Political Digest for February 10, 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.

Germany's Choice
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100208_germanys_choice?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100208&utm_content=readmore&elq=cc551f3da731498c8dea02362661c43d
Very interesting read. The eventual fate of all collectivist governments, including ours, is oppression and fiscal collapse. I thought Europe was good for ten years and us for 20, but the current economic downturn due to the US Government induced housing bubble, and the election of a collectivist president and Congress has moved up the timetable. Will Germany plug the European gap? Excerpt: The situation in Europe is dire. After years of profligate spending, Greece is becoming overwhelmed. Barring some sort of large-scale bailout program, a Greek debt default at this point is highly likely. At this moment, European Central Bank liquidity efforts are probably the only thing holding back such a default. But these are a stopgap measure that can hold only until more important economies manage to find their feet. And Europe’s problems extend beyond Greece. Fundamentals are so poor across the board that any number of eurozone states quickly could follow Greece down. And so the rest of the eurozone is watching and waiting nervously while casting occasional glances in the direction of Berlin in hopes the eurozone’s leader and economy-in-chief will do something to make it all go away. To truly understand the depth of the crisis the Europeans face, one must first understand Germany, the only country that can solve it.

Single European Currency: Single European Disaster
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18969&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD
Excerpt: Although the feckless spending of successive Labor Governments has resulted in massive decline for Britain, there is one thing that Gordon Brown got right on the economics front: he denied Tony Blair's plans to take Britain into the single European currency, says the Heritage Foundation. Launched in 1999, the Euro has been the bedrock of European elites' dream for a United States of Europe. And there's the rub: Founding a major economic program on the basis of a supranational political dream meant there was surely trouble ahead, says Heritage: Nowhere is this more visible than in Greece today (and in Portugal and Spain), where their governments desperately need national monetary and fiscal controls to restore some semblance of confidence in their economy. Instead, Greece is forced to endure the same interest rate as Germany, Cyprus, Finland, France, and Slovenia among others; unable to devalue their currency or enact measures that will restore economic competitiveness.

Toward a Different Fiscal Future
Tax increases can't plausibly address the coming entitlement crisis.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704041504575045250168889076.html
Excerpt: Moody's Investors Service's warning last week that the AAA credit rating of the United States is in jeopardy raises fresh concern about the nation's fiscal health. The question to ask about the president's eye-popping budget, also rolled out last week, is whether it prepares the country for its future—or shackles it to past decisions that our leaders would rather not confront. President Obama's blueprint gave us a federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2010 of $1.6 trillion, about 10.6% of GDP. While one expects bigger budget deficits in a downturn, the administration expects the deficit and debt buildup to persist. By 2013, it forecasts that deficits will bring about a debt-to-GDP ratio of 72%, unprecedented in our experience except during a major war. The problem is spending. Despite Mr. Obama's words about restraint, the new budget proposes more spending—1.8% of GDP for 2011 to be precise—and a higher level, roughly one percentage point of GDP higher, in subsequent years. Debates about the budget traditionally revolve around these numbers. There is another way to look at the federal budget, however, and that is to focus on its effect on our economic health, not just the government's fiscal health. Focusing on economic health means setting our sights on productivity growth—our future living standards….. Today our productivity growth is imperiled by the anti-investment tilt of the president's budget plan for escalating federal debt. Even conservative estimates of effects of federal debt on interest rates (by Eric Engen of the Federal Reserve and me in the 2004 National Bureau of Economic Research Macroeconomics Annual) suggest that the last Obama budget blueprint would lead to a one-percentage-point rise in Treasury interest rates as the economic recovery takes hold. The consequence—lower business investment and real GDP 4% lower than it would otherwise be by the next presidential election—compromises our future. But there is more bad news. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that, without policy changes, by 2050 spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone would be 10 percentage points of GDP more than today. Total federal spending would exceed 30% of GDP. ObamaCare would only exacerbate the problem. This means government spending for national defense, education, research and other priorities would be dramatically constrained.

Ten Rules for Anti-Government Republican Radicals in D.C.
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2010/02/09/ten_rules_for_anti-government_republican_radicals_in_dc
On target. Excerpt: If future generations of Americans are going to have a bright future, we're going to have to get a handle on spending. Either we get these deficits under control and start paying off our debt or we're not going to remain a great nation. Moreover, given that Social Security went into the red last year and that program, combined with Medicare, represents a 100 trillion dollar unfunded liability that’s going to be coming due over the next few decades, this is an issue that’s not going away for the foreseeable future. So, with that in mind, fiscal conservatives in DC need to start taking a different approach to spending. It's no longer about winning a battle here and there -- it's about winning a long war for this nation's financial well-being. Here are some principles they can follow during that fight.

The Fallacy of "Fairness" by Thomas Sowell
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2010/02/09/the_fallacy_of_fairness
Excerpt: If there is ever a contest to pick which word has done the most damage to people's thinking, and to actions to carry out that thinking, my nomination would be the word "fair." It is a word thrown around by far more people than have ever bothered to even try to define it. This mushy vagueness may be a big handicap in logic but it is a big advantage in politics. All sorts of people, with very different notions about what is or is not fair, can be mobilized behind this nice-sounding word, in utter disregard of the fact that they mean very different things when they use that word. Some years ago, for example, there was a big outcry that various mental tests used for college admissions or for employment were biased and "unfair" to many individuals or groups. Fortunately there was one voice of sanity-- David Riesman, I believe-- who said: "The tests are not unfair. LIFE is unfair and the tests measure the results." …. Even within the same family, among children born to the same parents and raised under the same roof, the first-borns on average have higher IQs than their brothers and sisters, and usually achieve more in life.

Congressional Letter Questions Obama's Commitment to Bipartisanship
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/president/ci.Congressional+Letter+Questions+Obama%27s+Commitment+to+Bipartisanship.opinionPrint
Excerpt: We welcome President Obama’s announcement of forthcoming bipartisan health care talks. In fact, you may remember that last May, Republicans asked President Obama to hold bipartisan discussions on health care in an attempt to find common ground on health care, but he declined and instead chose to work with only Democrats. Since then, the President has given dozens of speeches on health care reform, operating under the premise that the more the American people learn about his plan, the more they will come to like it. Just the opposite has occurred: a majority of Americans oppose the House and Senate health care bills and want them scrapped so we can start over with a step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs for families and small businesses. Just as important, scrapping the House and Senate health care bills would help end the uncertainty they are creating for workers and businesses and thus strengthen our shared commitment to focusing on creating jobs. Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the American people? Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today that the President is “absolutely not” resetting the legislative process for health care. If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate.Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward in a bipartisan way, does that mean he has taken off the table the idea of relying solely on Democratic votes and jamming through health care reform by way of reconciliation? As the President has noted recently, Democrats continue to hold large majorities in the House and Senate, which means they can attempt to pass a health care bill at any time through the reconciliation process. Eliminating the possibility of reconciliation would represent an important show of good faith to Republicans and the American people.If the President intends to present any kind of legislative proposal at this discussion, will he make it available to members of Congress and the American people at least 72 hours beforehand? Our ability to move forward in a bipartisan way through this discussion rests on openness and transparency.

The Fix: Obama, congressional Republicans in a staring contest over health care
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/29-obama-republicans-health-meeting.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: House Republicans' threat to boycott President Obama's proposed health care meeting on Feb. 25 creates the political equivalent of a staring contest with each side waiting for the other to blink. "A refusal to show up to a discussion of health care would show that Republicans would rather play politics than solve problems," one senior Democratic party official told the Fix. "The question is whether the White House sincerely wants bipartisan reform," retorted a House Republican leadership aide. "We've asked for some gestures of good faith, because Republican leaders have zero interest in being used as props." Context matters when analyzing how we got to this standoff. The televised face-off between Obama and House Republican late last month was regarded as a wild success by the White House (Obama has taken questions at nearly every event since then) and something short of that by House Republicans who were stung by Obama's blunt criticism of their approach and ideas. Both sides see political gain in their current positions, further cementing their current standoff. The White House believes that a Republican no-show -- coupled with the ongoing filibuster threats in the Senate -- can be turned into a compelling narrative that the GOP is blocking change solely to score political points. Republicans, on the other hand, look at polling -- like the new Gallup survey that shows just 36 percent approve of how Obama is handling health care -- and are reassured that the American public doesn't want the current legislation and that their call to scrap it and begin again is the right path to take. Given that, it seems more likely that the two opposing camps retrench in their respective positions over the next few days rather than negotiate a peace.

Partisanship, Then and Now - Victor Davis Hanson
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NzIxOTVmMTUzODVhNmVlMDYyYTlkZDQzZThiODZjMTA=
Excerpt: One of the stranger behaviors of the ever-stranger Obama administration is its sudden adoption of the "wounded fawn" posture. No opposition was more stridently critical of a sitting president than was the anti-Bush Left. Barack Obama, as candidate and president, could not start a speech without saying "Bush did it." And have we forgotten the 2006–08 canonization of Michael Moore, the silence about the Nazi slurs, the award-winning assassination docudramas, the Knopf novel about killing George Bush, the "General Betray Us" ad, Al Gore's vein-bulging "brownshirts" outburst, and on and on? But suddenly, pundits and politicians have embraced a new gospel about conciliation and the need to restrain harsh discourse — which is fine, but many of these advocates for a gentler, kinder dialogue were bomb-throwers just a few years ago. And now we hear from none other than John Brennan, the Obama-administration counterterrorism expert, who soberly sermonizes on the lamentable politicization of the war on terror, and particularly the popular derision of the decision to treat the Christmas-day airliner plot as a normal criminal-justice matter. But isn't Brennan the same official who used to give loud political speeches, heralding not only the superior new Obama anti-terrorism methodology but also the failings of the Bush approach (which kept us safe for seven consecutive years)?

Blue Dogs push to go further than Obama spending freeze
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/80311-blue-dogs-push-to-go-further-than-obama-spending-freeze
Maybe some bi-partisanship on spending? Excerpt: Blue Dog Democrats want Congress to go further than President Barack Obama’s proposal to freeze spending in next year’s budget. The group of House centrists will soon introduce a bill capping discretionary spending at specific levels. The move would challenge their leadership and the president, who are balancing concerns with the nearly $1.6 trillion deficit in 2010 with those who say government spending on job creation is the way out of the recession.

Dems sign on to GOP bill preventing funds for civilian Guantanamo trials
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/80313-dems-sign-on-to-gop-bill-preventing-funds-for-civilian-guantanamo-trials
Obama may yet bring bi-partisanship, uniting Dems and the GOP against him. Excerpt: Two Democrats signed on to a Republican bill that would prevent any funds from being spent on prosecuting Guantánamo Bay suspects in U.S. federal court. Reps. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) and Mike McMahon (D-N.Y.) last week joined Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) and 16 other Republicans in sponsoring the legislation, which would deny the Justice Department any funds for trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other suspected terrorists in federal civilian court. In the weeks since GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s historic election in Massachusetts, King said he believes support in the Democratic Caucus for President Barack Obama’s detainee policies has eroded and predicted the measure would pass if Democratic leaders allow a floor vote on it.

How Murtha's Death Could Make It Harder to Pass a Health Care Bill
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/08/how-murthas-death-could-make-i
Excerpt: As the Capitol reacts to the death of Jack Murtha and remembers his legacy, it's worth pointing out that the news will make it even harder for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to secure the 218 votes needed to pass health care legislation. Back in November, the House passed its health care bill by a narrow 220 to 215 margin, with 39 Democrats voting against it. Since then, the one Republican who voted for it -- Joseph Cao -- has indicated that he would not support the bill a second time around given the weaker language on abortion in the Senate version. In addition, Florida Rep. Robert Wexler already retired prematurely. Factor in Murtha's death today, and Pelosi is down to 217 votes. This doesn't even take into account the pro-life Democrats led by Bart Stupak who are prepared to vote "no." While there's been talk that Pelosi had some votes in reserve the first time around, the point is that those members felt they needed to vote against the bill -- and the political environment has deteriorated substantially for Democrats since then.

Murtha Died after Intestine was Damaged in Surgery at Naval Hospital
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/08/murthas-intestine-damaged-surgery/
Excerpt: A Pennsylvania congressman and longtime friend of the late Rep. John Murtha said late Monday the congressman's large intestine was damaged during gallbladder surgery and the complications led him to be hospitalized. The Pennsylvania Democrat died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., where he was admitted on Jan. 31. The gallbladder surgery was performed days earlier at the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., which didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.

Jobs bill could contain Card Check
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/02/08/jobs-bill-could-contain-card-check/
Excerpt: At first, this report from the Las Vegas Sun sounds as though conservatives have mostly won the fight against Big Labor to keep the Obama administration from stripping the secret ballot from organizing elections. They pushed hard on ObamaCare and appear to have lost that battle. No one in Congress has touched the Card Check bill as people grow more angry over employment losses. Unions themselves have slipped in standing with the American electorate to their lowest level of support ever recorded. With their political power waning, conservatives have focused more on the ObamaCare debate and the lack of action by Democrats on the economy.

Snow Slows Obama’s Second Stimulus
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/09/morning-bell-snow-slows-obamas-second-stimulus/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Excerpt: The other major provisions of Obama’s second stimulus are also job killers. The $5,000 new worker tax credit does not create any incentive for already-struggling companies to begin long-term hiring. What’s worse, it could even increase unemployment; companies would delay existing plans to create jobs so they could take advantage of the tax credit. And it would add to our national debt. Then there’s the TARP-funded government-subsidized loans for small businesses. It’s a big-government program destined to fail since the Small Business Administration has a terrible record of effectively allocating capital to the private sector. For months, the American people and small businesses have been trying to tell the White House and Democrats in Congress that federal regulations and spending are part of the problem, not part of the solution. According to the latest National Federation of Independent Businesses survey, small business owners identified high taxes and government regulation as two of the top three problems facing their business.

Bailout out the Union
http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/02/bailout-out-the-union.html
Excerpt: Democrat Rep. Earl Pomeroy wants a federal bailout of pension funds. Specifically - for defined-benefit pension plans, which are often secured by ... yup, you guessed it ... unions. Pomeroy has introduced legislation in the House to provide pension fund relief for these defined-benefit pension plans. But he has been working on this bailout since at least October of 2009. The legislation Pomeroy has been working on would allow the unions to make new companies liable for pension plan obligations of other companies. It also puts the taxpayers on the hook, if the companies can't pay off on the union-negotiated contracts.

Tea Partiers Need To Become Experts on Democrat Fundraising
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/02/08/an-insiders-guide-to-defeating-the-democrat-machine/
Excerpt: We’ll let you in on a little secret: the reason these donors give to the DNC is not because they actually believe in what the DNC is doing. They give money because they want things, and most of what they want is pictures of them with famous people to hang on their walls at home, or in their offices. Whenever we do special events here in Chicago, the houses we go to are filled with snapshots of the owners with every Democrat imaginable over the last 20 years. 95% of these pictures are taken at $1,000 a person photo-op meet and greets. Those political evenings feature weak drinks and room temperature cheese. Occasionally, here in Chicago, there are hot waiters in little tuxes, passing mediocre spinach puffs. If you are lucky. We think something unprecedented could be mounted by the coalition of moderates, independents, and conservatives that comes here to HillBuzz, using our own fundraising background and knowledge of this scene, to drive a temporary wedge between Democrats and their donors.

John Avlon Reveals Birtherism’s LEFT-Wing Origins
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/02/08/john-avalon-reveals-birtherisms-left-wing-origins/
Interesting. Excerpt: But there’s an inconvenient truth liberals are going to have to confront: The Birthers began not on the right, but on the left. Investigations for my new book, Wingnuts, revealed that the Birther conspiracy theory was first concocted by renegade members of the original Obama haters, Party Unity My Ass, known more commonly by their acronym, the PUMAs. They were a splinter group of hard-core Hillary Clinton supporters who did not want to give up the ghost after the bitter 50-state Bataan Death March to the 2008 Democratic nomination. In the early summer of ‘08, message boards on sites like PUMAParty.com began lighting up with the ultimate reversal-of-fortune fantasy—that their party’s nomination could be overturned on constitutional grounds. “Obama May Be Illegal to Be Elected President!” read one representative e-mail: “This came from a USNA [U.S. Naval Academy] alumnus. It’ll be interesting to see how the media handle this…WRITE TO YOUR LOCAL newspaper editors etc. Keep this out there everyday possible. Also write to the DNC too!”

Why the Media Ignored a Scandal
http://townhall.com/columnists/ByronYork/2010/02/08/why_the_media_ignored_a_scandal
If it had been a Republican, they’d have been all over it. Excerpt: Two weeks before the 2008 Iowa caucuses, the National Enquirer published a detailed story reporting that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards had had an affair, and that the woman involved -- campaign videographer Rielle Hunter -- was pregnant, and that Edwards had arranged for an aide to falsely claim to be the father, and that Hunter and the aide and the aide's family were being taken care of financially by a wealthy Edwards supporter. It was, to say the least, explosive. At the time, Edwards was a serious contender in the Democratic presidential race, so when the story was published, his aides prepared for what some believed would be an onslaught of media scrutiny. But it didn't happen. Although Edwards could not have known it at the time, it turned out that many journalists just didn't want to report the news and didn't try very hard to uncover the facts.

Obama versus….Palin?
http://townhall.com/columnists/RichGalen/2010/02/08/obama_vs_palin
Excerpt: Here's a basic rule of political counter-punching: You want your lowest ranking person in a public fight with your opponent's highest ranking person - preferably your opponent. For example, if you are managing the campaign for the guy running against an incumbent for Congress, you want to have the kid who does the morning clips in a public argument with the Congressman. That diminishes the Congressman and enhances the clips kid. Over weekend the losing candidate for Vice President was, for all intents and purposes, treated as the political equal of the President of the United States.

Boehner, Cantor urge Obama to force votes on spending cuts
http://dailycaller.com/2010/02/09/boehner-cantor-urge-obama-to-force-votes-on-spending-cuts/
Excerpt: House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, second from left, standing with, from left, Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008, after the House vote on the financial bailout package failed. In a closed door meeting at the White House today, House Republican leaders urged President Obama to use his authority to force votes on numerous spending cuts. Under a 1974 law, the president can submit a “recission” order on already appropriate funds. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) pledged that their party would supply the 88 votes necessary to force a floor vote on any specific recission order that president submits. Obama has proposed a three-year freeze on domestic discretionary spending, but Boehner and Cantor urged Obama to use his recissions authority to go farther.

Drillgate: Internal Emails Shows Obama Team Lying to Public
http://biggovernment.com/vhaley/2010/02/09/drillgate-internal-emails-shows-obama-team-lying-to-public/
Excerpt: If you’re the President of the United States or one of his political appointees and you’re ideologically opposed to new oil and natural gas development offshore, what do you do when the public registers its overwhelming support for new drilling in public opinion polls? You dance, delay, and deceive. You speak melodious words about seeking the wisdom of the public in making these decisions and then ignore evidence of the public will when you get it, or worse, you hide it. First came the dance. In August 2008, after soaring gas prices and a dramatic shift in public opinion caused President Bush, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and Republican presidential candidate John McCain to reverse their positions on offshore drilling, then-Senator Obama also changed. The Democratic presidential nominee reversed his own position and that of his party, saying he was open to offshore drilling as part of an overall energy plan. The Democratic Congress followed a month later by quietly dropping the 25-year Congressional ban on offshore drilling.

This One Almost Slipped By Me
http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/02/this-one-almost-slipped-by-me.html
Excerpt: Why did Bernie Madoff go to prison? To make it simple, he talked people into investing with him. Trouble was, he didn't invest their money. As time rolled on he simply took the money from the new investors to pay off the old investors. Finally there were too many old investors and not enough money from new investors coming in to keep the payments going. Next thing you know Madoff is one of the most hated men in America and he is off to jail. Some of you know this .. but not enough of you . Madoff did to his investors what the government has been doing to us for over 60 years with Social Security. There is no meaningful difference between the two schemes ... except that one was operated by a private individual who is now in jail, and the other is operated by politicians who enjoy perks, privileges and status in spite of their actions. Do you need a side-by-side comparison here? Well here's a nifty little chart.

Under Investigation, ACORN Chief Bertha Lewis Quits Working Families Party
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=10351
Excerpt: Die-hard supporters of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — better known as the infamous ACORN – are not going to like these developments. From City Hall, Edward-Isaac Dovere reports that the embattled Lewis has quietly stepped aside as head of the Working Families Party in New York State, which is currently under investigation by the feds:

RFK, Jr. 15 months ago: Global warming means no snow or cold in DC
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=10320
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. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers.”

Viet Nam, Holder, Obama, and the Christmas Day Terrorist
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/viet_nam_holder_obama_and_the.html
Excerpt: Our colonel resolved to attack the enemy battalion's base camp and destroy these sappers. On the first day of our regimental operation, I radioed my superior that my unit had captured three enemies. Within fifteen minutes, a major choppered in to pick up the prisoners -- a very dangerous act for him and the pilot, as we were still in contact with the enemy. We threw our bound prisoners into the chopper, and it flew off hugging the landscape to avoid enemy fire. The major did not take the prisoners to an ACLU lawyer in the hopes that within a month or so, their parents could be contacted, at which point said parents could hopefully persuade their captured children to talk. Well-trained military intelligence officers conducted the interrogations, knowing which prisoner to focus on and how to question him. They forced the most vulnerable prisoner to reveal where the sapper battalion's main defenses were, and when the enemy intended to mass there. Our colonel immediately prepared what is known as a T.O.T., or Time-On-Target. The shells of all our big guns within range (105s, 155s, 175s, and even naval batteries from what I believe was the battleship New Jersey) were plotted to hit the enemy position simultaneously. It was our turn to terrify the sappers. The effect of this massive artillery barrage exceeded our expectations. We met no resistance when we swept through the area, finding more than thirty enemy killed by shrapnel from the airbursts. Better yet, we found that their command bunker had been penetrated by a shell with a delayed-action fuse, killing all ten of its high-ranking occupants. The terrorizing attacks on our region's roadways ceased.

Christian teacher 'forced out' after complaining Muslim pupils praised 9/11 hijackers 'as heroes'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1249393/9-11-bombers-heroes-What-Muslim-children-told-Christian-teacher-forced-job-tolerating-racism.html
Excerpt: A Christian teacher yesterday claimed he was forced out of his job after complaining that Muslim pupils as young as eight hailed the September 11 hijackers as heroes. Nicholas Kafouris, 52, is suing his former school for racial discrimination. He told a tribunal that he had to leave his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the 'racist' and 'anti-Semitic' behaviour of Year 4 pupils. The predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class and described the September 11 terrorists as 'heroes and martyrs'. One pupil said: 'Don't touch me, you're a Christian' when he brushed against him. Others said: 'We want to be Islamic bombers when we grow up', and 'The Christians and Jews are our enemies - you too because you're a Christian'.

Marines focus on civilian safety in Afghanistan
Preparing for battle in a Taliban stronghold, the Marines are warning civilians to flee the area, and they plan restraint in their use of artillery and air power.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-afghan-civilians9-2010feb09,0,7485061.story
Very sporting to let the enemy know you are coming.

Iran anniversary 'punch' will stun West: Khamenei
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Heritage%2BHotsheet&id=CNG.e0b08e9e64fe15a987c1cf73dd8c5fe2.521&show_article=1
Excerpt: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel. The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.

Islam’s Child Martyrs in America
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/02/09/islam%e2%80%99s-child-martyrs-in-america/
Didn’t get the memo that Islam is a Religion of Peace. Excerpt: I am beginning to see more and more violent material published and distributed to young Muslim children advocating killing Jews and Christians, and how to conduct treason/sedition inside America and to ultimately take our country down as we know it. CAIR (Muslim Brotherhood) strongly informs its followers to not assist our law enforcement agencies and to not conduct slander and backbiting against Islamic leaders. Within Sharia law there are severe penalties for undermining the efforts of the ‘Islamic Ummah’ (Nation) and their specific target of a worldwide Ummah under Sharia law. I have been provided hundreds of DVD’s originally videotaped by Islamic terrorist groups while they conducted torture and killings of people (even Muslims) who have helped their enemies (Israel, America, UK, Canada, etc…) to further (in their opinion) oppress the Muslim Ummah.

Christian sentenced to life in prison for blaspheming Islam
http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=26956
I think if this keeps up, some misguided soul, driven to distraction by Muslim attacks on other religions, will organize a “Wipe Your butt With A Page From The Qur’an” Day. This should not be taken to mean I’m advocating such—the Qur’an should always be treated with the same respect given the Bible and the Torah in Iran or Saudi Arabia. Excerpt: A court in Faisalabad, Pakistan, sentenced to life imprisonment Imran Masih, a young Christian, for having insulted and desecrated the Koran, according to the Minorities Concern newsletter. On July 1, 2009 Masih, a shopkeeper by profession, was brutally tortured by a group of Muslims, then arrested by police on charges – allegedly fabricated- that he had burned pages of the Koran. On January 11, 2010 the judge sentenced him to prison for life, which he will serve in the federal prison in Faisalabad where he is currently confined. The court also imposed an additional penalty of 10 years' imprisonment and payment of 100 thousand rupees (just over 800 euros), under provisions of the law prohibiting blasphemy against Islam.

Senior Afghan policeman held for planting bombs
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/02/an-afghan-policeman-why-wasnt.html
Excerpt: An Afghan policeman? Why, wasn't he a "moderate"? Here again we are confronted with the impossibility of distinguishing a "moderate" from a "radical" Muslim. Given the almost universal acceptance of the iron dogma that Islam is a Religion of Peace™ that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, this impossibility may come as a surprise. But in reality, there is no mainstream sect of Islam or school of Islamic jurisprudence whose authorities have renounced and rejected violent jihad and Islamic supremacism, and declared that anyone who holds to the idea that Muslims have a collective responsibility to wage war against Infidels and subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law is a heretic.

Muslim bus driver locks passengers aboard as he stops to pray
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7187511/Muslim-bus-driver-locks-passengers-aboard-as-he-stops-to-pray.html
Have to allow it, or you’ll be called Islamophobic. Excerpt: The driver pulled over without warning and rolled out a high-visibility jacket as a makeshift prayer mat before removing his shoes, turning to face Mecca and starting to chant in Arabic. Passengers said they looked on in stunned silence, fearing the driver may be preparing for a terrorist attack on the bus. No one was able to get on or off the vehicle during the five-minute prayer session.

The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Vietnam War
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596985674/ref=pe_5050_14269450_snp_dp
Excerpt of review from Amazon: The Vietnam War was a tragic and dismal failure—at least that is what the mainstream media and history books would have you believe. Yet, Phillip Jennings sets the record straight in The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Vietnam War. In this latest “P.I.G.”, Jennings shatters culturally-accepted myths and busts politically incorrect lies that liberal pundits and leftist professors have been telling you for years. Bet you didn’t know that: The U.S. did not lose the Vietnam War—we won it. The U.S. achieved our goal—we stopped the spread of Communism. The U.S. did not suffer significant battlefield losses. The cultural chaos of the 1960s and 1970s negatively influenced the Vietnam War—not vice versa. The Vietnam War was the most important—and successful—campaign to defeat Communism. Without the sacrifices made and the courage displayed by our military, the world might be a different place. The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Vietnam War proves the above and more as Jennings reveals the truth about the battles, players, and policies of one of the most controversial wars in U.S. history.

Audi 2010 Green Car Super Bowl Commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM
A joke or vision of Al Gore’s preferred future?