in DC? I'm rapidly becoming a fan of Andrew McCarthy.
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Powerline on Tim Pawlenty
Lots of nice things are said here about our governor, who is seen as a probably presidential candidate in 2012,
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/10/027526.phpThe article includes a link to a very "friendly" article about Tim by none other than George Will. This article says that the Cato Institute likes him:
"A libertarian think tank ardent for government both limited and frugal, Cato gives A grades for fiscal responsibility to only four governors -- Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), Bobby Jindal (R-La.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Pawlenty, the only one governing a blue state."
And Will says: "A new biography of Rush Limbaugh says that, so far, Pawlenty is second only to
Sarah Palin as Limbaugh's choice for 2012."
Not bad at all.
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One more Chicago mayoral candidate takes a dive
Dana Mathewson
Rahm Emanuel's road to the Chicago mayor's mansion just got a bit smoother, as Jesse Jackson Jr. decided not to run. No word on whether he had assistance in that decision. http://www.urgentagenda.com/PERMALINKS%20V/OCTOBER%202010/26.RAHM.HTML
Rahmbo's win is still not assured, of course. Bill Katz points out that "Emanuel is hardly popular in the Chicago Democratic machine, and he's not a member of one of the ethnic groups that traditionally competes for power. So he still will face competition. But the heavy hitters have struck out before him."
Why does Rahm want the job at all? I mean, Chicago's one really messed-up city, as is any city that's been run by Democrats for a long period of time. Well, Katz observes that "
hat's an important job because the mayor of Chicago is a traditional kingmaker in the Democratic Party."
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Boxer Boo-Boo
Dana Mathewson
Will the blows never stop? California Senator Barbara Boxer found to have neglected to disclose property ownership on taxes for last eight years. http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/10/breaking-barbara-boxer-caught-lying-on.html Say it ain't so, Babs -- assuming we would believe you.
Perhaps she's been too busy to notice that little discrepancy, or else her tax advisor is Charlie Rangel. Either way, I hope Carly Fiorina grabs this and runs with it.
(By the way, Carly's currently in the hospital with an infection related to her cancer treatment. Prayers would help!)
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