Political Digest January 13, 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.

The Fix: Democrats launch full court press in Mass. special election
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/1-2-most-americans-dont.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: Sensing that the once-safe Massachusetts Senate special election might be slipping from their grasp, Democrats moved on a number of fronts over the last 24 hours in an attempt to re-establish state Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) as the race's frontrunner in her now surprisingly tough fight against state Sen. Scott Brown (R). On the staff level, both Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan, a veteran of a number of campaigns including a 2004 Senate race in Kentucky, and Michael Meehan, a longtime Democratic operative with ties to Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), were dispatched to stabilize Coakley's campaign. On the ad front, Coakley -- with an assist from the state Democratic party -- launched her first negative commercial of the contest, attacking Brown for being in "lockstep with Washington Republicans." And finally on fundraising, President Obama sent an email to his list insisting that "the outcome of this race couldn't be more important" and asking donors to dig deep to help Coakley. Given that level of activity, it's clear that Democrats are concerned about the state of the race with just one week before voters head to the polls to choose a replacement for the late Ted Kennedy. A few questions to keep an eye on over the coming days: 1) Does the National Republican Senatorial Committee invest in ads in the state and, if so, how heavy is the buy? 2) Do outside conservative groups join the American Future Fund on the airwaves attacking Coakley and, if they do, are there a handful of liberal outside groups who move quickly to counter that strategy? 3) Does the White House send in a surrogate like Vice President Biden -- or even the president himself -- in the final days on the race to remind Massachusetts Democrats of what's at stake? 4) How much more money can Brown raise off of his newfound national notoriety -- he crested $1.1 million collected in just 24 hours on Monday -- and how quickly can he get that money on television to counter what almost certainly will be a negative onslaught from Coakley? 5) How many more independent and/or internal campaign polls will be released in the coming week and what will they say? If Brown can get one or two more polls to validate this is a real race, momentum will be all on his side. The answers to these questions will go a long way to determining whether Brown has a legitimate chance to win or not. Today, Coakley remains a favorite thanks to her financial advantage and the Democratic lean of the state but she is in a much tougher race than she could have imagined even a few weeks ago.

Sen. Scott Brown
Have heard him a couple of times on the TV, very classy guy, deft at avoiding the reporters’ verbal traps. I made my second contribution to him Monday, part of the big money push he launched. Too bad the Democrats woke up with a week to go. When I upset an incumbent state senator in 1972, there was not a lot of polling. When the polls closed at 8:00 pm, the local radio station opined that I’d run a good campaign, would likely “only” get beat 2-1. I won by nine votes when the last town, Shirley, put me ahead at 6;30 am the next morning—all paper ballots in those days. You can help Brown at:
www.brownforussenate.com

Brown, Coakley and the 60th vote--Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704500104574650692333660478.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
Excerpt: Ms. Coakley is the state attorney general and ran to the left of other Democrats to win the Senate primary. She would be a reliable liberal vote for Majority Leader Harry Reid on every issue. These columns have a particular interest in Ms. Coakley's judgment from her days as district attorney for Middlesex County when she inherited the child molestation case against Gerald Amirault long after it had been shown to be fictional. When the Governor's Advisory Board on Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously to commute Amirault's sentence in 2001, Ms. Coakley went to great lengths to see that he remain in prison. The same woman who organized protest meetings to ensure that Amirault stay behind bars now argues that would-be underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab and other jihadists should not be held as enemy combatants. She is more zealous for politically correct causes than for national security. The Democrat remains the favorite in such a liberal state, especially now that the unions and national Democrats have become alarmed by the polls. Bill Clinton will campaign for Ms. Coakley this week, and Mr. Brown can expect an assault linking him to George W. Bush, if not Herbert Hoover. But a sign of their worry is that Democrats are whispering that even if Mr. Brown wins, they'll delay his swearing in long enough to let appointed Senator Paul Kirk vote for ObamaCare. The mere fact that Democrats have to fight so hard to save Ted Kennedy's seat shows how badly they have misjudged America by governing so far to the left.

Report from the Brown Campaign
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/01/brown-hq-report-3.html
Interesting.

State Police Association of Massachusetts and Commissioned Officers Endorse Scott Brown
http://www.brownforussenate.com/press/01-11-10/1-11-2010-state-police-associ
Excerpt: The State Police Association of Massachusetts today endorsed Scott Brown’s bid for U.S. Senate, citing his determination to keep America safe by treating terrorists as enemy combatants and not as ordinary criminals. Brown also received the support of the Commissioned Officers Association of the Massachusetts State Police, a body that represents state troopers at the rank of lieutenant and above.

Republicans get Hoeven in North Dakota
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/republicans-get-hoeven-in-nort.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven (R) has decided to run for the state's newly-open Senate seat, a major recruiting victory for Republicans as they seek to expand the playing field in hopes of capitalizing on a national environment that favors their party.
Hoeven, the most popular elected official in the state, is expected to formally enter the contest this evening in Bismarck. First elected in 2000, Hoeven has won re-election with ease twice and even prior to Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D) surprise retirement last week was weighing the possibility of running. With Hoeven in the race, North Dakota jumps to the top of Republican pickup opportunities given his proven electoral appeal, the state's clear GOP tilt and the current lack of a solid Democratic candidate.

Patrick Hughes v. Mark Kirk: Illinois May be a Test Case for the Effectiveness of Tea Parties
http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/01/11/patrick-hughes-v-mark-kirk-illinois-may-be-a-test-case-for-the-effectiveness-of-tea-parties/
Excerpt: February 2, 2010 is the Illinois Republican Primary. Less than one month away. Patrick Hughes is running an upstart campaign against the would be Republican nominee, Mark Kirk. Patrick Hughes is as far right as Kirk is as far left. Patrick Hughes aims to harness the conservatives and tea party activists in Illinois who feel marginalized by Kirk and the Democrats further to the left of him. On Friday, Mark Levin endorsed Patrick Hughes and urged conservatives to rally to Patrick Hughes in this last month before the primary. It makes a compelling case to see just how rapid a response the tea party activists and conservatives can make in a Republican Primary. Should Patrick Hughes win the GOP primary, it would send shock waves across the nation and severely shake the foundations of the GOP establishment.

Sen. Reid immediately recognized danger of 'Negro dialect' comment
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/75301-reid-recognized-danger-of-comments-immediately Be different if it was Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck who made the comment. Excerpt: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) knew late Friday he was in serious political trouble. Staff had just informed him that racially insensitive comments he made during the 2008 presidential campaign were about to be publicized in a new book. Reid told his staff to brace for a tough weekend, instructing them to go into damage-control mode. Meanwhile, he made dozens of calls to apologize for telling authors of Game Change that Barack Obama had a good chance to become the nation's first black president because he was “light-skinned” and spoke with “no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”

Is Reid a Racist?
I don’t know. I don’t think this comment proves he is racist. But I don’t know if Trent Lott is a racist either and I don’t think his throw-away compliment to the 100-year-old Strom Thurmond proves Lott is. The point is that both sides try to use any slip of the tongue to prove the representative of the other side is racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, etc. It’s so bad, a friend says he’s afraid to tell his wife to sort the darks and the lights in the laundry for fear of being accused of being racist. And it is rather pleasant schadenfreude to see the Democrats, who say that anyone who opposes Obama’s policies does so because he/she is a racist, caught up in the PC net. See the story below, from awhile back.

Details of the Niggardly Controversy
http://www.adversity.net/special/niggardly.htm
Excerpt: Washington, DC's black Mayor, Anthony Williams, gladly accepted the resignation of his white staff member, David Howard, because Mr. Howard uttered the word 'niggardly' in a private staff meeting. Webster's Tenth Edition defines the word 'niggardly' to "grudgingly mean about spending or granting". The Barnhard Dictionary of Etymology traces the origins of 'niggardly' to the 1300's, and to the words 'nig' and 'ignon', meaning "miser" in Middle English. No where in any of these references is any mention of racial connotations associated with the word 'niggardly'. In other words, it's a perfectly good and useful word. But there is the unfortunate coincidence that it starts with the same four letters as the word "nigger". The news media are so loathe to use the "N" word, that they've been substituting the phrase "racial slur", as in "...they mistook the word 'niggardly' for a racial slur..." (I believe the staff members was reinstated when it turned out he was Gay, and the Gay community got up in arms….forcing a choice between two minorities playing the victim card. To his credit, the black columnist Leonard Pitts has used “niggardly” in his columns. I don’t subscribe to Pitts’ world view, but admire his writing and integrity.)

Harry Reid: illegal aliens “free loaders and scam artists”
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/
Excerpt: Reid, now an impassioned champion of amnesty for 20 million illegal aliens in America, once called illegal aliens “free loaders and scam artists” which he proposed to deal with in his Immigration Stabilization Act in the United States Senate in 1993. That proposed legislation was introduced to the floor of the US Senate with the following press release, in part, issued by Reid's office on August 5, 1993. "In response to increased terrorism and abuse of social programs by aliens, (I) today introduced the first and only comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress. Currently, an alien living illegally in the United States often pays no taxes but receives unemployment, welfare, free medical care, and other federal benefits. Recent terrorist acts, including the World Trade Center bombing, have underscored the need to keep violent criminals out of the country."

Reid adds 'skin lightening therapy' to health reform bill
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Reid-adds-_skin-lightening-therapy_-to-health-reform-bill-8751084-81167872.html
Too funny. Excerpt: Sen. Harry Reid, in an effort to increase the popularity of the imperiled health care reform bill, on Monday added a provision requiring insurance companies to pay 100 percent of the cost of treatments intended to lighten the skin of African-Americans. The news came a day after the revelation that in 2008 Reid had said Sen. Barack Obama's presidential chances were good thanks to his relatively pale pigment and lack of "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." "It's not fair that the path to the Oval Office is blocked for my darker-hued friends," Reid said Monday. "Skin-lightening therapy will open the corridors of power to a new generation of African-American leaders. And thanks to my amendment, this treatment will be free at last." Reid said lighter skin and a "more blanco dialect" provides Democrat politicians greater chances of election in a party with "a long history of working to give African-Americans all of the privileges I have enjoyed as a pale, pink-skinned candidate." President Obama released a statement praising Reid for "his sensitivity toward those born with mahogany, mocha and walnut skin, through no fault of their own." The president embraced "this amendment, and any other expansion of government involvement into the lives of ordinary Americans." The Senate majority leader said he's still crafting a measure that would force insurers to also pay for "a dialect coach" for patients who had their skin lightened.

Liberal policies take toll on California colleges
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6807376.html
Excerpt: Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) was a hero to the American left, partly because of his 1939 anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun. Trumbo's title modified the lyric “Johnny get your gun” from the World War I song Over There. Trumbo's “Johnny” is horribly maimed in that war. Now we need a novel titled Berkeley Got Its Liberalism. Pending that, we have Tad Friend's report, in the Jan. 4 New Yorker, on maimed Berkeley. California, a laboratory of liberalism, is spiraling downward, driven by a huge budget deficit. So the University of California system's budget was cut 20 percent. Then the system increased in-state student fees 32 percent to … $10,302. But that is still 70 percent below student costs at Stanford and other private institutions in California that Berkeley considers no better than it is. Last September, Friend reports, 5,000 Berkeley employees and students rallied in Sproul Plaza, scene of protests that ignited the 1960s and helped make Ronald Reagan governor. Toward the end of the seven-hour meeting, participants shouted “General strike! General strike!”

The Protectionist Delusion
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18854&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD
Excerpt: When Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota announced his support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign early in 2008, he told reporters that a key factor in his endorsement was that Obama "has always opposed NAFTA" -- the North American Free Trade Agreement linking Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Dorgan is a strident protectionist, so there was nothing unusual about his slap at NAFTA, says columnist Jeff Jacoby. Except this: The same week that Dorgan came out for Obama, the U.S. Commercial Service reported that North Dakota had ranked first in the nation for export growth the previous year.. . And the top destinations for the North Dakota merchandise exported in 2007? Canada and Mexico. International commerce has been good to Dorgan's state.

Tax Increases Will Cost Even More Washingtonians Their Jobs
http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/pressroom/pressreleases/TaxAd2010.html
Excerpt: Olympia – Today Washington Policy Center (WPC) is running a full-page ad in The Olympian warning lawmakers about the impact of tax increases. The ad uses information from Washington Research Council’s new study, “The Economic Impact of Hiking Taxes to Close the Budget Gap.” “As legislators wrestle with the state budget shortfall, it’s important that they recognize the effects of tax hikes on job preservation and creation,” says Dr. Kriss Sjoblom, VP for Research and Economist with the Washington Research Council. According to the study, increasing the state Business and Occupation tax (B&O) by $1 billion would eliminate up to 15,072 jobs. A $2.6 billion B&O tax increase would cost 38,968 Washingtonian’s their jobs.

U.S. Chamber warns of 'double-dip' recession because of Dem policies
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/75401-us-chamber-warns-of-double-dip-recession
Excerpt: U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue warned the U.S. faces a double-dip recession because of the taxes and regulations under consideration by the Democratic Congress and President Barack Obama. “Congress, the administration and states must recognize that our weak economy simply could not sustain all the new taxes, regulations and mandates now under consideration. It’s a sure-fire recipe for a double-dip recession, or worse,” Donohue said in a speech providing the Chamber's outlook for 2010.

America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6962632/America-slides-deeper-into-depression-as-Wall-Street-revels.html
Excerpt: The labour force contracted by 661,000. This did not show up in the headline jobless rate because so many Americans dropped out of the system. The broad U6 category of unemployment rose to 17.3pc. That is the one that matters. Wall Street rallied. Bulls hope that weak jobs data will postpone monetary tightening: a silver lining in every catastrophe, or perhaps a further exhibit of market infantilism. The home foreclosure guillotine usually drops a year or so after people lose their job, and exhaust their savings. The local sheriff will escort them out of the door, often with some sympathy –– just like the police in 1932, mostly Irish Catholics who tithed 1pc of their pay for soup kitchens. Realtytrac says defaults and repossessions have been running at over 300,000 a month since February. One million American families lost their homes in the fourth quarter. Moody's Economy.com expects another 2.4m homes to go this year. Taken together, this looks awfully like Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.

$787 Billion in Stimulus, Zero Jobs “Created or Saved”
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/12/morning-bell-787-billion-in-stimulus-zero-jobs-created-or-saved/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Excerpt: But even where infrastructure spending has been spent, the hard evidence shows that there has not been any positive effect on unemployment. According to an Associated Press analysis reviewed by independent economists at five universities, the $20 billion spent nationwide on infrastructure so far “has had no effect on local unemployment rates.” And this was just the most recent embarrassing headline for the White House’s signature economic policy. Since the first reporting deadline in October, newspapers and other media outlets across the country have identified 94,341 fake jobs reported by the Obama administration as jobs “created or saved” by the stimulus. After the Government Accountability Office issued a report finding “significant reporting and processing problems that need to be addressed,” Obama administration spokesman Ed Pound offered this defense of the Obama administration’s jobs numbers: “Who knows, man, who really knows.” Now Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag issued a little-noticed memo last month ending the “saved or created” metric and instead directing agencies to count only jobs “funded” by stimulus dollars. But as Harvard University labor economist Lawrence Katz tells ProPublica, this is not really an improvement: “I just think it’s a silly exercise.” Instead Katz says a more accurate way to account for the effect of the stimulus is to look at the unemployment numbers put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Obama meets with union leaders to discuss health-care reform
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011103646.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Guess the unions believed Obama when he said people making under $250k wouldn’t pay a dime more in taxes. Don’t know why—this meeting wasn’t on C-Span as he also promised. Excerpt: President Obama sought on Monday evening to assuage organized labor's misgivings about the health-care overhaul, even as several key union leaders warned that the bill's final outlines could severely dampen their enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket in this year's elections. Obama invited 10 labor leaders to the White House to discuss the negotiations aimed at reconciling the Senate and House bills, which are not heading in organized labor's direction in the three areas that it had identified as priorities. The final bill will not include the House's government-run insurance plan, or "public option"; it will probably include the Senate's new tax on high-cost health plans that could affect many union members; and its penalties for employers who do not provide insurance coverage will probably be closer to the more lenient terms in the Senate bill.

Russ Feingold Listening Session WCTC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--C_9ri6tO4
An earful on healthcare.

Pro-Life Dems Targeted on Health Care
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=9093
Excerpt: As House Democrats return to Washington and prepare to huddle with leadership on health care, an anti-abortion group is going after 13 pro-life Democrats by staging rallies in their district offices and urging them to oppose the final plan. A House Democratic leadership aide told TPMDC today that abortion provisions are still a big question left unresolved as the House and Senate attempt to reconcile their versions of the health care plan in hopes of getting something to President Obama within the month.

Copenhagen Summit Turned Junket? At Least 20 Members of Congress Made the Trip to Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen Last Month
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/11/cbsnews_investigates/main6084364.shtml
Saving the world, one taxpayer-paid vacation at a time. Excerpt: But wait until you hear what we found about how many in Congress got all-expense paid trips to Denmark on your dime. CBS investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports that cameras spotted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the summit. She called the shots on who got to go. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and embattled Chairman of the Tax Committee Charles Rangel were also there. They were joined by 17 colleagues: Democrats: Waxman, Miller, Markey, Gordon, Levin, Blumenauer, DeGette, Inslee, Ryan, Butterfield, Cleaver, Giffords, and Republicans: Barton, Upton, Moore Capito, Sullivan, Blackburn and Sensenbrenner. That's not the half of it. But finding out more was a bit like trying to get the keys to Ft. Knox. Many referred us to Speaker Pelosi who wouldn't agree to an interview. Her office said it "will comply with disclosure requirements" but wouldn't give us cost estimates or even tell us where they all stayed. Senator Inhofe (R-OK) is one of the few who provided us any detail. He attended the summit on his own for just a few hours, to give an "opposing view." "They're going because it's the biggest party of the year," Sen. Inhofe said. "The worst thing that happened there is they ran out of caviar." Our investigation found that the congressional delegation was so large, it needed three military jets: two 737's and a Gulfstream Five -- up to 64 passengers -- traveling in luxurious comfort. Add senators and staff, most of whom flew commercial, and we counted at least 101 Congress-related attendees. All for a summit that failed to deliver a global climate deal. As a perk, some took spouses, since they could snag an open seat on a military jet or share a room at no extra cost to taxpayers. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was there with her husband. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) was also there with her husband. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) took his wife, as did Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Congressman Barton -- a climate change skeptic -- even brought along his daughter…And all those attendees who went to the summit rather than hooking up by teleconference? They produced enough climate-stunting carbon dioxide to fill 10,000 Olympic swimming pools. Which means even if Congress didn't get a global agreement - they left an indelible footprint all the same.

The mini ice age starts here
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html
Probably George Bush’s fault. Excerpt: The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists. Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013. According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this. The scientists’ predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and will continue as long as carbon dioxide levels rise. They say that their research shows that much of the warming was caused by oceanic cycles when they were in a ‘warm mode’ as opposed to the present ‘cold mode’. This challenge to the widespread view that the planet is on the brink of an irreversible catastrophe is all the greater because the scientists could never be described as global warming ‘deniers’ or sceptics. (The sad part is this will mean starvation through crop failure, at the same time people lose their jobs because of things like Cap & Trade to make the planet cooler!)

History of the Climategate E-mail Scandal
Part 1
http://bigjournalism.com/pcourrielche/2010/01/08/peer-to-peer-review-how-climategate-marks-the-maturing-of-a-new-science-movement-part-i/
Part 2
http://bigjournalism.com/pcourrielche/2010/01/10/peer-to-peer-review-part-ii-how-climategate-marks-the-maturing-of-a-new-science-movement/
Part 3
http://bigjournalism.com/pcourrielche/2010/01/12/peer-to-peer-review-part-iii-how-climategate-marks-the-maturing-of-a-new-science-movement/

New news sites
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/12/reporting-from-the-right-big-journalism-and-the-daily-caller/
Keeping the Leftstream Media honest. Or trying anyway.

No one punished under congressional ethics rules
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-01-10-ethics_N.htm
Excerpt: Nearly three years after Congress approved sweeping ethics rules to "drain the swamp," as incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, no member of Congress has been punished for wrongdoing. In that time, allegations of sexual misconduct and financial impropriety have been lodged against lawmakers. The most serious rebuke in the past year: a "letter of qualified admonition" to Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., after the Senate ethics panel concluded he misled lawmakers and inappropriately offered to raise campaign funds for then-governor Rod Blagojevich as Burris sought the Senate appointment. "Three years later, it's the same old, same old," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

"Notional" Security by Thomas Sowell
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2010/01/12/notional_security
Excerpt: The latest "screw-up" that let a man with explosives get on a plane on Christmas day is only part of a larger laxness and irresponsibility when it comes to national security. This administration pays lip service to national security and gives out with a lot of rhetorical notions that makes it notional security instead of national security….Recently, an Israeli security official was interviewed on Fox News Channel by Mike Huckabee. The official said that he has testified before Congress and offered to help with suggestions on how the American airport security system could be improved-- and he clearly thought it needed a lot of improvement. Apparently the only response he got from American security officials was a polite letter. "They didn't tell me to go to Hell," he said. "They were polite."

State Department Sides With “Suspected” Terrorists Seeking Visas to U.S.
http://townhall.com/columnists/JoelMowbray/2010/01/11/state_department_sides_with_%e2%80%9csuspected%e2%80%9d_terrorists_seeking_visas_to_us
Excerpt: Tucked away in a single paragraph near the end of the declassified preliminary report on the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack is the key fact glossed over by most in media and the government: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had a valid visa when he boarded his Detroit-bound flight. The reason is simple: the State Department insists that “possible” and even “suspected” terrorists deserve visas. Denials and revocations are reserved only for known terrorists.

WARNING: I didn’t watch this—see commentary below from a Marine combat vet
http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/muslim-child-and-friends-behead-man-while-praising-allah-video/#comment-13599
From a vet friend: I cannot overemphasize how horrible this video is. It shows a young boy, maybe 10, cutting the head off a bound man, while a whole chorus of others sing praise to Allah. This is what extremist Islamists do, not only terrible acts against others, but terrible acts against their own children in teaching them to be merciless, cruel and bloodthirsty killers. If you take my word for it, great, do NOT go watch this thing if you don't feel the need to see for yourself. I forced myself to watch most of it, finally had to turn away in the last seconds. Part of me wishes I had not watched it, it has left images in my mind that I would really prefer to not have.

Saudi transfers from Gitmo on hold
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/75377-saudi-transfers-from-gitmo-put-on-hold
Eventually the voice of the people gets through. Excerpt: The Obama administration has no plans to transfer Guantánamo Bay detainees to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Christmas Day bombing attempt and bipartisan criticism about its policy of transferring detainees to countries hosting terrorist activity. No detainees are set to be sent to Saudi Arabia in the “near term,” an administration official told The Hill.

Howling at the moon
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/14-irfan-husain-howling-at-the-moon-910-zj-11
Excerpt: Many of us in the punditry profession are guilty of making generalisations about what is happening in the tribal areas without having visited them in recent times. Thus, when we hear about the anger and outrage supposedly sweeping though the people of Fata over the frequent drone attacks, we tend to accept this as the gospel truth. This myth was recently exploded by Farhat Taj in her article ‘Drone attacks: challenging some fabrications’, published recently in a national daily. Dr Taj is an academic at the University of Oslo, but more importantly, she comes from the region and has a degree of access to tribal Pakhtuns that is rare. Over the last couple of years, the air has been thick with charges that the US drone campaign is ‘counter-productive’ as it is supposed to have caused the death of many non-combatants. The Pakistani government has lodged numerous protests with the Americans over the collateral damage their attacks have caused, and how they are destabilising the Zardari administration. The hypocrisy inherent in these protests is little short of breathtaking, considering that many of these remote controlled aircraft are said to operate from runways located in Pakistan. However, as Dr Taj explains in her important article, ordinary people in Fata are delighted that at least somebody is killing the ruthless thugs who have seized control of their villages and their lives. She says that Pakistani and US media have tossed around the figure of ‘600-700 civilian casualties’ without citing any evidence.

Islamists loot and burn protestant church in Algeria
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147867681&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Didn’t get the Islam-is-a-religion-of-peace memo.

Bridge 'terror' thug's Allah cry
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/bridge_terror_tZ0hhGHb8g8Q37EoLcfxNM#ixzz0cEovBvt8
Excerpt: A Queens man tied to a suspected al Qaeda-trained terrorist may have been trying to kill himself when he crashed his car into the back of another at the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, law enforcement sources said. Adis Medunjanin, 25, called 911 as he sped erratically away from federal agents through Queens streets at up to 90 mph. "We love death more than you love life!" he exclaimed in Arabic. Medunjanin also praised Allah moments before he rear-ended another vehicle, sources said.

Code Pink To Muslims: ‘Help Us Cleanse Our Country’
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/01/11/code-pink-to-muslims-help-us-cleanse-our-country/
Excerpt: As Americans keep a wary eye on Muslim radicals in Yemen, little attention is being given to a far more dangerous enemy right in our own backyard. Under the banner of ‘anti-war’ activism, the radical group Code Pink is running banner advertisements on the English language version of the official Web site of a terrorist sympathizing group, the Muslim Brotherhood, one of which invites the Muslim Brotherhood to “join us in cleansing our country.” The ad is entitled ‘Arrest The War Criminals.’ Only problem is, Code Pink believes the war criminals are none other than George W. Bush and Co. And they’re actively recruiting radical Muslim terrorists to help them in their cause. A link on the ad goes to a web site that actually calls for the kidnapping of former President George W. Bush, his wife Laura, his family, and various former administration officials. To date, not a peep has been heard from the Secret Service. Maybe that’s because Jodie Evans, the co-founder of Code Pink was a top fundraiser for Barack Obama. Or maybe not.

Muslim paper condemned for 'blood libel'
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/holy-post/archive/2010/01/08/muslim-paper-condemned-for-blood-libel.aspx
Excerpt: Yesterday al-Ameen, which bills itself as British Columbia's "most widely read Muslim newspaper," posted on their website a story headlined "Ukrainian kids, new victims of Israeli organ theft," which originally came from Iran's television network, Press TV.

We're the Government -- and You're Not
http://www.resistnet.com/video/video/show?id=2600775%3AVideo%3A1919502&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_video
Satire