Political Digest January 1, 2010

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.

O's day of reckoning http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/day_of_reckoning_hHNtbO7IbHnphV3rxxYZ8N
It's showtime, folks! Today's the deadline President Obama imposed on Iran's leaders to give up their nuclear ambitions and be nice. Not sure if the deadline expires at midnight in Tehran or on Washington time, but the mullahs and President Mahmoud "Mighty Mouse" Ahmadinejad aren't scrambling to give Obama a New Year's Eve smooch. Rather than cave in to our president's mighty rhetoric, the Tehran tyrants took a break from killing protesters in the streets to attempt to import more than 1,300 tons of make-a-nuke uranium ore from Kazakhstan. They've also increased their nuke-cooker centrifuge count, tested new long-range missiles and lied like Persian rugs about hidden nuke sites. In response, our president threatened to huff and puff and blow their house down. Iran's retort? "Love the cool breeze, Barack."

Obama's Year of Living Blamelessly
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/obama-s-year-of-living-blamelessly-15328
Excerpt: Barack Obama has figured out what went wrong with Homeland Security this past Christmas: George W. Bush: "It's becoming clear that the system that has been in place for years now is not sufficiently up to date to take full advantage of the information we collect and the knowledge we have,” Obama said Wednesday. When you're president of the United States, you can't pass the buck to your superior. In response to this frustration, President Obama has developed what systems people like to call a "workaround": He passes the buck to his predecessor. A lot.

Obama’s Only Real Accomplishment
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/18464
From Canada. Excerpt: Let’s get it straight, behind all the hubbub and noise, the international trips and summits, the TV specials and constant addresses to the nation and any other nation that would let him in, the huge spending plans and the photoshoots—Barack Hussein Obama has accomplished only one thing in his first year in office. Obama’s only real accomplishment is that he took hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money, and directed them to his donors on Wall Street, in the unions and the insurance industry. Barry Hussein took in nearly 15 million dollars in donations from securities and investments companies, and his first priority was to pay it back with a massive bailout that has exploded the deficit.

Obama's Big Sellout
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout
Excerpt: The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway. Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for hurting the middle class and tore into John McCain for supporting a bankruptcy bill that sided with wealthy bankers "at the expense of hardworking Americans." Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it's not like you saw him on the campaign trail flanked by bankers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. What inspired supporters who pushed him to his historic win was the sense that a genuine outsider was finally breaking into an exclusive club, that walls were being torn down, that things were, for lack of a better or more specific term, changing. Then he got elected. What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.

The Source Of Obama's Anti-Israel Policy
http://writingtw.blogspot.com/2009/07/source-of-obamas-anti-israel-policy.html
Excerpt: Like Obama, I am a graduate of Harvard Law School. I too have Muslims in my family. I am black, and I was once a leftist Democrat. Since our backgrounds are somewhat similar, I perceive something in Obama's policy toward Israel which people without that background may not see. All my life I have witnessed a strain of anti-Semitism in the black community. It has been fueled by the rise of the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, but it predates that organization. We heard it in Jesse Jackson's "HYMIE town" remark years ago during his presidential campaign. We heard it most recently in Jeremiah Wright's remark about "them Jews" not allowing Obama to speak with him. I hear it from my own Muslim family members who see the problem in the Middle East as a "Jew" problem. Growing up in a small, predominantly black urban community in Pennsylvania, I heard the comments about Jewish shop owners. They were "greedy cheaters" who could not be trusted, according to my family and others in the neighborhood. I was too young to understand what it means to be Jewish, or know that I was hearing anti-Semitism. These people seemed nice enough to me, but others said they were "evil". Sadly, this bigotry has yet to be eradicated from the black community. In Chicago, the anti-Jewish sentiment among black people is even more pronounced because of the direct influence of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Most African Americans are not followers of "The Nation", but many have a quiet respect for its leader because, they say, "he speaks the truth" and "stands up for the black man". What they mean of course is that he viciously attacks the perceived "enemies" of the black community – white people and Jews. Even some self-described Christians buy into his demagoguery.

2009 Chickens and their 2010 Roost http://townhall.com/columnists/VictorDavisHanson/2009/12/31/2009_chickens_and_their_2010_roost
Excerpt: In the coming year, plenty of our chickens will be coming home to roost. Take foreign relations. In 2009, the new administration assumed that George W. Bush was largely responsible for global tensions. As a remedy, we loudly reached out to our foes and those with whom we had uneasy relationships. But so far these leaders -- like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Russia's Vladimir Putin -- have only interpreted Barack Obama's serial goodwill gestures as weaknesses to be exploited. They play the part of the pushy class bully, we the whiny nerd….In other words, 2009 may seem to have ended relatively quietly. But in our foreign relations, in the war against terror, in our massive borrowing, and in our energy policies, we created chickens that soon will come home to roost in 2010.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2009 http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/dec/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2009
Round up the usual suspects.

New Presidential Order Will Declassify Millions of Government Documents http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/new-presidential-order-will-declassify-millions-of-government-documents/19298790
Ah, my mistake. When Obama promised “transparency,” he meant of America’s secrets from previous administrations, not say healthcare debates from his administration.

Ramadi attacks: Is Iraq heading for more sectarian bloodshed? http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/1230/Ramadi-attacks-Is-Iraq-heading-for-more-sectarian-bloodshed
Gee, it’s like someone revealed that we’d be leaving, so they just sat back and waited. Nah, we couldn’t be that stupid, could we?

A Day Off
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1209/ahlert.php3
Excerpt: One of my rules for writing is to present criticism in such a way that it avoids becoming the kind of outright rants that separate thoughtful columnists from angry bloggers. I not a big fan of personal attacks either. When I whack someone, it has to do with what they do or say, not who they are. On the other hand, since everyone gets a "day off" once in a while, here are some personal observations admittedly less "measured:"…. Nancy Pelosi's promise to end the "culture of corruption" in Congress and Barack Obama's promise to run the "most transparent administration in history" were unadulterated lies. An ominous thought: both of them might actually believe they're doing just that, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. Such a profound disconnect from reality is making Americans furious. It ought to scare the hell of out them.

Legitimacy of profiling
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/30/the-legitimacy-of-profiling/?source=newsletter_opinion_headlines
Excerpt: of the attempted Christmas Day bombing aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253, it was certainly appropriate that President Obama directed a review of airline screening policies and procedures. It is unlikely, however, that the current administration will re-evaluate long-standing policies prohibiting ethnic or gender-based terror profiling. Nevertheless, failure to make common-sense changes may increase the chance that persons like Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab or "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid (aka Abdul Raheem) will one day succeed in detonating a bomb aboard a commercial aircraft. Considering the explosive power of PETN (the explosive apparently utilized in both incidents), we can count ourselves as extraordinarily lucky that no American lives have been lost in such an attack thus far. Unfortunately, political correctness and misguided past applications of racial profiling by domestic law enforcement have poisoned the profiling well in the war on terrorism (or whatever the Obama administration calls its counterterrorism policy this month).

Bombshell Eyewitness Revelations: Confirmed FBI Cover-Up Of Flight 253 Attack http://www.prisonplanet.com/bombshell-eyewitness-revelations-confirmed-fbi-cover-up-of-flight-253-attack.html
Interesting. Who benefits from a cover up? Have to see how this one shakes out before I have an opinion. Excerpt: At this point a bomb-sniffing dog pointed at carry-on luggage in the possession of a man Haskell described as Indian around 30 years old. Officials led the man away to an interrogation room. Haskell said he was concerned because the bomb-sniffing dog had flagged the man, indicating he may have had explosives in his carry-on luggage. The Indian man was subsequently led away in handcuffs.

The dark side of Dubai
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html
Not that I was planning a visit there….

Judge dismisses all charges in Blackwater shooting
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/31/national/w124014S96.DTL
Excerpt: U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said Thursday the Justice Department overstepped its bounds and wrongly used evidence it was not allowed to see. He said the government's explanations have been contradictory, unbelievable and not credible.

Crime Pays for Somali Pirates
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/31/crime-pays-for-somali-pirates-by-stephen-brown/
Excerpt: The military news publication, Strategy Page, reports this week that the Dutch frigate, HNLMS Eversten, was ordered to release 13 Somali pirates it had captured earlier this month. The pirates were attacking a merchant ship when the Dutch intervened and apprehended them and their vessel. However, instead of being clapped in irons to await trial, the Dutch captain was ordered to put the pirates back on their boat and release them. In addition, the Dutch sailors’ also had to provide the pirates, who not long ago would have been hung on the spot, with food and fuel to return to Somalia. (It is a wonder they were not sent on their way with apologies for any inconvenience.) The only consolation regarding this sad state of affairs concerned the pirates’ weapons: they were not returned. But the way things are going, Western naval crews may eventually have to do just that, or be required to supply a substitute, like cash or DVDs (The Pirates of the Caribbean might be a big hit) to keep their former captives entertained during their trip home.

Hizballah Flag and Nazi Salutes in Toronto
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/31/hizballah-flag-and-nazi-salutes-in-toronto-by-robert-spencer/
The West is committing suicide. This was paid for by the Canadian taxpayers.

Terror suspect attended 2008 Islamic 'knowledge fest' in Houston http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/30/terror.suspect.seminar/
Wonder how many others were there learning that “Islam is a religion of peace” as they say…and will any of them be on your next flight?

Shariah finance: The deadly Jihadist weapon with a dollar sign http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Shariah-finance_-The-deadly-Jihadist-weapon-with-a-dollar-sign-8696751-80282782.html
Important to understand. Excerpt: The concept of SCF was articulated by men like Sayyid Qutb of Egypt and Abul Ala Maududi of Pakistan in the mid-20th century, both of whom argued for a Jihad against Westernization, and the creation of Islamic polities that would ultimately join in a hegemonic worldwide caliphate. The goal was that of establishing Shariah not merely as the supreme law of the land, but as the supreme law of the world.

Officials: Somali Tried To Board Flight With Explosives Last Month http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581459,00.html
Must be another “isolated incident,” right, Mr. President? Excerpt: MOGADISHU, Somalia — A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Afghanistan suicide bombing kills 8 CIA officers
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghan-attack31-2009dec31,0,5154434.story
I’m sure the families are thankful no one was water boarded to prevent this, or their phone calls listened to. That would have been an outrage.

Iranian Cleric Calls Opposition 'Enemies of God'
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/29dec09-iran-protests-80307032.html
Hope BO explains that Islam is a Religion of Peace to them before someone gets hurt. Excerpt: An Iranian cleric close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei says the country's opposition leaders are "enemies of God" who could be executed according to Islamic law. The statement by Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi came Tuesday as opposition groups reported the arrests of more activists following Sunday's anti-government protests that left eight people dead. At least 20 high-profile opposition figures or their associates have been detained since Sunday.

Unrest in Iran: The Vindication of George W. Bush http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2009/12/31/unrest_in_iran_the_vindication_of_george_w_bush
Excerpt: The Iraq War-achieved-zero crowd begrudged Bush nothing even after the democratic Cedar Revolution in Lebanon. Never mind that Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze Muslim leader, said: "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting (in 2005), 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." As to Iran, The New York Times quoted a pundit-blogger who, when protests began this past summer, wrote, "(N)o Iranian ... has mentioned Iraq as an inspiration for the demonstrations, nor has any leader of their opposition cited their Iraqi neighbors as a model or a source of guidance." None? Meet Mohsen Kadivar. In May 2004, Time magazine profiled this Iranian intellectual in a flattering article called "The Critical Cleric -- Reclaiming Islam for a New World." Newsweek called him a global leader "to watch in 2005." His criticism of the Iranian regime landed him in jail. He now teaches at Duke University, and PBS's Charlie Rose interviewed him in July.

Limbaugh Hospitalized, Left Hopes For His Death
http://rightwingnews.com/2009/12/limbaugh-hospitalized-left-hopes-for-his-death/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rightwingnews%2FhGmL+%28Right+Wing+News%29
The Internet allows people to spew venom—people of both extremes I might say—without putting their names to their hate. Cowards. If Bush or Obama died, there would be the same kind of hate spewed. Except if Obama died, regardless of the reason, there would be riots as well.
More: http://race42008.com/2009/12/30/liberal-glee-on-display-over-limbaugh-hospitalization/

Blue state govs. rip Senate health bill
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31032.html?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Excerpt: The governors of the nation’s two largest Democratic states are leveling sharp criticism at the Senate health care bill, claiming that it would leave their already financially strapped states even deeper in the hole. New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson and California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are urging congressional leaders to rework the Medicaid financing in the Senate-passed bill, warning that under that version their states will be crushed by billions in new costs. After the Senate passed the bill in a Christmas Eve vote, Paterson said the expansion would leave New York $1 billion in the lurch. The state faces a $6.8 billion budget shortfall heading into the 2010 fiscal year.

Special Democratic Voting Counties Would Get Protected Medicare Benefits http://www.breitbart.tv/healthcare-shocker-special-democratic-voting-counties-would-get-protected-medicare-benefits/
Seems the rest of Florida is a tad upset that some counties get benefits they don’t.

Veterans' benefits entangled in red tape
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/31/veteran-benefits-entangled-in-heaping-red-tape/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_more_news_carousel
Must be Bush’s fault. Excerpt: Leading Democrats like to hold up the Veterans Benefits Administration as an example of how well government can provide health care. But veterans who deal with the complex federal bureaucracy have invented an unhappy refrain to describe the VBA: "Deny, deny until you die." VBA, the branch of the Department of Veterans Affairs that dispenses aid and assistance to veterans and their families, is simply overwhelmed. It reported on Monday that there are 481,751 pending claims, some of which will take more than a year to be processed. Among those flooding the VBA's facilities with claims are retirement-aged Vietnam veterans and elderly World War II veterans, middle-aged Gulf War veterans, and younger Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. All of these groups are applying in larger numbers because of the weak economy, said Larry Scott, the founder of the advocacy group VAwatchdog.org.

Naked Liberalism
http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMcBride/2009/12/30/naked_liberalism
Excerpt: But real crisis occurred when a Minnesotan boarded a bus to Oregon in order bring his own brand of nude self-expression to Ashland. Mr. Freedom-of-Expression decided that parading his package in the vicinity of an elementary school was indeed an appropriate form of self-expression, and Ashland was the kind of liberal haven to support it.. Some moms, liberal and otherwise, became concerned. What is a liberal to do? Now it is liberal v. liberal in Ashland, as the community tries to achieve an impossible balance between reasonable nudity and un-reasonable nudity within the city’s limits. The mayor wants an ordinance, many townies want nudity, the Minnesotan wants a refund on his bus ticket, and parents, many liberals themselves, want to protect their children from free-expression freak-a-zoids who have no restraint.

Top encyclopedia: Farah is a 'twit, Jew-loving pig'
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=120518
Excerpt: In the latest of a years-long Wikipedia campaign of hurling smears at WND's founder, Joseph Farah was characterized as a "Zionist Twit and Jew Loving Pig" on the site that claims to be an online encyclopedia.

Involvement in Amirault case makes Martha Coakley unfit to replace Ted Kennedy as Senator http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=8509
Excerpt: Martha Coakley, the current Massachusetts Attorney General, is not fit to be a United States Senator. Anyone who thinks so only needs to study the Fells Acres Day Care case. The Fells Acres Day Care was started by Violet Amirault and run with the help of her son, Gerald, and his sister, Cheryl Amirault LeFave. In the midst of the daycare sex abuse hysteria of the 1980s, all three were charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse. The charges were some of the most heinous ever made. However, they were also ludicrous.

Honorary Marine collects and donates to the Warlords http://www.mnfwest.usmc.mil/public/InfolineMarines.nsf/ArticlesListingReadCurrent/4A28331369B5C9DC8525769C0036FBC8?OpenDocument
Excerpt: Taylor Batten, a 15 year old young lady from Three Rivers, Michigan, recently sent an incredibly moving gift to the Warlords deployed in Afghanistan. She has been battling with a serious medical condition throughout her life. The Marine Corps has inspired her to persevere through the arduous medical testing and treatments, well enough to earn the title of Honorary Marine. She is a close friend of many Marines who have heard her story, including our Executive Officer, Major Gary Bourland. Maj Bourland met with now, Gunnery Sergeant (Hon.) Batten when she went to Bethesda Medical Center for testing. GySgt (Hon.) Batten recently held a blanket drive for the troops in Afghanistan, and found 1st Lt Sims by way of a deployed Marine support program.

Obamanation by Ed Montana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPXpzyDI2Mg
Song for country music lovers.