Political Digest May 31, 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. Nor that I disagree with them, of course.
I approach Memorial Day with a lot of sadness, as I’m no longer convinced that the majority of Americans are worth the sacrifice these men and women made.

Old 666
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Im086TCu3I
This is for my Uncle Vern, who volunteered to fly at a tail gunner (he was a ground ordinance officer) in the biggest bomb mission of the war in Europe on December 24, 1944. His group, the 487, was in the lead. The wind was from the east and the American fighters couldn’t keep up. His plane was shot down by German fighters and he was killed. I never knew him, but he’s among those I remember on Memorial Day. Increasingly, I have trouble believing that the majority of Americans deserve the sacrifices made for them.

Gene Simmons Military Tribute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtdIO23MKM
Not a KISS fan, but love this.

Obama supporters protect AZ law
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/05/obama-supporters-protest-az-law.html

Training of Afghan military, police has improved, NATO report says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052903172.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Excerpt: A U.S. military review in Afghanistan has concluded that the addition of more than 1,000 new U.S. military and NATO troops focused on training has helped stabilize what had been a failing effort to build Afghanistan's security forces, but that persistent attrition problems could still hinder long-term success.

As 'top kill' effort fails, BP must fall back on oil spill containment strategy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052900561.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
If I had some cash and a ten-year investment strategy (I don’t). I’d look for some nice Golf front property for sale and make a low ball offer. These things do get resolved, as bad as this looks. But it means the drill at home movement is dead, so we will keep feeding money to people trying to destroy us.

Obama proposed downsizing Coast Guard crisis center three months before spill
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/05/28/oh-boy-obama-proposed-downsizing-coast-guard-crisis-center-three-months-before-spill/
Excerpt: Three months before the massive BP oil spill erupted in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration proposed downsizing the Coast Guard national coordination center for oil spill responses, prompting its senior officers to warn that the agency’s readiness for catastrophic events would be weakened…

Obama's trip to Gulf coast a metaphor for his presidency
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/05/obamas_trip_to_gulf_coast_a_me.html
Excerpt: Memorial Day weekend was poised to kick into high gear when perpetual vacationer Barack Obama decided to helicopter over the Louisiana bayou toward the Port Fourchon shoreline. Barack's pre-vacation goal was to check out beach damage related to the Gulf coast oil spill. Unfortunately, as British Petroleum struggled to "plug the hole," crude oil continued to flood into the Gulf of Mexico. The "top kill" process is a familiar one. In fact, "top kill" methodology should have forewarned BP engineers that addressing problems, the top down, Obama-style oftentimes delivers disastrous results.

Barack Obama's credibility hits rock bottom
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/7783408/Barack-Obamas-credibility-hits-rock-bottom-after-oil-spill-and-Sestak-scandal.html
Excerpt: The first thing Barack Obama probably should have done was to order the livestreaming Oil Spill Cam to be turned off. As the President insisted to Americans that he was "singularly focused" on staunching the flow, there was that mesmerizing image on their television screens of plumes of hydrocarbons gushing relentlessly into the Gulf of Mexico. When any political leader feels they have to declare that they are "fully engaged" in an issue, it is clear that they are in trouble. Talking about it undermines the very point you are trying to make - not to mention that pesky Oil Spill Cam showing that, 38 days into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, not a whole lot had been achieved.

Terror link alleged as Saudi millions flow into Afghanistan war zone
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7140745.ece
We can’t drill here or have nukes, to protect the environment, so we have to keep funding our own murders. Excerpt: Millions of dollars of Saudi Arabian money have flowed into Afghanistan over the past four years, the country’s intelligence officials say, with the sponsorship of terrorism its most likely use. According to members of the Afghan financial intelligence unit, FinTraca, the funds, totalling more than £920 million, enter from Pakistan, where they are converted into rupees or dollars, the favoured currency for terrorist operations. “We can trace it back as far as an entry point in Waziristan,” said Mohammed Mustafa Massoudi, the director-general of FinTraca in Kabul. “Why would anyone want to put such money into Waziristan? Only one reason — terrorism.”

Mexican pirates attack Texas fishermen on Falcon Lake, which straddles border
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052903707.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
As the violence spreads into the US, the anti-illegal majority will grow. More on this story: Falcon Lake is famous for its monster bass and for the maniacal obsession of the fishermen who come from all over Texas -- and the world -- to stalk them. Now this remote reservoir that straddles the international boundary is known for something else: pirates. In the past month, crews of outlaws in a small armada of banged-up skiffs and high-powered bass boats launched from the Mexican shore have ambushed bass anglers from the Texas side innocently casting their plastic worms over favorite spots. The buccaneers have struck in Mexican waters but within sight of the Texas shore. Dressed in black, the pirates brandish automatic weapons, carry radio cellphones and board the anglers' boats. They demand weapons or drugs from their captives, but finding neither, seem satisfied with taking $400 or $500 as booty, according to law enforcement officials and victims' accounts.

Illegal immigrants gravitate toward Arizona border
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052902440.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
The closer you are to the problem, ion the border or in the drug-infested cities, that angrier you are. Excerpt: Along a rugged stretch of the Mexican border here in southern Arizona, U.S. authorities captured 687 illegal immigrants in a 24-hour period last week, three times the number captured near San Diego. During the past eight months, agents have apprehended 168,000 migrants along this sector of the border. The border crossers are so determined, and so impervious to a long-running buildup of federal agents and technology, that few here think President Obama's recent decision to dispatch 1,200 National Guard soldiers and $500 million will make much difference. "I doubt it, frankly," said Don Severe, a vocal opponent of illegal immigration who favors stronger measures, including certain incarceration. "It sounds good, but what are they going to do? We have a very serious problem." Arizona, home of a controversial new law that makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally, has become the leakiest portion of the nearly 2,000-mile border. The continuing flow of illegal immigrants, compounded by a rise in narcotics traffic and the slaying of an Arizona rancher, perhaps by a border crosser, has triggered a fresh fight over immigration policy.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the Imam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUYIHRRaPmA
Scary. Grab on to the gun and the sword.

Feds Issue Terror Watch for the Texas/Mexico Border
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/26/terror-alert-mexican-border/
Profiling Alert! Excerpt: The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com. The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border. Many of the illegal immigrants, who court records say were given fake IDs, are alleged to have ties to other now-defunct Somalian terror organizations that have merged with active organizations like Al Shabaab, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami.

Taliban Using Chemical Weapons Against US Troops? 4-5 Troops Reportedly Fall Ill
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=14922
The Nazi’s didn’t use gas, but only to be expected from adherents of the Religion of Peace. Saddam did, after all, against his own people. Excerpt: Five US troops serving in Afghanistan recently fell ill after a suspected chemical weapons attack. Four or five members fell ill after the attack. One soldier is very sick. They are having trouble breathing. I am waiting for more information. In 2009 National Terror Alert reported that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban had developed some expertise in making bio-chemical weapons.

Report: Sestak Was Not Eligible for Job Clinton Supposedly Offered…
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=14919
Not to worry, they have their story straight. The job offered was non-paying, thus it wasn’t a crime. Excerpt: In a little-noticed passage Friday, the New York Times reported that Rep. Joe Sestak was not eligible for a place on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, the job he was reportedly offered by former President Bill Clinton. And indeed a look at the Board’s website reveals this restriction:

CONFLICT: Secret Service, Fruits of Islam, The Press in Chicago
http://weaselzippers.us/2010/05/30/the-dust-up-between-the-national-of-islam-louis-farrakhans-men-secret-service-and-the-press-corps-covering-obama-in-chicago/
We’ll never know if this is true, as if so it doesn’t fit the narrative the press is selling us. Excerpt: President Obama’s home is in the same Chicago neighborhood as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. On Saturday night, the overlapping of Obama’s and Farrakhan’s worlds made for a strange, and sometimes testy, encounter between the Secret Service, the press corps covering the president, and the paramilitary security force, the Fruit of Islam, surrounding Farrakhan. The encounter was written up — for distribution to the press, not necessarily for publication — by the New York Times’ Jackie Calmes. It began a little after 4:00 p.m. when Obama and his family walked to the nearby home of longtime friend Marty Nesbitt for a backyard cookout. It just so happens that Nesbitt lives across the street from Farrakhan. A few hours after Obama went to Nesbitt’s home, the press pool, including Calmes, was waiting in a bus parked near 49th Street and Woodlawn Avenue, next to Farrakhan’s mansion. The reporters’ Secret Service minder allowed them off the bus to stretch their legs. As they stood on the sidewalk, some of the journalists inadvertently touched the grass next to the sidewalk, and that is when the encounter began. From Calmes’ report: Immediately a polite man in jeans and T-shirt emerged to ask us to stay off the grass. Though this grass was the curbside city property, we obliged. But it turned out that simply staying off the grass was not enough to satisfy the man in the T-shirt. Calmes continues: Soon, however, he was pacing and talking on a cell phone. He went inside the mansion’s black wrought iron fence, crossed the well-landscaped yard, lifted a water bucket behind rose bushes and, voila!, a walkie-talkie. He was heard to refer to “the CIA” once he began speaking into it. Soon he approached our [Secret Service] agent, asking him to move the van and its occupants, though your pooler could not hear much else he said. But the agent said, “How is this a security breach?” And he asked if the house was a government property. The man said something else and at that point the agent stuck out his hand to shake hands and introduced himself as a Secret Service agent. He added, “Sir, I can assure you that we will do nothing to interfere with whatever is going on in there.”. . .Reinforcements arrived — three men in T-shirts reading “Wide or Die!” One surly man has been staring daggers at us. Asked if this is Minister Farrakhan’s house, he just stared at your pooler. Asked again, he said, “I don’t have no comment.” At nearly 8 p.m. local time we are still holding while POTUS and family remain at the Nesbitts. More time passed. The men in T-shirts were joined by even more men, from the Fruit of Islam, Farrakhan’s security force. From Calmes: It’s 8:45 and nearly dark; your pool has retreated back inside the van. We’re outnumbered now by roughly a dozen Fruit of Islam agents for the Nation of Islam. As each casually dressed man arrives, he exchanges elaborate handshake/hug/double air-kisses with others. Two walked by your pooler chanting “Islam.” Several have filmed and photographed your poolers, the van and its license plates with their cell phones.

Ken Cuccinelli versus 810 academics
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/05/30/ken-cuccinelli-versus-810-academics/#more-20046
Excerpt: Mann is the former UVA professor, whose “hockey stick” temperature chart was used to promote claims that “sudden” and “unprecedented” manmade global warming “threatens” human civilization and Earth itself. The hockey stick was first broken by climatologists Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas, who demonstrated that a Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age were clearly reflected in historic data across the globe, but redacted by Mann. Analysts Steve McIntyre and Ross McKitrick later showed that Mann’s computer program generated hockey-stick patterns regardless of what numbers were fed into it – even random telephone numbers; that explained why the global warming and cooling of the last millennium magically disappeared in Mann’s “temperature reconstruction.” The Climategate emails revealed another deliberate “trick” that Mann used to generate a late twentieth-century temperature jump: he replaced tree ring data with thermometer measurements at the point in his timeline when the tree data no longer fit his climate disaster thesis. During his UVA tenure, he employed other sly statistical tricks to generate a purported, and truly unprecedented, CO2-driven warming of 2-4.5 degrees F per decade (1-2.5 degrees C). That extrapolates to as much as 45 degrees F per century! Not surprisingly, he refused to share his data, computer codes and methodologies with skeptical scientists. Perhaps worse, Climategate emails indicate that Mann and others conspired to co-opt and corrupt the very scientific process that Carr asserts will ultimately condemn or vindicate them. This behavior certainly gives Cuccinelli “probable cause” for launching an investigation. As the AG notes, “The same legal standards for fraud apply to the academic setting that apply elsewhere. The same rule of law, the same objective fact-finding process, will take place.” Some witch hunt. There is simply no room in science, academia or public policy for manipulation, falsification or fraud. Academic freedom does not confer a right to engage in such practices, and both attorneys general and research institutions have a duty to root them out, especially in the case of climate change research. Work by Mann and other alarmist scientists is not merely some theoretical exercise that can be permitted to “play itself out” over many years, if and when the “academic arena” gets around to it. These assertions of climate crisis are being used right now by Congress, states, courts and the Environmental Protection Agency to justify draconian restrictions on energy use and greenhouse emissions. They would shackle our freedoms and civil rights and hammer our jobs, economy, health, welfare and living standards. If the science is wrong – or far worse, if it is manipulated, fabricated, fraudulent and covered up – then grave damage will be done to our nation, liberties and families, before the truth gets its boots on.

Obama, the Thin-Skinned President
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/27/obama-the-thin-skinned-president/
Excerpt: In their book "The Battle for America 2008," Haynes Johnson and Dan Balz wrote this: [Chief political aide David] Axelrod also warned that Obama's confessions of youthful drug use, described in his memoir, Dreams From My Father, would be used against him. "This is more than an unpleasant inconvenience," he wrote. "It goes to your willingness and ability to put up with something you have never experienced on a sustained basis: criticism. At the risk of triggering the very reaction that concerns me, I don't know if you are Muhammad Ali or Floyd Patterson when it comes to taking a punch. You care far too much what is written and said about you. You don't relish combat when it becomes personal and nasty. When the largely irrelevant Alan Keyes attacked you, you flinched," he said of Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate opponent. I thought of this memo after reading the comment by Sen. Pat Roberts after he and other Senate Republicans had a contentious 80-minute meeting with the president on Tuesday. "He needs to take a Valium before he comes in and talks to Republicans," Roberts said. "He's pretty thin-skinned." Sen. Roberts is being too generous. Obama is among the most thin-skinned presidents we have had, and we see evidence of it in every possible venue imaginable, from one-on-one interviews to press conferences, from extemporaneous remarks to set speeches.

Are Climate Alarmists losing the Mainstream Media?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/05/are_climate_alarmists_losing_t.html
Excerpt: On Monday, the NY Times broke with years of blatant warmist bias in reporting that Climate Fears Turn to Doubts Among Britons. The article cited a February BBC survey which “found that only 26 percent of Britons believed that ‘climate change is happening and is now established as largely manmade,’ down from 41 percent in November 2009.” The Times attributed the public opinion swing in Great Britain and similar shifts in Germany and the US to what it referred to as “a series of climate science controversies unearthed and highlighted by skeptics since November.” In other words, the climate fraud uncovered at the University of East Anglia (aka Climategate) and the multitude of errors uncovered in the latest IPCC (AR4) report. Of course, the Times abhor the new public awareness as it “will make it harder to pass legislation like a fuel tax increase and to persuade people to make sacrifices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” But shouldn’t facts drive policy? Not according to Greenpeace spokesman Ben Stewart, quoted by the Times complaining that “[l]egitimacy has shifted to the side of the climate skeptics, and that is a big, big problem.” Really? Now Newsweek has joined the newly aware, but with a dash more honesty. In a piece titled Uncertain Science, the normally climate alarm sounding magazine has also acknowledged the turning tide:

American Jews and Israel
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/american_jews_and_israel.html
Excerpt: In fact, the problem is that far too many college students are not being taught history without it being politicized. In 1995, David McCullough gave an acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. His talk, entitled "Why History," centered on the widespread crisis concerning the lack of judicious study of American history. The problem has become far more critical. Our students do not even know the basics of American history, let alone international history.... How is it that the world yawns when Israelis are booed at sports events, when singers boycott Israel, when the U.N. appoints the basest of the base to its Human Rights unit? Where is the outcry from the power brokers? Yet Mr. Beinart expects 18-year-olds to shoulder the responsibilities of these daily battles? Middle Eastern Studies programs, once the jewel of genuine multicultural studies, have become the tools of propaganda and distortion by terrorist-leading pundits.... Why are the Palestinians the only ones whose plight is pictured on television? What about the survivors of suicide bombs, whose lives have been shattered, whose hopes have been dashed? Pierre Rehov has interviewed and filmed captured failed suicide bombers who are jailed in Israeli prisons; the bombers vow that if given a chance, they would continue to blow up Jews. Some of these suicide bombers were Israelis, born and educated in the country. Is it any wonder that Israeli Jews have a justified suspicion of the Arabs living among them?

Obama's Charm Offensive Masks Israel Policy Change
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/obamas_charm_offensive_masks_i.html
Excerpt: On Thursday, Obama hosted some 250 Jewish luminaries and high-achievers at an elaborate White House reception to mark Jewish Heritage Month. The administration pulled out all the stops to make this a memorable, first-ever event. It gave Obama another chance to pump up his charm offensive to persuade Jews who voted overwhelmingly for him to remain lined up behind him. The President spoke about the "unbreakable Israeli-U.S." alliance and pulled out his oratorical skills to dispel any concern that his administration might be going wobbly on Israel. But even as Jewish leaders basked in the glow of the White House, the president's diplomatic team was busy in New York cutting a nuclear deal at the UN with Egypt and other Arab states that stabs Israel in the back.

The Combat Veterans For Congress Pac Calls For Blumenthal To Drop Out Of The Senate Race
http://www.combatveteransforcongress.org/
Excerpt: Democrat Richard Blumenthal repeatedly “lied” about service in Vietnam. “There is a huge difference between a Combat Veteran like Col Rob Simmons, and Democrat Richard Blumenthal who repeatedly lied about his service in Vietnam. Blumenthal's service was in a service detachment in the safety of the United States following "five" deferment applications so he could remain out of "Harms Way." No self respecting Veteran would be so blatant to lie about serving in Vietnam in order to make the Connecticut voters believe that he was as valorous as other patriotic US Marines who served in Vietnam. Many US Marines gave the last full measure of devotion in service to their country. Blumenthal dishonors the memory of all those US Marines who were killed on a foreign shore. Combat Veterans like Col Rob Simmons who served on multiple tours of Combat duty in Vietnam and was awarded 2 Bronze Star Medals for his Combat service feels Blumenthal’s repeated lies were unforgivable. It is disrespectful to the memory of all Vietnam Veterans for someone to try to get credit for serving in Vietnam when he did not. Blumenthal is not qualified to be a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; his bogus membership is an affront to the millions of Veterans who served on foreign fields of battle “In Harms Way”, and it should be cancelled. Repeatedly, over many years, Blumenthal tried to mislead voters into believing he served in Vietnam and that he had been spit on when he returned to the United States, those public statements were unconscionable. Blumenthal impugned his record, his standing as a public servant, his Senate candidacy, and even his legitimacy as a creditable Veteran.”

Israel key to conference on banning nuclear arms
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iP_c47WRWDs-U5bRaYXA9xgrrmhwD9G0MK9O0
Excerpt: After 15 years, Arab nations finally won agreement from the United States and the other nuclear powers to take the first step toward banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. Now the next move is Israel's. But the Israeli government rejected the resolution Saturday, calling it "deeply flawed and hypocritical." Although the U.S. joined the 188 other member nations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty on Friday in giving a green light to a conference in 2012 "on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction," senior U.S. officials appeared to backtrack afterward, setting several conditions for the talks to go ahead.

China Leader Tries to Defuse Korean Tensions
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/china-leader-wen-jiabao-tries-to-defuse-korean-tensions/19496911
Excerpt: China's premier said today that tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship urgently need to be defused, but did not join other key nations in blaming longtime ally North Korea and gave no indication he would support U.N. sanctions. Premier Wen Jiabao's comments came at the end of a weekend summit in South Korea where he was closely watched for signs that Beijing would get tougher on the North, which is accused of sinking the naval ship Cheonan with a torpedo two months ago, killing 46 sailors. North Korea has repeatedly denied attacking the ship, and on today tens of thousands of people packed the main square in Pyongyang, the nation's capital, for a rally condemning South Korea and the U.S. The isolated North often organizes such events during times of tense relations with foreign countries.

The Prepper Movement -- a Growing Network Preparing for the World's End
http://www.asylum.com/2010/05/19/preppers-a-growing-network-preparing-for-world-destruction/?icid=mainmaindl8link1http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asylum.com%2F2010%2F05%2F19%2Fpreppers-a-growing-network-preparing-for-world-destruction%2F
Excerpt: Asylum readers, there is a posse of self-sufficient men and women out there who make it their goal to be prepared when disaster strikes. They call themselves "preppers." From natural catastrophes to economic meltdowns to nuclear blowouts, the preppers' collective goal is quite simple: to carry on as usual, even when catastrophe strikes. Think backyard fallout shelters of the 1950s or Y2K shenanigans -- only circa 2010. The whole prepper movement may seem pretty zany. So zany, in fact, that you'd think only a miniscule amount of people would actually be partaking in it. Wrong. Over recent years, a huge community of preppers has developed. Perform a simple Google search and you'll turn up plenty of prepper-related stuff, including the Web television portal Prepper TV, survival blogs, podcasts (such as DoctorPrepper and PrepperPodcast), and forums that cover everything from a woman's perspective to recycling to how to handle dead bodies. There's even a rash of YouTube videos offering tutorials on such topics as how to construct your own nuclear bomb shelter, what firearms you should own, and how to earthquake-proof your stored food. (Not sure if they are crazy or smarter than me. But I’m too old and sick to survive the collapse anyway.)

Senate Democrats defeat McCain bid to send 6,000 troops to U.S.-Mexico border
http://blog.taragana.com/politics/2010/05/27/senate-democrats-defeat-mccain-bid-to-send-6000-troops-to-us-mexico-border-39412/
Excerpt: President Barack Obama’s Democratic allies in the Senate have repelled a move by presidential rival John McCain to send an additional 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S-Mexico border. The Arizona Republican says the security situation along the order has deteriorated so badly that 3,000 guard troops are needed just to help protect his state. But McCain failed to muster the required 60 votes for his plan as the Senate continued debate on an a war funding bill.