Political Digest November 12, 2009

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.

I have long days in business meetings on Thursday and Friday, so may not post. I have written a letter of resignation to AARP do to their healthcare stand, which I’ll put up Friday. Check it out if you are a member.

Muhammad executed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111001396.html?hpid=topnews
Gotta love the headline. He should have read the part about Islam being a Religion of Peace. It’s doubtful if the families of those he slaughtered think so.

All the Warning Signs Were There
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2009/11/all-warning-signs-were-there.html
Excerpt: He is inside your borders. He works deep inside your political and social structures. Openly he expresses his support for your murderers and enthusiastically promotes his message of hate. The bumper sticker on his car reads, "Allah is Love", but that love is the "love" which the Koran 61:4 describes as follows, "Surely Allah loves those who fight in His way in ranks as if they were a firm and compact wall."

Stood her ground
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/stood-her-ground-69451432.html
Excerpt: Could Sgt. Munley, hit in the wrist and both thighs, really be blamed if she'd ducked for cover? She didn't. From all reports, she stood her ground under fire, calmly reacquiring her sight picture, putting four rounds right where she wanted, in the advancing murderer's center of mass. She fired until he dropped. The killing ended.

One World Government? Globe may not be big enough.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111015034.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: The New World Order came into being at 4:25 Tuesday afternoon. It arrived at the Capitol, until that moment the seat of American government, in the form of the stooped and bespectacled figure of Ban Ki-moon, who as U.N. secretary general is the de facto leader of what conspiracy theorists call the One World Government. One floor beneath the Senate chamber, Ban, a South Korean national, took his place behind a lectern bearing the Senate seal and spelled out his demands. "I would certainly expect the Senate to take the necessary action; that's what I have encouraged the senators," he told reporters as a trio of lawmakers stood at his side. He added an admonition for the chamber to deliver "as soon as possible." The One World Government has specific requirements, Ban added, namely a "legally binding" commitment to "25 to 40 percent greenhouse gas reduction . . . as recommended by the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change." Uh-oh. A U.N. official standing in the Capitol telling U.S. lawmakers what binding commitments intergovernmental authorities expect from them? Glenn Beck was going to burst a blood vessel.

Md. Marine sergeant killed in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111021442.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Semper Fidelis, brother.

One Man's Solemn Mission to Recover WWII Remains
http://www.sphere.com/2009/11/11/veteran-day-feature/?icid=main
Great story. Excerpt: At first, it seemed like a sick joke or, worse, some sort of scam. The caller from North Carolina was telling John Lenox that the wreckage of his father's plane had been located. Staff Sgt. Alvin Lenox had been dead for two weeks longer than his 66-year-old son, John, had been alive. The Army Air Force radio operator crashed with four others in a cargo plane flying a supply mission from Yantai, China, to Joraht, India, in August 1943. They went down in a treacherous mountain region known as The Hump, which swallowed about 600 U.S. planes during World War II.

Jihad's 5th Column
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=511702
Excerpt: The Fort Hood terrorist is being portrayed as an "anomaly," an "aberration," a "lone wolf." Sadly, he's just one of many examples of jihadist traitors in the ranks of the military. Together they form a dangerous Fifth Column, and the Pentagon — thanks to institutionalized political correctness — is doing next to nothing to root them out. Instead, brass are actively recruiting Muslim soldiers — whose ranks have swelled to more than 15,000 — and catering to their faith by erecting mosques even at Marine headquarters in Quantico, Va. More, they're hiring Muslim chaplains endorsed by radical Islamic front groups, who convert and radicalize soldiers.

(Muslim) charged with statutory rape in ‘marriage’ to 14-year-old girl http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1557578.html
Kind of old at 14. Shari’a law allows marriages at nine, based on the perfect example of the Prophet. Excerpt: A relative told police that Mosby called and threatened violence if family members didn’t “give me back my wife in 72 hours,” according to court records. Two days later, on Sept. 9, someone fired three shots into the Kansas City home of the girl’s aunt. No one was hit. The stepfather, Mosby and the teen had several “sit downs” before the stepfather arranged for a religious ceremony on Aug. 4 at her home, not far from the stepfather’s mosque. Two members of the mosque attended, but the bride “was not allowed to be present,” court records said. She waited in her room upstairs. Her stepfather allegedly came upstairs after the ceremony, which consisted of prayers and a contract signing, to announce that she was married. (Jihad Watch: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88. This behavior by the man whom hundreds of millions of people regard as the exemplary standard of conduct (Koran 33:21) has brought suffering to untold numbers of women and girls.)

Morning Fix: Obama's Ft. Hood moment
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/morning-fix-17.html?wprss=thefix
The Fix always has short, interesting political news. Lots more here than BO’s speech.

Vietnam myths haunt Afghanistan
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/11/vietnam-myths-haunt-afghanistan/
Excerpt: Adm. Denton said that the Vietnam conflict carries important lessons for Afghanistan. President Obama doesn't deserve criticism for taking his time. The right course of action "can only be logically determined after examining the full situation." But as in the Johnson period in Vietnam, the United States faces some leadership deficiencies. "Unfortunately, the president and Congress don't know much about war," he said. The president should "realize his shortcomings and listen to the experts." The most important consideration should be persistence, the "determination to see it all the way through." Soldiers on the ground should get what they need to finish the mission. "The worst thing we can do is leave troops there who can't fulfill their objectives," he said.

The most important number in politics today
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/most-important-number/the-most-important-number-in-p-64.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: 44 That's the percentage of independent voters who told Gallup they would advise their Member of Congress to vote against a health care bill while just 22 percent said their elected official should support it, polling that comes in the midst of the House's passage of the legislation over the weekend and the start of deliberations on it in the Senate. When those independents who are "leaning" toward one position or the other are pushed on the matter, a majority (53 percent) said their Member should vote against a bill while 37 percent said he/she should vote for it. Those numbers come a week after Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia were badly outpaced by their Republican rivals among independents and less than one year before 258 House Democrats, 19 Senate Democrats and 19 Democratic-held governorships are open…. The data from Gallup -- the poll was conducted from last Thursday through Sunday -- suggests that passing the health care bill may, in fact, make things worse with Independents rather than better.

Hoyer, Reid move to finish health reform legislation by December http://thehill.com//homenews/house/67361-hoyer-reid-move-to-finish-healthcare-in-2009-
Excerpt: The House could be in session until nearly Christmas Eve to try to win final passage on a healthcare bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) outlined the new schedule on Wednesday, saying he is prepared to keep the House working into late December in order to pass President Barack Obama’s keystone issue of his first year in office. Hoyer’s move follows Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) decision late Tuesday night to file a motion that could allow the Senate to begin debate on healthcare next week. (Gotta get it through before the members go home and talk to their constituents!)

Squeezing the Providers, Part I
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/squeezing-the-providers-part-i/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA#more-6716
Excerpt: The political left in the United States, and for that matter, throughout the world, only knows two ways to try to control health care costs: (1) squeeze the providers and (2) deny patients care. Since they don’t believe in markets or economic incentives or entrepreneurship (the way costs are controlled in other markets), all that’s left is to take it out on doctors and patients.

America Leaves Itself Behind http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703574604574500372712162380.html
Excerpt: President Obama heads for Asia this week to talk about U.S. economic recovery and reform, and one theme that we expect he'll hear from Asian leaders is this: America is leaving itself behind as the rest of the world tries to liberalize trade. The numbers tell the story. At least 266 bilateral or regional trade deals are in force, according to the World Trade Organization, and there are roughly 100 more of which the WTO has not yet been formally informed. The U.S. is a party to only five of the 64 trade pacts that have taken effect since 2005—with Australia, Morocco, Bahrain, Oman and Peru. In contrast, eight of those 64 deals involve the European Union (plus a round of EU expansion) and Japan has signed nine. Overall the U.S. has trade deals with only 17 countries including Canada and Mexico under Nafta. The EU has struck 29 deals on trade ranging from customs unions to larger free-trade agreements with 40 economies.

Ending Social Promotion Leads to Gains in NYC
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/10/ending-social-promotion-leads-to-gains-in-nyc/
But what about their unearned self-esteem? Excerpt: New evidence shows that ending social promotion – the practice of allowing students to advance a grade level without having mastered the content of their current grade – is having a positive result in student testing.

And now for the important news .... By Argus Hamilton http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1109/hamilton111109.php3
 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1109/hamilton111009.php3
 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1109/hamilton110909.php3
 http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1009/hamilton102809.php3
Very funny stuff.

Quote
"It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country ... in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their country, for us. All we can do is remember." --Ronald Reagan. The Patriot Post (www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/)"