political Digest December 29, 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.

2010: The year that was
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/12/2010_the_year_that_was.html
The American Thinker used my “predictions” piece. Cool.

How Many People Have Been Killed by Islamofascists in the Past 2 Months? http://newsrealblog.com/2009/12/27/how-many-people-have-been-killed-by-islamofascists-in-the-past-2-months/
Excerpt: Long and sickening list. But nothing to do with Islam, of course. Could as likely have been Anglicans killing people over the Gay Bishops schism as Muslims murdering for God. Our leaders cannot stop being PC, so people, many of them Muslims, will just have to die.

What the Near-Tragedy in Detroit Revealed
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/28/what-the-near-tragedy-in-detroit-revealed-by-daniel-pipes/
The near-success of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, to set off an explosive on Christmas Day should open the American public’s eyes to the sad state of counterterrorism eight years after 9/11. The incident involved a Nigerian in Seat 19A – ideally placed over the fuel tanks, atop the wing, and next to the exterior of the aircraft – of Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. As summarized by the Wall Street Journal, it happened as the Airbus 330-300 carrying 289 people was approaching Detroit. Mr. Abdulmutallab went to the plane’s restroom for about 20 minutes, and upon returning to his seat he stated that his stomach was upset, and he pulled a blanket over himself, according to the Justice Department complaint. As the flight was heading for a landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport before noon, the complaint alleges, Mr. Abdulmutallab set off the device. Passengers heard popping noises similar to firecrackers, smelled an odor, and some observed Mr. Abdulmutallab’s pants leg and the wall of the airplane on fire. Subsequent investigations learned that the plot was organized and launched by Al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen, who arranged for 80 grams of PETN (pentaerythritol) to be sewed into Abdulmutallab’s underwear. Investigators concluded that only a chance malfunction prevented the explosives from bringing down the Northwest plane.

It looks like Sarah Palin is right again, this time on the issue of profiling. http://wakeupblackamerica.blogspot.com/2009/12/it-looks-like-sarah-palin-was-right-yet.html
Excerpt: Is Sarah Palin qualified to become President? One of the crucial qualifiers for a person to be a leader of a city, state or even a country is the person's ability to have a key sense of "sound judgment". Back in November, Sarah drove the appeasers up the wall in an interview conducted by Matt Continetti. Her comments came a few days after the Fort Hood terrorist attack in which the radical Muslim Major Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 soldiers while wounding 30. These are the comments Sarah Palin made in her interview with Matt Continetti. Sarah Palin "There were such clear, obvious, massive warning signs that were missed. This terrorist, even having business cards" that identified him as an "SoA" or "soldier of Allah." Palin blamed a culture of political correctness and other decisions that "prevented -- I'm going to say it -- profiling" of someone with Hasan's extremist ideology. "I say, profile away". "Such political correctness" could be our downfall." If the upcoming investigations into the attack reveal bad decision-making on the part of senior officials, Palin continued, those officials ought to be fired".

Wake up black America
http://wakeupblackamerica.blogspot.com/
In case you want to follow his website.

Obama’s Shame: Revolution Continues in Iran, Sound of Silence from White House http://newsrealblog.com/2009/12/27/obamas-shame-revolution-continues-in-iran-sound-of-silence-from-white-house/
BO’s too busy dealing with the threat from Honduras to worry about Iran or North Korea.

Iranian Military Moves to Support the ‘People’s Revolution’ http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/12/iranian_military_moves_to_supp.html
Excerpt: In 24 hours, what has been labeled “street protesting” for new presidential elections has morphed into an earnest and violent revolution to overthrow the Muslim mullahs who rule Iran. It is difficult to verify, but factions in the Iranian military may be breaking rank to join the people’s cause. A group calling itself the National Iranian Armed Resistance Forces (NIRU) posted a news release on an Iranian protest website at the end of the day’s violence. (Could get interesting, especially if BO grows a pair.)

President Obama's year of failure
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/President-Obama_s-year-of-failure-8691396-80173932.html
Excerpt: President Obama's year of blunders is ending with the worst failure yet by the president and his team: An Islamist terrorist penetrated the United States and came very close to perpetrating the greatest mass-casualty attack within the U.S. since 9/11. The president's first year in office has been marked by a string of pratfalls.

Texas shows its swagger in new population estimates http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/DO-NOT-POST-UNTIL-SATURDAY-12_26-8679697-80073947.html
Excerpt: No. 3 in percentage population growth in 2008-09 was giant Texas, the nation's second-most-populous state. Its population grew by almost half a million and accounted for 18 percent of the nation's total population growth. Texas had above-average immigrant growth, but domestic in-migration was nearly twice as high. There may be lessons for public policy here. Texas over the decades has had low taxes (and no state income tax), low public spending and regulations that encourage job growth. It didn't have much of a housing bubble or a housing price bust. Under Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry, it has placed tight limits on tort lawsuits and has seen an influx of both corporate headquarters and medical doctors. (The people going to the Democrat-run, high-entitlement states like CA and the northeast are those likely to need public assistance, hastening the budget collapse. The people fleeing them are likely to be productive people following jobs and opportunity to the low-tax states. Duh.)

The massive accounting blunder that should sink health care reform http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/The-massive-accounting-blunder-that-should-sink-health-care-reform-80065752.html
Excerpt: Yesterday, David discussed the CBO's miscalculation regarding the Senate health care bill. Democrats had been insisting that bill somehow cut the deficit and strengthened Medicare, but as it turns out the CBO had to clarify that the savings of the bill were being double counted. The "savings" the bill produces either have to be applied toward the Medicare trust fund or they have to be put toward the cost of the legislation to make it reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years. (That's assuming you buy into the shady accounting tricks used to score the bill.) Megan McArdle has a typically astute blog post up discussing the implications all of this. Megan even observes that as recently as Saturday, President Obama was trumpeting the bill's twin achievements of deficit reduction and strengthening Medicare. However, Megan didn't quote Obama in full -- fortunately The American Spectator's Phil Klein did. The entirety of Obama's remarks in the immediate aftermath of Senate Democrats securing finally securing 60 votes to pass their health care bill are worth pondering: "This bill with strengthen Medicare and extend the life of the program. Because it’s paid for and gets rid of waste and inefficiency in our health care system this will be the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade. In fact, we just learned from the Congressional Budget Office that this bill will reduce our deficit by $132 billion over the first decade of the program, and more than one trillion dollars in the decade after that." Well, we now know that whether it was an innocent mistake or fiscal prestidigitation, one of these claims is simply not true.

Oops, Democrats Admitting Abortion Will Be Taxpayer Funded http://newsrealblog.com/2009/12/27/newsreal-sunday-oops-democrats-admitting-abortion-will-be-taxpayer-funded/
Calling Sen. Ben Nelson. Ben, are you there? Excerpt: Pelosi forgot to censor herself when she said that the Senate bill that passed has, “abortion language that is completely different from the House — thank God.” Obviously Pelosi wants to make sure the hard-earned money of the American people is going to pay for abortions.

Democratic Senator slams Obama over earmarks http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Democratic-Senator-slams-Obama-over-earmarks-80145907.html
Excerpt: Remember when President Obama promised to go through legislation "line by line" eliminating earmarks? Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., hasn't forgotten: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) said Obama made earmark reform "a very big part of [his] campaign" but still signed this month two massive spending measures that both included approximately $4 billion in earmarks. Feingold, who broke with his party to oppose both the $447 billion 2010 omnibus spending bill and the $636 billion 2010 Pentagon spending bill, said the president could have used his veto pen to reject the measures and force lawmakers to cut earmark funding. "We've got to have a fresh start next year, and I've signaled that if they want my vote, they've got to stop just signing onto huge numbers of earmarks," Feingold said

Now I'm Really Getting Pissed Off
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Now-I-m-Really-Getting-Pis-by-David-Michael-Gree-091219-496.html
The view from the far left. Excerpt: Hey did you hear about the iconic African-American guy who plays golf, and whose relationship with the public is in a free-fall lately? No, as a matter of fact I'm not talking about Tiger Woods. You know, I've really been trying not to write an article every other week about all the things I don't like about Barack Obama. But the little prick is making it very hard. Like any good progressive, I've gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this president. Now I'm fast getting to rage. How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage. (Works for me.)

Earth-Friendly Elements, Mined Destructively http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/business/global/26rare.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Green-tech killing the third world. So who cares if it gets Democrats votes here? Excerpt: GUYUN VILLAGE, China — Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. The world’s dependence on these substances is rising fast. Just one problem: These elements come almost entirely from China, from some of the most environmentally damaging mines in the country, in an industry dominated by criminal gangs.

Police protect girls forced to convert to Islam
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23386539-police-protect-girls-forced-to-convert-to-islam.do
Love Jihad comes to Britain. Excerpt: The Hindu Forum of Britain claims hundreds of mostly Sikh and Hindu girls have been intimidated by Muslim men who take them out on dates before terrorising them until they convert. Sir Ian spoke about the problem at a conference organised by the forum.

Memphis Man Arrested: Accused of Making Bomb Threats and Threatening to Start “Holy War”
http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story/Memphis-Man-Arrested-Accused-of-Making-Bomb/nf1gzpL3mkKJE6QRnwdVXw.cspx?rss=59
Didn’t get the Islam-is-a-religion-of-peace memo, but the judge did, so he’s free on bail. Excerpt: Tonight, Mohamed Ibrahim is out after posting $100 bond. Earlier in the day, he was arrested after police say he walked into several Memphis businesses and threatened to blow them up. Court records show Ibrahim was also telling people he was Muslim, and wanted to start a jihad, or holy war, in Memphis. Police say when they arrested him, he had a butcher knife hidden in one of his jacket sleeves.

Bomb Plotter: More like me
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2785733.ece
Planning to fly soon? Mustn’t profile, though. Your life is less important than not offending Muslims. Excerpt: The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike. The reports come after The Sun revealed that cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.

Dangerous Myths
http://jewishworldreview.com/1209/ahlert.php3
Excerpt: For many people, especially those on the left side of the aisle, there is nothing more disturbing than a reality which reveals the fraudulence of one's ideology. The latest terrorist wannabe, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is yet another proverbial poke in the eye with a sharp stick for the dewy-eyed among us. To wit: Airport security is effective. Time-consuming, annoying, muddle-headed and oh-so politically correct? Absolutely. Effective? Abdulmutallab was one faulty fuse away from blowing a jetliner filled with three hundred passengers out of the sky. His "bomb?" A condom filled with an explosive compound sewn into his pants. Question: what airport security system is ready to start patting down peoples' genital areas? Answer: none. Al Qaeda one, airport security, zero. Terrorist "watch lists" prevent possible suspects from boarding airplanes. Abdulmutallab's own father, the former economic minister of Nigeria, is reported to have warned the FBI about his son's extreme views—six months ago. According to Fox News Abdulmutallab was "on U.S. officials' radar for years," but was never considered a "sufficient threat to keep him from flying."

Obama Quietly Changes U.S. Immigration Policy http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=f35b300ec73d76f7ccc97e547a14056a
Excerpt: The administration has also largely halted workplace raids that resulted in jailing, deportation and even criminal charges for many unauthorized workers, and is focused instead on in-depth audits of companies suspected of hiring those workers. And DHS has curbed the authority of state and local police forces to demand immigration documents from anyone stopped for minor offenses like traffic violations, saying that such checks should be done only for those jailed on criminal charges, particularly for serious criminal offenses. To drive home the point, DHS in October stripped the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona of federal authority to make immigration-related arrests. The administration is walking a narrow line. The White House believes it must hold tough on enforcement if there is any hope of assembling a political coalition in Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform next year.

Much Ado About…What?
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/much-ado-about-what/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA#more-7843
Excerpt: Question for the day: What is causing the huge emotional reaction both on the right and the left? To the health bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve, that is. Strangely, the bill would not solve any of the problems that its proponents talked about. But it would do two very important things almost no one has talked about. First, the talked-about goals. Would this bill lower health care costs? No. Would it improve the quality of care? No. Would it improve average access to care? Probably not. Would it make health insurance portable? No. What about insuring half the uninsured? Yes, but a large chunk of those were already eligible for Medicaid and S-CHIP and most of the rest would have obtained insurance anyway in a short period of time. Since there is no mechanism for dealing with short-term uninsurance and since there will be strong incentives for the healthy to drop out, the actual number may fall way short of the projection. What about eliminating pre-existing condition requirements? Yes, but in a way that harms more people than it helps. Following the Massachusetts experience of going bare—getting sick—getting insured—getting bills paid—and then dropping coverage again is nothing to cheer about. Is the bill even “progressive?” Surprisingly, the answer is probably not.

Senators can’t understand the bill, sponsor says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz4sWdFxlmg&feature=player_embedded

Laps in Security
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDA3OTVlMTZmMjUwYzU0M2Q1MDNhNGY4NWRiYmFkZGE=
Excerpt: Well, the authorities have reacted to the Pantybomber in the usual way: Passengers getting off both U.S. domestic flights and those arriving from overseas reported being told that they couldn’t get out of their seat for the last hour of their flight. Air Canada also said that during the last hour passengers won’t be allowed access to carry-on baggage or to have any items on their laps. That's great news, isn't it? This was a failed terror plot. But with failures like this who needs victories? If that Air Canada rule becomes generally applicable, that last hour will be a big time-waster for some of us. But no doubt some enterprising jihadist will attempt to self-detonate in mid-flight or shortly after take-off, and pretty soon we'll have to sit in isolation for the full seven or eight hours. Another couple of attempted takedowns and they might as well ship us freight.

Quote
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand." --Milton Freidman