Political Digest December 23, 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.

Thanks to the Troops
http://www.nragive.com/ringoffreedom/nr_j0199_landing.html
Great stuff. For thanksgiving, but good for Christmas as well.

Detroit in Ruins: Crowder Discovers No Town in Motown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hhJ_49leBw&feature=player_embedded
The future of our cities under statism.

Alabama Blue Dog Griffith to switch parties, become a Republican
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/73329-blue-dog-dem-griffith-to-switch-parties
Excerpt: Freshman Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) on Tuesday will announce he is switching parties to become a Republican. An Alabama Republican Party source confirmed that Griffith, a Blue Dog Democrat, will make the announcement at 1 p.m. Sources tell The Hill that GOP lawmakers in the Alabama delegation, including Rep. Robert Aderholt, began wooing Griffith several weeks ago.

How a political wave builds
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/house/how-a-political-wave-builds.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: An analysis that examines every midterm election since 1978 -- conducted by the Democratic polling firm Bennett, Petts & Normington -- suggests the critical factor in whether 2010 will be a wave election in which large numbers of House seats change parties or simply a typical midterm election where the President's party suffers losses consistent with historical norms is, in a word, turnout. In the two wave elections in recent memory -- 1994 and 2006 -- turnout soared from the previous midterm and the composite of the electorate was heavily tilted to one party.

Reid asks Senate to remain civil as chamber edges toward final vote http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/73283-senate-healthcare-votes-set-up-final-action-on-christmas-eve
Wasn’t this the guy who compared Republicans opposed to the healthcare disaster of being like those (Democrat) senators who supported slavery? And he quotes Rodney “Hit and Run” King, probably because the White House’s favorite philosopher, Mao, didn’t try to get along with opponents, just murder them. Excerpt: (Reid said) "Let's just all try to get along," adding that he hoped senators would "go back to their gentlemanly ways."

Indian expo promotes Orthopedic surgery to Canadians
http://www.omchospital.com/hospital/indian-expo-promotes-orthopedic-surgery-to-canadians.html/
Smart move. The Canadians will need someplace to go for healthcare after the US has doctor shortages and waiting lists like government care has created there.

December 22, 2009 - U.S. Voters Oppose Health Care Plan By Wide Margin, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Voters Say 3-1, Plan Should Not Pay For Abortions http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1408
Who cares what the public thinks? Excerpt: As the Senate prepares to vote on health care reform, American voters "mostly disapprove" of the plan 53 - 36 percent and disapprove 56 - 38 percent of President Barack Obama's handling of the health care issue, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Voters also oppose 72 - 23 percent using any public money in the health care overhaul to pay for abortions, the independent Quinnipiac University poll finds.

Religious Climate Rage
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/22/religious-climate-rage-by-mark-d-tooley/
Excerpt: The international Religious Left is grieving over the Copenhagen climate summit’s failure to mandate sweeping restrictions on capitalism and massive global redistribution of wealth.

Black Education
http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2008/07/23/black_education
Excerpt: "Hard Times at Douglass High," is an HBO documentary that aired last June. It captured much of the 2004-2005 school year at Baltimore's predominantly black Frederick Douglass High School. The tragedy is that what is seen in the documentary is typical of most predominantly black urban schools. Douglass' students are four to five years below grade level. Most of its ninth-graders read at the third-, fourth- or fifth-grade levels. In 2006, only 24 percent of its students tested proficient in reading, in math just 11 percent, and that's an improvement over previous years. Only one student managed to score above 1,000 on the SAT and another student scored 440 out of 1,600. You get 400 points for just writing in your name. Out of its 1,100 students, 200 to 300 are absent each day. Many of those who do show up don't do so on time; they roam the hallways and leave the school during the day. Only one-half of the school's 500 incoming freshmen ninth-graders return for their sophomore year and far fewer remain for graduation

The "Science" Mantra –A Must Read by Dr. Thomas Sowell http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/12/22/the_science_mantra
Excerpt: Like anything valuable, science has been seized upon by politicians and ideologues, and used to forward their own agendas. This started long ago, as far back as the 18th century, when the Marquis de Condorcet coined the term "social science" to describe various theories he favored. In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels distinguished their own brand of socialism as "scientific socialism." By the 20th century, all sorts of notions wrapped themselves in the mantle of "science." “Global warming" hysteria is only the latest in this long line of notions, whose main argument is that there is no argument, because it is "science." The recently revealed destruction of raw data at the bottom of the global warming hysteria, as well as revelations of attempts to prevent critics of this hysteria from being published in leading journals, suggests that the disinterested search for truth-- the hallmark of real science-- has taken a back seat to a political crusade. An intercepted e-mail from a professor at the Climate Research Unit in England to a professor at the University of Pennsylvania warned the latter: "Don't any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act" and urged the American professor to delete any e-mails he may have sent a colleague regarding the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

RFK, Jr. 15 months ago: Global warming means no snow or cold in DC http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/RFK-79834057.html
Excerpt: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who flies around on private planes so as to tell larger numbers of people how they must live their lives in order to save the planet, wrote a column last year on the lack of winter weather in Washington, D.C. “In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today's anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don't own a sled.”

HQ to Marines in Afghanistan: Sleep in a Hole
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/12/16/hq-to-marines-in-afghanistan-sleep-in-a-hole/
Been there, done that. Excerpt: He went on to say that Marines can live comfortably in what to other people looks like a moonscape. Just recently, Conway visited a Marine in Helmand Province who was sleeping in a hole in the ground – "below the shrapnel line,'' Conway assured me.” And he was perfectly happy,'' the commandant added with a straight face. Now, I have lived with Marines in holes dug in the ground. Some holes are elaborate, and provide some small comfort between firefights and adequate protection from exploding mortars and rockets. But I have not noticed any Marines being "perfectly happy" in such circumstances (And even if, as Conway pointed out at a Pentagon briefing, the enemy in Afghanistan doesn't enjoy sumptuous dining halls and gyms, nor do many ordinary Afghan people.) Conway was enjoying a modest dig at the Army and the U.S. Central Command, which has issued a directive saying no troops can be sent to Afghanistan until additional living facilities are constructed. ("That's not a description of the United States Marine Corps,'' Conway huffed.) But his insistence that Marines can live in the dirt (and prefer it!) raises an important point about the cost of the new strategy and the "surge'' of 30,000 troops announced two weeks ago by President Obama. (The Commandant didn’t say they preferred it, just that they were happy. A reporter said to a Marine in Afghanistan that they “lived like animals.” The Lance Corporal replied, “Just living the dream, Sir!” I remember being bored a lot in Vietnam, and scared sometimes, though I had a pretty easy tour for a Marine, but I don’t remember being unhappy.)

Marine joke
There are so many fake heroes around from Vietnam, I’ve started telling people that my Good Conduct Medal came with a “V.” Civilians won’t get it.

Obama Opens up Another Front
http://newsrealblog.com/2009/12/22/obama-opens-up-another-front/
Following the Bush Doctrine? Excerpt: Despite his earlier rhetoric about ending the conflicts initiated by George W. Bush, and just a couple of weeks after collecting his Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack Obama gave the order for a military strike which was carried out against al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen yesterday, in a major escalation of his administration’s campaign against that group. This according to a report by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman. What the President is coming to realize after being in office for nearly a year, is that Islamic terrorists view him no differently than they did his predecessor; when they are routed from one place, they re-group, hydra-like, in another, and they are plotting, always plotting. Yesterday’s action against a pair of suspected al-Qaeda training camps, Goodman’s report continues, was an attempt to pre-empt “an imminent attack against a US asset [that] was being planned.” If Goodman’s report is correct about Al-Qaeda’s plans for “an imminent attack,” then the President had no choice but to attack first.

Woman sold in public auction in Pakistan -- for $3,200
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/12/woman-sold-in-public-auction-in-pakistan.html
Finished your Christmas shopping? Only in the West, never in an Islamic country, was slavery questioned. Excerpt: JACOBABAD - A 20-year-old girl was auctioned at village Badani Bhutto of Taluka Kashmore in consideration of Rs2,70,000 on Saturday. Azizan, daughter of late Allah Bux Bhutto, was divorced on the allegation of Karo-kari some time back. She is stated to be mother of two children and was residing with her brother who held the open auction for her 'sale' at village Badani Bhutto. A large number of villagers showed interest in the auction that started with Rs50,000 and ended at Rs270,000. Bilawal Bhutto, 50, of the same village purchased her for the said amount. Initially he paid Rs210,000 for the girl.

Study finds Islamist parties least concerned with human rights
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=22520
I’m shocked. Shocked, I say. Who could have guessed.

Hamas helping British lawyers target Israel http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/6850900/Hamas-helping-British-lawyers-target-Israel.html
Legal Jihad. Excerpt: The group, considered a terrorist organisation in Britain, is believed to have provided information which helped sympathisers secure an arrest warrant against Tzipi Livni, Israel's former Foreign Minister at Westminster Magistrates Court earlier this month. Mrs Livni, who was a cabinet minister during last year's Israeli military offensive in Gaza, was forced to cancel a trip to London last week. A major diplomatic incident was averted only after Mrs Livni, who is now Israel's opposition leader, was alerted to the warrant and pulled out of a speaking engagement at the last minute.

Political correctness puts West on unequal footing with Islam http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Political-correctness-puts-West-on-unequal-footing-with-Islam-8672433-79859082.html
Excerpt: In a letter she wrote to President Obama, Dina el-Gohary, 15, poses a question underscoring the reason America, so driven by political correctness, commits national suicide. Dina's father, Maher, committed a terrible sin in Egypt -- converting from Islam to Christianity -- for which Muslim clerics now demand his death. Supposedly, one is free to pursue religious beliefs in Egypt -- but not if contrary to Shariah law. Shariah dictates that one leaving Islam poses a threat to societal order. Only death avenges the crime. n pleading for Obama's help, Dina asked: "You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise?" Ironically, not only is the Muslim minority in the U.S. treated very well, we observe political correctness to a fault, elevating a minority's religious rights over those of a Christian majority.

Gitmo Detainees Sent to Country that Does Not Exist
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=7987
Excerpt: The Department of Justice announced Sunday that 12 detainees from Guantanamo Bay would be repatriated to Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somaliland. That we are sending these people back to largely-lawless Afghanistan and terrorist-hotbed Yemen is bad, bad news. However, it’s the third country mentioned that’s really bothersome. Technically speaking, Somaliland does not exist. Don’t get me wrong — the Republic of Somaliland is a very real entity. It has a government that has been functioning relatively smoothly since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991. The problem, however, is that every nation on Earth (including the U.S.) recognizes the area as a non-independent part of Somalia. There are no diplomatic ties between Somaliland and…well…anyone, and the government is universally viewed as illegitimate.

On Iran, a bipartisan message to Obama: Act now
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/On-Iran_-a-bipartisan-message-to-Obama_-Act-now-8671679-79871667.html
Excerpt: You might not have noticed -- it didn't get much coverage -- but on Dec. 15 the House voted, by the unheard-of margin of 412 to 12, to pass a bill called the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act. With one loud, united voice, lawmakers told President Obama to stop messing around and impose real sanctions in response to the Iranian nuclear weapons program. The bill targets a major Iranian vulnerability. Even though it has vast stores of oil -- it's the world's fourth-largest producer -- Iran has little capacity to refine that oil into gasoline, diesel fuel and other usable products. So an oil-rich nation has to import gas. If it can't get the gas, it can't keep its economy going. The legislation would crack down on the companies that provide the fuel that keeps the Iranian theocracy in business.

Sen. Barrasso: Obama will try to block healthcare bill conference
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=7973
Excerpt: President Barack Obama will try to block out of desperation a House-Senate conference intended to merge the two healthcare bills, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Monday. Barrasso, a leading GOP critic of the bill, said that Obama would lean on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to accept the Senate version verbatim and then send the bill to the president to be signed into law. “The president is so desparate to get anything passed,” Barrasso said on Fox News. “I believe him and the White House are going to try to convince Nancy Pelosi to swallow this whole Senate bill period so there is never a conference and it never comes back to the Senate.”Asked why he thought the president would take such steps, the senator responded “So he can say, you know, mission accomplished.”

Green Battle Rages in Desert
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126144129302900923.html?mod=djemITP
Not surprising the Revolution is eating its young. These are the folks who banned DDT to save birds, thus condemning millions of third world kids to death from malaria. Excerpt: BARSTOW, Calif. -- A California senator's move Monday to put more than one million acres of the Mojave Desert off limits to development is spotlighting a clash between two prime goals of environmentalists. Before Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to create the Mojave Trails National Monument and other protected wilderness areas, solar-power developers had submitted nearly two dozen proposals since 2006 for projects that would make the Southern California desert the biggest solar farm on Earth. California has set an ambitious target of garnering one-third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. That has sparked a renewable-development boom as utilities sign contracts for everything from solar farms to geothermal plants. It also has made it easier for developers to secure financing.

Thank You Progressives – Malaria and DDT
http://newsrealblog.com/2009/12/21/thank-you-progressives-malaria-and-ddt/
Excerpt: A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds somewhere in the world. That’s roughly one million children every year. Malaria is a preventable disease. In fact it was eradicated world-wide in the 1950s as a result of a global campaign conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation. The eradication was achieved by the application of DDT to kill the mosquitoes that carry the infection. (They are black, brown and yellow kids, so the Left doesn’t care. Not here, not voting, not contributing money to environmental causes and the little buggers breath out CO2, so better gone.)

Congrats, Democrats. You own Obamacare
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Congrats_-Democrats_-You-own-Obamacare-8671860-79847082.html
Excerpt: It took hundreds of millions of dollars in bribe money to win over Sens. Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana, Ben Nelson, of Nebraska, and Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, (plus even more millions for a senator whose identity cannot be determined thanks to the obtuse language of the bill). By hook or by crook, Obamacare's Senate backers got their magic 60 votes. Now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, his 57 Democratic colleagues; and both Senate independents own Obamacare. Their votes moved Obamacare past its biggest legislative hurdle yet in a tally taken in the dead of a very cold Sunday night on a massive bill none of them actually read in its entirety.

The Tea Party is Coming to Town
Robert A. Hall

You better watch out
You better not try
To spend us broke
I'm telling you why
The Tea Party is coming to town.

We’re making a list
And checking it there;
Gonna find out
Who's for ObamaCare.
The Tea Party is coming to town.

We see you when you're earmarking
We know that you’re a fake,
We know if you voted for ObamaCare
So vote NO for goodness sake!

Oh! You better watch out!
You better not try
To kill our future,
I'm telling you why
The Tea Party is coming to town
We’ll vote those socialists down!

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