Political Digest December 21, 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.

The Blind Side
We saw the movie The Blind Side Friday night. It’s a terrific movie, based on a true story. (With some Hollywood thrown in, they are never satisfied that the absolute truth is a good story. Which is why they need heroes with super powers, rather than the real and on-going heroism of our troops.) Liberals will like it because it shows the potential of a black kid from a hopeless background. Conservatives will like it because he isn’t saved by some massive government program employing hordes of SEIU drones. Highly recommend you see it.

Posts
May be a tad sparse over the Christmas holidays, but we will cheerfully extend your subscription, so you will suffer no financial loss.

The real story of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/the-real-story-of-rudolph-the-red-nose-reindeer
Nice Christmas Story

Top Nine Health Care Charts You've Never Seen Before
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-nine-health-care-charts-youve-never.html
Must see. Pretty interesting and explains a lot about why the Congress won’t really lower healthcare costs.

Hope and Change, Gangsta Style http://townhall.com/columnists/KevinMcCullough/2009/12/20/hope__change,_gangsta_style
Excerpt: In the city of Chicago "politics" is done very differently than in much of the rest of the nation. Evidently in tiring of hearing from "we the people," the current administration has a political death wish. Many of the prominent capitol hill leaders seem determined to join Obama and company as they plummet fully another sixth of the American economy into the eternal abyss. But we would not be at this point if President Obama had not broken very specific promises. Most specifically he has broken his constant pledges from the campaign trail to be a different kind of leader. He pledged to be a leader who listened to those who elected him. He even pledged on the night he won the vote to listen to those who opposed him. Yet in this final week, he is listening to no one, and doing so at our great peril…. President Obama was willing to play games with America's safety in threatening Nebraska's Ben Nelson that a strategic and vital military base, one that is responsible for heavy lifting on America's continental security, would be shut down if Nelson did not vote with him. President Obama was going to put a bullet in the operations of our national security simply to score a point, serve a little vengeance, and punish with a little payback. We know this from a memo that was leaked and we also know that it wasn't the only time in recent history such tactics have been employed by Obama.

Public corruption a familiar theme for longtime jurist http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-20-dec20,0,330038.column
Excerpt: Because years ago, when the honest-services question was first before the court, the prevailing mood of the jurists was like it is now -- to toss it out and allow Congress to fix it. Back then, the court restricted use of federal mail-fraud statutes in criminal cases. Congress did respond, adding a one-line amendment saying a fraudulent scheme includes one to "deprive another of the intangible right of honest services." If today's court throws out the honest-services provision, the expectation among some lawyers is that Congress would once again fix it and make the language less vague. But does anyone expect White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, D-Tomczak, to push real ethical reform for President Barack Obama that would threaten powerful, connected politicians in Illinois? Not bloody likely. If you believe that one, then smoke another bowl of Hopium. In his 1987 dissent, Stevens thought it was quite obvious that the people had an intangible right to honest service. Anyone familiar with sophisticated, high-level corruption in Illinois would have known that it's not merely about the theft of money or property, but about something more valuable: The people's belief that the system isn't completely rigged. Without that belief, cynicism becomes even more corrosive than ever, and things could get dangerous.

Home Grown Terror
http://www.newswithviews.com/Shifren/nachum103.htm
By Rabbi Nachum Shifren. American Muslims Learn to Slit Throats--in N.Y.??! You gotta love these terrorists! They make a video for the world to see , and tell us that the majority of America are Muslims--WITHOUT A DOUBT! But I ask my fellow Americans tonight to take a closer look at the video: you'll see something that I bet you skipped over. The leaders of the Muslim terrorists, bent on vanquishing America, are home-grown blacks. In fact, I could've sworn that Muhammad character was an ex-teacher buddy of mine, constantly griping to me about how the Whites must be made to pay....(for what? to whom? which Whites?) I'm waiting for Rev. Al Sharpton to call these thugs and punks, "black interlopers!" Looking closely at the leaders of the female Jihaddists, again, you'll see a black woman marching in front. These are not Blacks from Mogadishu or Somalia, brought in to "foment" the local brothers. Nor are they African nationalists, or radical separatists, here to stoke revolution.

Palestinian children's TV show: Suicide bomber "has become a role model for any Palestinian girl who harbors the spirit of self-sacrifice, national sentiment, and love of death for the sake of Allah and in defense of the homeland"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/12/palestinian-childrens-tv-show-suicide-bomber-has-become-a-role-model-for-any-palestinian-girl-who-ha.html
Excerpt: Following are excerpts from a TV children's show, in which children learn about Palestinian suicide bomber Wafa Idris. The show aired on Al-Quds TV on December 1, 2009.

Police expect Mumbai-style terror attack on City of London http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6962867.ece
Excerpt: Scotland Yard has warned businesses in London to expect a Mumbai-style attack on the capital. In a briefing in the City of London 12 days ago, a senior detective from SO15, the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command, said: “Mumbai is coming to London.” The detective said companies should anticipate a shooting and hostage-taking raid “involving a small number of gunmen with handguns and improvised explosive devices”.

N. Korean Arms Cache 'Bound for Sudan' http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/12/16/2009121600944.html
An Axis of Evil maybe? Excerpt: A Georgian cargo plane carrying North Korean weapons that was intercepted in Thailand last Saturday was bound for Sudan, reports say. Christian LeMiere, the editor of Jane's Intelligence Weekly, told AP on Tuesday that the aviation path of the plane suggested it was heading to Sudan, where they might have been handed over to armed groups in Somalia through Chad and Eritrea. Siemon Wezeman of the Arms Transfers Project of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, agreed, telling AP that the "types of arms found in the aircraft -- used to add firepower against planes and tanks in the arsenal of government forces -- were typical of those used by insurgent movements, and raised suspicion they could be headed for an African rebel group."

The Long March From California to Copenhagen
http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/
Excerpt: We are still in a great public debate between capitalism and socialism, and individual freedom versus statism — odd since hundreds of millions worldwide have escaped poverty the last 30 years due to the spread of Western-inspired free markets. Many choose sides in the debate based on their own predicaments. Sometimes the more independent and secure who have thrived under capitalism promote it, the more dependent who have not detest it. At other times the realist mind is opposed to the idealist. And we can also envision the split as an age-old dichotomy between the tragic view and the therapeutic: either man is born pretty awful and must toughen himself through denial of the appetites, or he is by nature wonderful but corrupted and hurt through the burdens placed on him by society.

Favors promised to Bill Nelson are Unconstitutional
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2411360/posts
The constitution guarantees “equal protection under the law,” or so I thought. Can they buy votes by protecting the taxpayers in some states but not others? Excerpt: Under the current merged legislation (the version unveiled on November 18th), the federal government fully finances care for the expanded population for two years and increases its matching funds (known as FMAP) thereafter. Page 98 of the managers amendment specifically identifies Nebraska for higher federal matching funds, fully funding its expansion for an additional year:

Garrison Keillor Doesn’t Like Jews Writing Christmas Songs
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=7884
Excerpt: And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write ‘Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we’ll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah’? No, we didn’t. Christmas is a Christian holiday—if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.

Drug giant General Electric uses libel law to gag doctor
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=7867
Excerpt: General Electric, one of the world’s biggest corporations, is using the London libel courts to gag a senior radiologist after he raised the alarm over the potentially fatal risks of one of its drugs. The multinational is suing Henrik Thomsen, a Danish academic, after he described his experiences of one of the company’s drugs as a medical “nightmare”. He said some kidney patients at his hospital contracted a potentially deadly condition after being administered the drug Omniscan.

Ray Stevens - We The People
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_-L4fyLUo
Funny song about Obamacare.

Medved: Vietnam and the Rise of the New Left http://fora.tv/2007/09/11/Medved_Vietnam_and_the_Rise_of_the_New_Left#fullprogram
Setting the historical record straight. Long but educational.

LtCol Allen West
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M
Candidate for Congress, if you haven’t seen. Hope he wins.

Rules for war and for gun fights
http://bluejacket.com/humor_usmc_wisdom.html