Political Digest November 16, 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.

Not evil, just wrong
Saw this film Sunday—a must-see

Greeting Daddy http://www.alternet.org/blogs/world/143877/dogs_going_crazy_as_their_soldiers_return_home
Dogs and Kids greet returning vets.

Awards for “infidel bloggers”and “politically incorrect pundits.” http://infidelbloggerawards.blogspot.com/
Ah, the big time.

Walpin-gate opens wider
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/15/walpin-gate-opens-wider-28331053/?source=newsletter_opinion_photo_feature
Excerpt: The previously overlooked item, meanwhile, plays a significant (but not determinative) role in Mr. Walpin's court filing against the White House's motion to dismiss. It involves one of the main arguments belatedly advanced by the White House to try to justify the firing - a firing that occurred shortly after Mr. Walpin filed two reports highly embarrassing to political allies of President Obama's.

Giuliani: Unbelievable Incompetence. Invites A Terrorist Attack http://newsrealblog.com/2009/11/13/giuliani-on-cavuto-on-civilian-trial-unbelievable-incompetence-invites-a-terrorist-attack/
Excerpt: On Cavuto this evening, Rudy Giuliani underscored the obvious. We tried prosecuting terrorists as criminals after the first World Trade Center attack in 1993. It got us the second attack. What is it that the Obama doesn’t understand about the word “war?” How can he wish to inflict this nightmare on the families of 9/11 and the City of New York?

The Worst Decision By A US President In History
http://newsrealblog.com/2009/11/13/the-worst-decision-by-a-us-president-in-history/
Excerpt: The decision to try the jihadists in a civilian court is also a decision which will divulge America’s security secrets to the enemy since civilian courts afford defendants the right of discovery. It is also a propaganda gift to Islamic murderers who will turn the courtroom into a media circus to promote their hatred against the Great Satan.

Survivor of Socialism Has Warning for America
http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/11/survivor-of-socialism-has-warning-for-america/
Excerpt: Austria had private health care prior to the Nazis, and the quality was good. But the government took over the health care system, and when health care became “free” the doctors quickly became overloaded by frivolous use of the system. Surgeries of a more important nature, however, had waiting lists of about 18 months because of all the “hypochondriacs” abusing the system. Werthmann said that if a doctor prescribed a medicine not on the government-approved list, the government would take the cost of the medicine out of the doctor’s salary. Welfare became a “huge apparatus,” said Werthmann. Everyone had access to subsidized housing, food stamps, heating subsidies and many other benefits until everyone–regardless of salary–reached the prescribed standard of living. “That’s called socialism,” she said. Werthmann cited the exchange between Joe the Plumber and Presidential Candidate Obama about “spreading the wealth” as a sign that it’s already begun here.

No Free Lunch: The True Cost of ObamaCare http://townhall.com/columnists/MattPatterson/2009/11/13/no_free_lunch_the_true_cost_of_obamacare
Excerpt: Far from providing "affordable" care for everyone, ObamaCare would come at a painful price - higher insurance premiums, more and higher taxes, fewer jobs, lower wages, a reduced standard of living and an erosion of privacy and individual liberty.

Parents say son was tormented for eating salami sandwich during Ramadan http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26343471-421,00.html
Tolerant Islam. Excerpt: A SYDNEY couple has withdrawn their two children from a public primary school, claiming their 11-year-old son was bullied by Muslim students because he ate a salami sandwich during Ramadan. Andrew Grigoriou said yesterday he complained to the school and to police after his son Antonios was chased and later assaulted by Muslim students after a confrontation over the contents of his lunch, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Going Muslim
http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/08/fort-hood-nidal-malik-hasan-muslims-opinions-columnists-tunku-varadarajan.html
There are millions of peaceful, if irrelevant, Muslims afraid to stand up to this. So I’d call it “Going Jihadist.” Excerpt: "Going postal" is a piquant American phrase that describes the phenomenon of violent rage in which a worker--archetypically a postal worker--"snaps" and guns down his colleagues. As the enormity of the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sinks in, we must ask whether we are confronting a new phenomenon of violent rage, one we might dub--disconcertingly--"Going Muslim." This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American--a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood--discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans. This would appear to be what happened in the case of Maj. Hasan. The difference between "going postal," in the conventional sense, and "going Muslim," in the sense that I suggest, is that there would not necessarily be a psychological "snapping" point in the case of the imminently violent Muslim; instead, there could be a calculated discarding of camouflage--the camouflage of integration--in an act of revelatory catharsis

The audacity of extremism
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/the_audacity_of_extremism.html
Excerpt: When Obama uses the phrase "The Audacity of Hope," we hope he's talking about peaceful audacity. But we can't be sure -- because Obama and his inner circle are extremists in any reasonable meaning of that word, certainly by the standards of normal American politics. That's why Obama seems so foreign. That is what "radical" means; it's another word for "extremist." These folks love to preen themselves on being radical. Rules for Radicals is their Bible, and it's Obama's manual for "community organizing" -- which looks just like community destruction. Alinsky dedicated Rules for Radicals to Lucifer, because Lucifer is the symbol of destructive extremism. Don't tell me these folks are mainstream Americans. No way. Obama is running the most extremist administration in American history. It's chockfull of wild-eyed bizarros like Van Jones, Rahm Gawdhelpus, and the whole Chicago Gang. How many presidential chiefs of staff have publicly yelled "Dead! Dead! Dead!" while stabbing a steak knife into a dinner table, just to show what he wanted to do to his political enemies? Rahm Emanuel's the only one. How many have done the Godfather schtick by sending a dead fish to a journalist? Rahmbo wants to scare people, and Obama knew that when he hired him. It can't be an accident that Rahm is Obama's Capo di tutti Capi.

Home Builders (You Heard That Right) Get a Gift http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/business/economy/15gret.html
Excerpt: ON Nov. 6, President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 into law, extending unemployment benefits by 20 weeks and renewing the first-time homebuyer tax credit until next April. But tucked inside the law was another prize: a tax break that lets big companies offset losses incurred in 2008 and 2009 against profits booked as far back as 2004. The tax cuts will generate corporate refunds or relief worth about $33 billion, according to an administration estimate. Before the bill became law, the so-called look-back on losses was limited to small businesses and could be used to counterbalance just two years of profits. Now the profit offset goes back five years, and the law allows big companies to take advantage of it, too. The only companies that can’t participate are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and any institution that took money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Among the biggest beneficiaries are home builders, analysts say. Once again, at the front of the government assistance line, stand some of the very companies that contributed mightily to the credit crisis by building and financing too many homes. This is getting to be a habit: companies that participated on the upside and are now reaping rewards from the taxpayers on the downside. The banks that underwrote so many dubious loans, for example, received government aid to get them lending again. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the result. (I suppose I’ve said this before, but when government intervenes in the economy, the free market no longer works, because politics not economics drives the decisions.)

How different leaders greet the emperor
http://hotairpundit.blogspot.com/2009/11/president-obama-vs-rest-of-world.html
Interesting pictures.

'Bring my lawyer! — That's what's so beautiful about America.'
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDVjYmJhYWU3OWQ2MWUxNzU3M2M1OTczZTIxYTE3Zjg=
Excerpt: Back at the safehouse [in Queens] again that evening, the jihadists talked about future operations they hoped to carry out if the present plot [to bomb the UN complex and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels] went well. In addition to the George Washington Bridge and the [the FBI’s Manhattan headquarters], Siddig Ali, Amir Abdelgani, and Tarig Elhassan discussed scouting a U.S. military base on Staten Island—which Siddig apparently sensed might be a more promising target than the Manhattan armory he had surveilled back in the spring. The plotters then engaged in a breathtaking conversation, castigating the United States with the exception of the one thing they really liked about our nation: the criminal justice system. The discussion was forced by Elhassan, who had lingering doubts about Puerto Rican jihadist Victor Alvarez’s commitment—especially whether he had the courage to withstand the pressure of interrogation if he were arrested. Gazing deeply into Alvarez’s eyes, Siddig sternly explained that the bombs would soon be ready, and that perhaps Alvarez should flee to Puerto Rico once the stolen cars [for transporting bombs] had been obtained. Siddig reasoned that Alvarez, unlike the others, was an American citizen: “You understand, brother, for me, for him, no problem. No problem. For you? It’s your country. You understand?”

Syrian carrying $880,000, Hezbollah ring, 9/11 videos, stopped at Canadian border http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2216482
Had to release him. Might be charged with Islamophobia otherwise. Wait until someone dies—time enough then. Excerpt: Don't cross the Canadian border with almost a million dollars that you fail to declare -- especially when you also have a Hezbollah ring and a Palestinian scarf in your possession. Khaled Nawaya found that out the hard way when he was arrested Oct. 6 at the Douglas border crossing in Surrey, B.C., and had to spend a month in detention while being investigated as a security threat. He was released on Thursday with a long list of conditions after a hearing before the federal government's Immigration Division member Lynda Mackie. He remains to have no status in Canada.

Islam and terrorism
http://surind.blogspot.com/2009/08/islam-islamic-terrorism-jihad-in.html
Interesting blog.

CAIR boasts of influence on media after Fort Hood Group treated as voice of Muslims despite fresh evidence of terror ties
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116054
Excerpt: Despite recent reports of new evidence of its ties to terrorism, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is boasting of its success in the wake of the Fort Hood massacre as a spokesman in numerous major media outlets for a religious community "shocked" by the attack and incensed that anyone would associate them with it. In a fundraising letter, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad told potential donors that within hours of the attack by a Muslim Army major, the Washington, D.C.-based group issued a statement of condemnation to thousands of local, national and international media outlets.

Steyn: Tragedy or Scandal?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGYzZTExZWU0NjZhYTM2ODdiNmU2NDMyNzUzMTk5NzY=&w=MA==
Excerpt: Shortly after 9/11, there was a lot of talk about how no one would ever hijack an American airliner ever again — not because of new security arrangements but because an alert citizenry was on the case: We were hip to their jive. The point appeared to be proved three months later on a U.S.-bound Air France flight. The “Shoebomber” attempted to light his footwear, and the flight attendants and passengers pounced. As the more boorish commentators could not resist pointing out, even the French guys walloped him. But the years go by, and the mood shifts. You didn’t have to be “alert” to spot Maj. Nidal Hasan. He’d spent most of the last half-decade walking around with a big neon sign on his head saying “JIHADIST. STAND WELL BACK.” But we (that is to say, almost all of us — and certainly almost anyone who matters in national security and the broader political culture) are now reflexively conditioned to ignore the flashing neon sign. Like those apocryphal Victorian ladies discreetly draping the lasciviously curved legs of their pianos, if a glimpse of hard unpleasant reality peeps through we simply veil it in another layer of fluffy illusion.

White House: IL prison eyed for Guantanamo inmates http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvgQf2tLt7a3-vVKDkHdb6Y6Cm5gD9BVKJ8O0?utm_source=DaronBabin&utm_medium=NewGenBroadcasting&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=DaronBabin
Must be an angle so the Daley machine can make a few million bucks off this aspect of hope and change.