Political Digest for October 10, 2010

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.

Book Recommendation
http://www.amazon.com/Leatherneck-Legends-Conversations-Marine-Corps/dp/0760321574/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286649503&sr=1-3
I just finished Leatherneck Legends: Conversations with the Marine Corps Old Breed by Col. Dick Camp USMC (Ret). (Col. Camp is a distinguished combat Marine himself, and a terrific writer.) Part memoir, part history, the book follows five Marine icons from WWI through Vietnam, in their own words, from interviews, histories and their writings. They are Lem Shepherd, Roy Geiger, Eddie Craig, Ray Davis and Bob Barrow. While this is well-plowed ground for those interested in Marine or military history, there were a lot of new details and stories that made it a great read.

(China) Trouble in Fishing Waters
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/trouble-fishing-waters
Excerpt: For instance, Beijing maintains that its exclusive economic zone in the East China Sea reaches almost all the way to Japan. Tokyo more reasonably believes the zones meet in the middle of that body of water. Similarly, the Chinese central government issues maps showing virtually the entire South China Sea as an internal Chinese lake, with the result that it declares as its own the continental shelves of six other nations: Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The South China Sea claims predate the founding of the People’s Republic, but the Communist party, unlike the predecessor Kuomintang government, actively enforces them. Beijing from the mid-1970s through the middle of the last decade seized islands and reefs from the Philippines and Vietnam. In the earlier part of this decade, Beijing was not so obviously aggressive. In 2002, for instance, it signed a code of conduct with ASEAN, the association of nations in Southeast Asia, and thereby agreed to settle competing claims peacefully. Many analysts then argued that the acceptance of the code showed that China was maturing as a power, and American experts marveled at Beijing’s deftness. Marvin Ott of the National War College even called Chinese diplomacy “a thing of beauty.” Indeed, China’s beautiful diplomacy was effective as it picked off its neighbors one-by-one. Yet the country’s Communists ultimately could not help themselves and themselves and reverted to type, going back to rough tactics in the last few years. The Chinese, for instance, have begun to patrol disputed waters aggressively, often using their fishing vessels in a quasi-military role. This increased activity was followed by Beijing’s renewed emphasis on its maritime boundaries. In March, the Chinese government added its South China Sea claims to its list of “core interests,” a term previously reserved for Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang. Beijing’s more aggressive pursuit of its offshore ambitions occurs at the same time it has stepped up its challenge to America’s exercise of the right of free passage through international waters and airspace. Most notably, in March 2009, China’s aircraft and boats intercepted two unarmed U.S. Navy reconnaissance vessels, the Impeccable in the South China Sea and the Victorious in the Yellow Sea. At the time, a Chinese trawler tried to steal a towed sonar array from the Impeccable, an attempt that constituted a direct attack on the United States. This year, more-over, the People’s Liberation Army loudly challenged the presence of the U.S. Navy in the Yellow Sea, where U.S. and South Korean ships have been practicing defensive maneuvers in the wake of Pyongyang’s torpedo sinking of the Cheonan, the South Korean frigate, resulting in the loss of 46 lives. In recent months China has been taking on America and almost every coastal nation in the region at once.

Sheriff: Evidence supports wife's account in pirate attack
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_16279531
Excerpt: Blood, witness accounts and other unspecified evidence all corroborate the version of events laid out by a Colorado woman whose husband is missing and presumed dead after an attack on a lake straddling the Mexican border, the sheriff leading the investigation said this afternoon. Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. detailed some of the reasons he does not doubt that David Hartley, a 30-year-old Loveland native, was murdered a week ago by a drug gang on Falcon Lake, a 44-mile long waterway bisected by the U.S.-Mexico border. And Gonzalez's faith was echoed by three congressmen who visited this border town today to discuss the ongoing effort to find Hartley's body and return it to American soil.

Democrats assert tea party advantage
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100802137.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline
Excerpt: Republicans have said all year that the tea party movement was going to lead them to victory in November, but in the final weeks of the campaign it is suddenly the Democrats who are claiming a tea party advantage. Democrats were already feeling fortunate to face what they consider to be weak tea party candidates in Nevada, Delaware and a handful of other races. But party officials said on Thursday that they are also seeing an anti-tea party bounce nationwide, with the movement motivating disenchanted Democratic voters who had threatened to stay home on Election Day. David Plouffe, the former Obama campaign manager who is playing a key role as a party strategist this year, said there has been a shift in sentiment since Christine O'Donnell won the Republican Senate primary last month in Delaware.

Can Democrats spring an upset in Texas governor's race?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100707189.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline
Excerpt: Democrats have a dream this year and it goes like this: It is election night. As the cable news networks' electronic maps run red with Republican victories, three of the nation's most populous states - California, Florida and Texas - turn instead to blue. Gubernatorial pickups in those Sunbelt states would bring a measure of satisfaction on what otherwise could be a bleak evening for Democrats. And heading into the final weeks of the campaign, the party has a chance of winning some or all of these races. Democrats know that heavily Republican Texas is the most difficult of the three. Long a Democratic wasteland, Texas is all the more challenging because of the national climate.

Democrat John Dingell down four points in Michigan
http://dailycaller.com/2010/10/08/shock-poll-democrat-john-dingell-down-four-points-in-michigan/
Excerpt: A shocking new independent poll puts the longest-serving member of House – in history – down four points in his Michigan district to a cardiologist who has never before run for any elected office. Democrat Rep. John Dingell, 84, the only sitting member of Congress who was elected when a veteran of the Civil War was still alive, who is battling for his 28th consecutive re-election, is losing in a poll for the first time against Republican candidate Rob Steele. The “robo” poll of 300 people, conducted by Rossman Group of Lansing and Team TelCom, showed Steele getting 43.8 percent of the vote and Dingell, 83, getting 39.5 percent of the vote. The poll had a margin of error of 5.6 percent, meaning the race is statistically tied, according to its results. (Gives me heart. ~Bob.)

Welfare Costs For Children Of Illegal Aliens In L.A. County Over $48 Million In June
http://antonovich.co.la.ca.us/Pages/Press%20Releases/09/August/Welfare%20costs%20081109.html
Excerpt: Figures from the Department of Public Social Services show that children of illegal aliens in Los Angeles County collected nearly $22 million in welfare and over $26 million in food stamps in June, announced Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. Projected over a 12 month period – this would exceed $575 million dollars. Annually the cost of illegal immigration to Los Angeles County taxpayers exceeds over $1 billion dollars, which includes $350 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $500 million in welfare and food stamps allocations. Twenty-four percent of the County’s total allotment of welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of illegal aliens born in the United States. “Illegal immigration continues to have a catastrophic impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers,” said Antonovich. “The total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers exceeds $1 billion a year – not including the millions of dollars for education.”

VFW Leadership at Odds with VFW-PAC
http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=5596
I’m a life member, but re-thinking that, as I am my NRA membership. ~Bob. Excerpt: The national line officers of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) are at odds with the VFW Political Action Committee (PAC), calling the methodology process used by the PAC “seriously flawed at best this year and in immediate need of extensive review,” in the wake of the recent congressional endorsements made by the committee. “Even though the law requires that VFW-PAC be a separate organization, the acronym ‘VFW’ is attached to the committee and the natural assumption is that the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is somehow making the endorsement decisions. Nothing could be further from the truth, but perception is reality,” said National Commander Richard Eubank. “Obviously, an organization's political positions have to reflect the opinions of its members. But those opinions can't be perceived as ‘off the wall,’ and the methodology used this year to grade candidates obviously is skewed in favor of the incumbent. That isn’t fair, and it actually subverts the democratic process.” Because of the controversy surrounding the endorsements, VFW line officers have decided to bring the question of continued existence of the PAC to the floor during the 112th VFW national convention in August.

Letter to VFW from a member (and blog reader)
Excerpt: How can you endorse Barbara Boxer who dressed down a general because he didn't address her properly (according to her misguided interpretation of self importance)? How can you support Nancy Pelosi who being from San Francisco I suspect supported the Anti-War movement against thousands of Americans fighting and dying for her right to do so-to include myself? Now she has saddled future generations (to include my children & grandchildren) with a horrendous debt that will surely affect not only people on Medicare, but probably Veteran Benefits as well. How can you endorse Ron Klein against LTC Al West who is a proven warrior, and was willing to sacrifice his military career to keep his troops alive? The above three cases are just a few as there are others. The words I have for this stupidity I will not type into this email other than to say if you worked for me, you'd be relieved on the spot! I have been a life member of the VFW since the 12/31/1975….. You should be ashamed, and you owe every VFW member an apology. --John A. Alstad

‘Why Ilario has my vote’: From a valiant female non-com who served with U.S. Marines in Iraq
http://pantanoforcongress.com/posts/why-ilario-has-my-vote-from-a-valiant-female-non-com-who-served-with-us-marines-in-iraq?utm_source=Online+Sign+Ups&utm_campaign=8c3a691322-10_10_10_Moneybomb_Newsletter10_8_2010&utm_medium=email
Excerpt: My company, Alpha Company in 8th Communications Battalion, directly benefited from the work that Ilario, his men, and so many of the infantry did in securing Fallujah and the surrounding areas. Camp Fallujah was mortared sometimes bi-weekly for the company that we relieved. During my 8 month deployment, we were mortared only twice – huge gains in reducing violence, both for us and the citizens of Iraq. My husband and I too fell in love with the South as introduced to it via Camp Lejeune, relocating to beautiful and welcoming Wilmington after I finished with the Corps. I first saw Ilario in person when he debated Brezeale and Crow downtown. What impressed me the most was not simply his strong and clear positions on the issues – with which I agree – but the fact that he did not take the bait when both the other candidates made personal digs and attacks against him. This is the kind of dignified and principled man Ilario is. Ilario’s men and colleagues describe how they would follow him into battle, serve under him and next to him in a heartbeat. You cannot force or persuade that kind of confidence and love from your peers. Those men hold that opinion because of who Ilario is. He says what he means. He does what he says he will do. He sticks to his principles, he is well-read and his opinions are thoughtful and well-researched. (8th Comm. I served with them at Lejeune after returning from Nam. Good outfit, one officer excepted. ~Bob.)

Government Seizes Newborn Baby Over Political Beliefs Of Parents
http://www.infowars.com/government-seizes-newborn-baby-over-political-beliefs-of-parents/
Excerpt: A newborn baby was ripped from its mother’s arms by officials from the New Hampshire Division of Family Child Services accompanied by police after authorities cited the parents’ association with the Oath Keepers organization as one of the primary reasons for the snatch, heralding a shocking new level of persecution where Americans’ political beliefs are now being used by the state to kidnap children. (Hopefully exaggerated. If not, I’d expect a hell of a lawsuit. ~Bob.)

Brown on defensive over Whitman remark
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/08/AR2010100803386.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
Excerpt: Jerry Brown has developed a woman problem - specifically, the fact that he doesn't seem to grasp what it means to be running against one. The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that in a private conversation inadvertently captured on voicemail, California's Democratic candidate for governor and his aides discussed the possibility of portraying his GOP opponent, Meg Whitman, as a "whore." The conversation among Brown and his aides was picked up on a voicemail recording that Brown left for a police union official in early September, apparently after Brown believed he had hung up. (And O’Donnell thought being called a witch was bad. ~Bob.)

Top Nevada GOP lawmaker endorses Reid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100706014.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
She wasn’t my first or second choice, but this guy better be planning his retirement dinner. ~Bob. Excerpt: Veteran state Sen. Bill Raggio, one of Nevada's most influential Republicans over the last four decades, says he's reluctantly endorsing Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's re-election campaign. Raggio issued a statement Thursday sharply criticizing GOP candidate Sharron Angle, branding her as a "totally ineffective" four-term state lawmaker. Raggio also cited what he called Angle's inability and unwillingness to work with others even within her own party, and her extreme positions on Social Security and other issues. Raggio also criticized Angle for badmouthing GOP leaders in a recent secretly taped conversation. The Angle campaign did not immediately respond to Raggio's comments. Raggio defeated Angle two years ago in a bitter GOP primary.

Report: Dems planted NJ tea-party House candidate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101009/ap_on_el_ho/us_plant_candidate
Excerpt: New Jersey Republican congressional candidate criticized his Democratic opponent Friday amid mounting evidence that Democratic officials planted a tea-party candidate in the race to siphon off conservative votes. "My opponent, John Adler, represents everything that is wrong with politics in our country today," Republican Jon Runyan said. "I would ask for an apology. But frankly, an apology from someone like Congressman Adler would be so meaningless that it's not worth seeking." He spoke at a news conference Friday as Adler, a first-term Democratic lawmaker, and his campaign remained mum about a report in the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill in which Democratic operatives speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed what Republicans have believed for months: That tea-party candidate Peter DeStefano was put on the ballot by Democrats. (This may backfire on the Democrats. My Floor Leader, the Late Sen. John Parker, had a quote in his great books of political stories that, “it’s always an advantage to a public man to be the victim of an outrage. If you like politics and humor, the books, out of print, are often available used through Amazon. They are: If Elected, I promise and The Fun and Laughter of Politics.)

US physics professor: 'Global warming is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life'
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100058265/us-physics-professor-global-warming-is-the-greatest-and-most-successful-pseudoscientific-fraud-i-have-seen-in-my-long-life/
Excerpt: Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Here is his letter of resignation to Curtis G. Callan Jr, Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society….. When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be? How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society. It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist. So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it…. Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety, Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)

Help Prevent Vote Fraud
http://www.truethevote.org/
From the e-mail about this organization: For decades, voter fraud has been a staple of democratic politics. Lyndon Johnson was the master of it in Texas, as was the Dailey machine in Chicago. Al Franken is a United States Senator today because of voter fraud. The left has done its best to make voter fraud possible, from the Clinton era Motor Voter law, to opposing requirements that a photo ID be presented when someone wants to vote, to advocacy groups such as ACORN that specialized in fraudulent voter registrations. There is a group in Texas that has figured out a great way to stop this. -- Mayfair Gerber.

Kidnapped British aid worker killed in Afghanistan
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8052554/Kidnapped-British-aid-worker-killed-in-Afghanistan.html
Excerpt: Linda Norgrove, 36, died during an attempt to free her from the armed militant group who kidnapped her on September 26, the Foreign Office announced on Saturday. She was killed on Friday night during a rescue operation, thought to have been carried out by US special forces working alongside Afghan troops. Full details of the rescue operation have yet to be released. The Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "It is with deep sadness that I must confirm that Linda Norgrove, the British aid worker who had been held hostage in eastern Afghanistan since 26 September, was killed at the hands of her captors in the course of a rescue attempt last night…. Miss Norgrove, who was brought up on the west coast of Lewis, in the Scottish isles, has been an aid worker for over ten years and had previously worked on UN projects in Cambodia, Uganda and South America. She is a doctor in conservation and wildlife management and has been in Afghanistan – over two separate periods – for around four years. (“Death to infidels who try to peacefully help Muslims!” ~Bob.)

Arizona is Haven for Refugees
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/us/09refugees.html?_r=1&hp
Excerpt: Only three states accepted more refugees on a per capita basis over the past six years. Arizona took nearly twice as many refugees per capita as its liberal neighbor, California, and more than twice as many per capita as New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. “In the degree of welcome and receptivity we see, I would certainly put Arizona at the top,” said Robert Carey, a vice president at the International Rescue Committee, which resettles refugees in a dozen states. The work contrasts with the state’s renown as the scourge of illegal immigrants, whom critics blame for driving up crime, stealing jobs and burdening hospitals and schools. “We’re not anti-immigrant — never have been,” said State Senator Russell Pearce, a Republican who is a leading critic of illegal immigration. “But we expect people to follow the law.”

From a reader
No need to reply, but I am beginning to wonder if these news sites get their stories from your blog. I've already seen all this stuff. –Kate. (And zero royalties! ~Bob.)

Michelle Obama Panhandles Poor for Rich Democrat Pols
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/10/michelle_obama_panhandles_poor.html
Excerpt: Michelle Obama sent out an email this week to all those Organizing for America folks begging for small donations to lift the rich Democrat pols out of the doldrums and back into flush territory so they can make attack ads against their opponents. Apparently, the woman knows no shame. Panhandling Democrat-impoverished Americans for the cash to save the same people who made them poor and unemployed is unrivaled gall, especially in light of the way these liberals spend money themselves.

Top 10 Movies Banned in the Middle East
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/10/08/top-10-movies-banned-in-the-middle-east-2/
Good list for your viewing pleasure. ~Bob. Excerpt: A year and a half ago, giddy and hopeful in the wake of Obama’s inauguration, an unofficial but self-important delegation from Hollywood’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (including actresses Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard, among others), set out for Iran as part of a “cultural exchange. ”Hard to fathom how America was supposed to benefit from the exchange, but cultural advisor Javad Shamaghdari told the Hollywood reps exactly what Iran wanted: “We will believe Obama’s policy of change when we see change in Hollywood too.” In other words, no more movies critical of Islam or Iran. That’s not all Shamaghdari demanded:

The Politics of Foreclosure
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704696304575538440995389092.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h
Excerpt: Talk about a financial scandal. A consumer borrows money to buy a house, doesn't make the mortgage payments, and then loses the house in foreclosure—only to learn that the wrong guy at the bank signed the foreclosure paperwork. Can you imagine? The affidavit was supposed to be signed by the nameless, faceless employee in the back office who reviewed the file, not the other nameless, faceless employee who sits in the front. The result is the same, but politicians understand the pain that results when the anonymous paper pusher who kicks you out of your home is not the anonymous paper pusher who is supposed to kick you out of your home. Welcome to Washington's financial crisis of the week. In the 23 states that require judicial foreclosures, lenders seeking to seize property from a delinquent borrower must file a summary judgment motion in court. Typically, this document must be signed in the presence of a notary by a "witness" who has reviewed the relevant documents and confirmed that the borrower is in default and the lender owns the mortgage. (There will be a cost, of course, to the lenders. That cost will be paid by charges to borrowers who pay their bills, or by lower profits to stockholders, including IRA pension plans. So either was, I’ll be among those paying for this. Again. ~Bob.)

Obama's underwater fantasy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQnfSfAsPM&feature=player_embedded
Funny video from Israel.

Error by trial: Very first Guantanamo case in civilian court is an instant disaster
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/10/07/2010-10-07_error_by_trial.html
Obama and Holder, making the world safe for terrorists. Imagine if the tens of thousands of Nazi POWs we took in WWII were ruled to have the protection of the constitution and civilians trials to be held. ~Bob. Excerpt: The disastrous folly of trying Al Qaeda enemy combatants in civilian court stands proven beyond a reasonable doubt in the case of the first Guantanamo detainee brought to New York to face justice. There is abundantly conclusive proof that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani participated in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. At least 5,000 were wounded. He was indicted that same year while a fugitive. In 2004, the CIA caught up with Ghailani in Pakistan. By then, he had gone on to train with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, serve as Osama Bin Laden's bodyguard and meet some of the 9/11 hijackers. These facts come courtesy of Ghailani's own mouth. He revealed them under interrogation while in clandestine CIA custody before transfer to Guantanamo. Therein lies the legal absurdity. The CIA grilled Ghailani in the interest of national security - to prevent further terrorist attacks - and not as a run-of-the-mill criminal suspect with full U.S. constitutional rights. Thus, Ghailani had no lawyer. Thus, in the words of Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, Ghailani was subjected to a "combination of social influence approaches and extremely harsh interrogation methods to obtain evidence" - techniques that were used "to obtain intelligence from a handful of detainees believed to possess particularly high-value information." So, years later, come time for opening statements in Kaplan's courtroom, prosecutors chose not even to try entering a word of Ghailani's testimony into evidence. Instead, they hung their case largely on one Hussein Abebe, a Tanzanian who was prepared to testify that he had sold five crates of explosives to Ghailani. Bad move. Kaplan yesterday barred Abebe from taking the stand because the FBI tracked him down based solely on information provided by Ghailani under "coerced" questioning. This ruling was distressingly inevitable. The courts have long excluded evidence discovered by tainted means. The idea is to curb law enforcement abuses by refusing to admit what judges call "the fruit of a poisonous tree." Kaplan said he was compelled by law to apply the doctrine, no matter that the CIA was not gathering evidence for civilian court but protecting Americans. Kaplan's grounds are open to debate, and one can hope an appeals panel reverses. Either way, the important point is that force-feeding Guantanamo detainees, arrested in the drive to prevent a new 9/11, through civilian courts is insane. President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are bent on pursuing such madness. Hanging out there is whether they will insist on bringing the granddaddy of all terrorists, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, for trial in New York. The Ghailani fiasco documents that they must not.

Global Cooling and the New World Order
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100055500/global-cooling-and-the-new-world-order/
Excerpt: At its June meeting in Sitges, Spain (unreported and held in camera, as is Bilderberg’s way), some of the world’s most powerful CEOs rubbed shoulders with notable academics and leading politicians. They included: the chairman of Fiat, the Irish Attorney General Paul Gallagher, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates, Dick Perle, the Queen of the Netherlands, the editor of the Economist…. Definitely not Z-list, in other words. Which is what makes one particular item on the group’s discussion agenda so tremendously significant. See if you can spot the one I mean: The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations. Yep, that’s right. Global Cooling. Which means one of two things. Either it was a printing error. Or the global elite is perfectly well aware that global cooling represents a far more serious and imminent threat to the world than global warming, but is so far unwilling to admit it except behind closed doors. Let me explain briefly why this is a bombshell waiting to explode. Almost every government in the Western world from the USA to Britain to all the other EU states to Australia and New Zealand is currently committed to a policy of “decarbonisation.” This in turn is justified to (increasingly sceptical) electorates on the grounds that man-made CO2 is a prime driver of dangerous global warming and must therefore be reduced drastically, at no matter what social, economic and environmental cost. In the Eighties and Nineties, the global elite had a nice run of hot weather to support their (scientifically dubious) claims. But now they don’t. Winters are getting colder. Fuel bills are rising (in the name of combating climate change, natch). The wheels are starting to come off the AGW bandwagon. Ordinary people, resisting two decades of concerted brainwashing, are starting to notice. All this, of course, spells big trouble for the global power elite. As well as leading to food shortages (as, for example, it becomes harder to grow wheat in northerly latitudes; adding, of course, to such already-present disasters as biofuels and the rejection of GM), global cooling is going to find electorates increasingly angry that they have been sold a pup.

Hire Patriots.com is Going National
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/article_87ac5032-af4b-5f2f-bbf2-d0276e51d25a.html
Excerpt: The free military and veterans online job board started by the husband-and-wife team of Mark and Tori Baird six years ago in Oceanside now has websites in Hawaii, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Colorado, Virginia, South Carolina and seven other states. The nonprofit's goal, said Mark Baird, is to build a national veteran employment website covering 36 states within the next year that "will serve our veterans for decades. We want www.HirePatriots.com to be part of the fabric of American life."

Saudis arrest Filipino Catholics at mass—report
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20101006-296336/Saudis-arrest-Filipino-Catholics-at-massreport
Excerpt: Saudi police raided a secret Catholic mass in Riyadh last week and arrested a dozen Filipinos and a Catholic priest, charging them with prosyletising, a local daily reported on Wednesday. The raid took place as some 150 Filipinos were attending the mass in a Riyadh rest house on Friday, the second day of the weekend in Saudi Arabia, Arab News said. The twelve Filipino men and the priest, whose nationality was not specified, were "charged with prosyletising," the daily quoted an official from the Philippine embassy in Riyadh as saying. They were all released Sunday on guarantees by sponsors or embassies, the report said. Saudi Arabia bans the practice of any religion aside from Islam. However, small, low-key prayer services inside expatriate compounds and in Filipino gatherings are tolerated by officials. (I’m for building the “Ground Zero Mosque” right after the first church in Mecca. ~Bob.)

Food Stamp Nation
http://townhall.com/columnists/PatBuchanan/2010/10/08/food_stamp_nation/page/full/
Excerpt: "The lessons of history ... show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit." These searing words about Depression-era welfare are from Franklin Roosevelt's 1935 State of the Union Address. FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend permanently upon government for the necessities of their daily lives. Like narcotics, such a dependency would destroy the fiber and spirit of the nation. What brings his words to mind is news that 41.8 million Americans are on food stamps, and the White House estimates 43 million will soon be getting food stamps every month.

Welfare card can be swiped for booze, slots
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20101008welfare_card_can_be_swiped_for_booze_slots/srvc=home&position=2
Excerpt: Bay State welfare recipients can play the slots, pick up a six-pack of beer or nab a flat-screen plasma TV under loosey-goosey Bay State restrictions that allow those on the dole to treat taxpayers’ wallets as their own personal ATM. Recipients of the Department of Transitional Assistance programs get Electronic Benefits Transfer cards that work like regular debit cards, allowing them to withdraw cash from ATMs and use it for whatever they want - all with scant oversight by the state. State officials were unable to say how many liquor stores and bars accept the EBT cards. Nor could they say for certain that welfare cash isn’t being used on Lottery tickets or even casinos.

Leon Klinghoffer murdered by terrorists 25 years ago today
http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=20177
Excerpt: “My mother, when she called us from the boat, told us, ‘Do your crying now. We have a lot of work when I come home.’” “She didn’t want our father’s murder to be in vain.” Twenty five years ago Palestinian terrorists, led by Abu Abbas, boarded the cruise ship Achille Lauro and held the passengers hostage for 44 hours. Vacationing New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer was confined to a wheelchair. Despite being handicapped by a series of strokes, he was shot in the head and his body dumped overboard. Terrorist attacks against Americans did not begin on 9/11/2001.