Political Digest for November 19, 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. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.

Death Before Profiling

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/11/airport-security-and-profiling.html

With airport security back in the news, I thought this pertinent column I wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer, South Jersey Edition from 2002 might be of interest. We seem to have learned little. ~Bob.

Sons Such As These

http://millison-wilkes.blogspot.com/2010/11/sons-such-as-these.html

These are the grandsons of Col. John Studt, USMC (ret.), my CO from the 25^th Marines and the finest officer I served under. Makes me feel old when all I can do is send care packages. ~Bob. Excerpt: Jon is home once again. Safely and in one piece, thank God. This was his third combat deployment. I always use the word 'combat' to differentiate these grueling experiences from the other more mundane, administrative type deployments that so many have been on and yet claim the same level of hardship from the largely supportive (gullible) American Public

Airport Security

http://www.marineshop.net/browse.cfm/antique-bronze-marine-coin-knife/4,9363.html

I’m tempted to buy and try one of these USMC knife coins. Bet it would get through. ~Bob

Ahmed Ghailani, Gitmo detainee, acquitted of all but 1 charge in N.Y.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705663.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert

We couldn’t win WWII with today’s leadership or, in fact, today’s public. Every Nazi our troops captured—there were hundreds of thousands—would have to have a trial, a lawyer and couldn’t be held without evidence. The Republic is doomed. ~Bob. Excerpt: The first former Guantanamo Bay detainee to be tried in federal criminal court was found guilty on a single conspiracy charge Wednesday but cleared on 284 other counts. The outcome, a surprise, seriously undermines - and could doom - the Obama administration's plans to put other Guantanamo detainees on trial in U.S. civilian courts.

Terror Verdict Tests Obama’s Strategy on Trials

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/nyregion/19detainees.html?_r=2&hp&om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BM5Su7B8VytjVS

Excerpt: The mixed verdict in the case of the first Guantánamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court on Wednesday quickly re-ignited a fierce debate over the Obama administration’s effort to restore the role of the traditional criminal justice system in handling terrorism prosecutions. Ahmed Ghailani will face between 20 years and life in prison as a result of his conviction on one charge related to the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa. But because a jury acquitted him on more than 280 other charges -- including every count of murder -- critics of the Obama administration’s strategy on detainees said the verdict proved that civilian courts could not be trusted to handle the prosecution of Al Qaeda terrorists. "This is a tragic wake-up call to the Obama Administration to immediately abandon its ill-advised plan to try Guantánamo terrorists” in federal civilian courts, said Representative Peter King, Republican of New York. “We must treat them as wartime enemies and try them in military commissions at Guantánamo.” Adding political force of such criticism, Mr. King is set to become the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee in January, and he promised to use oversight hearings to pressure the administration over its handling of terrorism trials.

Worth Reading: Will residency be the Rahmstopper? Emanuel twice purged from voter rolls

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1117-20101117,0,4152825.column

Another great column by John Kass. If you were one of the little people and were a cop or school teacher, you’d be fired for this. But if you worked for “The One,” no sweat. Just as Rahm knows nothing about the illegal army of city employees who were sent out to get him elected to Congress, led by a guy now in prison. Welcome to Demo-Corrupt Chicago. ~Bob. Excerpt: Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel was twice purged from the city voter rolls in the last 13 months but was reinstated by election officials, who allowed him to vote absentee in the February primary even though he did not live at his North Side address. That's just part of the new evidence aimed at the vulnerable residency issue for Emanuel. It may derail his ambition to succeed his ally Mayor Richard Daley on the 5th floor of City Hall. According to election lawyer Burt Odelson, who may someday be known around Chicago as The Rahmstopper, the case against Rahm involves voter registration notices and what he characterizes as the "mysterious" reinstatement of Emanuel's voting status.

Another great column: Like Barack, like Rahm: Ballot tactics ring familiar

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-1118-20101118,0,4873723.column

John Kass is worth the price of my Tribune subscription. Read it all. In Chicago, Demo-corruption is considered a spectator sport, a form of bloody entertainment, like the lions and the Christians in the Roman arena. The taxpayers are the Christians, unarmed, trembling and praying for succor; the politicians are the ravenous lions, with only the ethics of the jungle. ~Bob. Excerpt: Rahm Emanuel's campaign demanded Wednesday that his opponents condemn efforts to challenge his candidacy and knock him off the Chicago mayoral ballot. "News reports indicate that political operatives are organizing an attempt to limit the choices of Chicago voters in the mayoral election," Emanuel spokesman Ben LaBolt told reporters about my Wednesday column. That column detailed the coming legal challenges to Rahm's candidacy. These include the fact — confirmed by all sides now — that while he lived in Washington, Emanuel was twice purged from the Chicago voter rolls yet was allowed to vote absentee even though he wasn't living at his old North Side address.

Top RNC aide quits, blasts Michael Steele

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45193.html

I have been disappointed with Steele, both in organization and his tendency to say weird things. But some of the races this year would have been won if the GOP Primary voters had selected stronger candidates. ~Bob. Excerpt: He makes the case that the party’s lack of money directly resulted in missed opportunities in an otherwise stellar year for the GOP. Collins cites a study that he says found that the GOP could have won the Washington and Colorado Senate races with a better field operation and says that he’d chalk up narrow gubernatorial losses in Connecticut, Minnesota and Vermont to the same lack of funds for a ground game. The veteran Republican operative also tallies 21 House contests in every corner of the country that he asserts “could have been competitive if not for lack of funds.”

A huge hoax that won't die

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=174&load=4447

There was a very famous, indeed, infamous, Mohammed al-Durrah Incident, in which in 2000 a video was published in France which showed a Palestinian father and son hiding behind a barrel against a well during a firefight between the Israeli Army and some Palestinian gunmen. In the video as shown, eventually the boy is killed by Israeli gunfire, and his father is supposedly wounded too. This video brought about an enormous reaction in France and the whole Muslim world against Israel as a murderer of children. Sometime later another French journalist carefully investigated the incident, having noticed some inconsistencies in the video. (Father and son are supposedly hit by a barrage of high velocity rifle fire, but no drop of blood is seen anywhere.) Eventually there was a lawsuit against the investigator, and he was able to force release of the full footage of the incident. Which shows the boy and his father moving around just fine after they are supposedly shot full of holes. It turns out this is another staged hoax, but one which has taken on a tremendous life of its own, leading even to books about it. But no actual evidence of the boy's death, burial, etc. has ever emerged in 10 years. Yet the journalist doing the expose of the hoax has been sued, and also vilified by an entire mob of other journalists. Finally the French court upheld his side of the case, and yet the hoax still is accepted as truth in France and everywhere else. Interesting how the Big Lie can be so effective, even when it's exposed for what it is. A sad commentary on the incipient anti-Israel bias found so often in the media. Use the link to see an interview with the poor guy who did the expose. –Del)

The Presidency and the Constitution

http://www.hillsdale.edu/images/userImages/mvanderwei/Page_6907/Imprimis_Oct10.pdf

Excerpt: The president is not our teacher, our tutor, our guide or ruler. He does not command us; we command him. We serve neither him nor his vision. It is not his job or his prerogative to redefine custom, law, and beliefs; to appropriate industries; to seize the country, as it were, by the shoulders or by the throat so as to impose by force of theatrical charisma his justice upon 300 million others. It is neither his job nor his prerogative to shift the power of decision away from them, and to him and the acolytes of his choosing.

Pelosi quashes uprising

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/129669-dems-debate-delaying-leadership-elections

Onward to another 2010! ~Bob. Excerpt: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants won reelection as House Democratic leaders on Wednesday, beating back an uprising that exposed deep divisions within the party rank-and-file. Members of the caucus voted overwhelmingly to make Pelosi (Calif.) minority leader, brushing aside a challenge by Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.), a Blue Dog who said Pelosi’s toxic public image is a liability to Democrats’ efforts to retake the House majority in 2012.

Medicare Trustees Reports 2010 and 2009: What a Difference a Year Makes

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=20051&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: Medicare spending will be cut dramatically in coming years if the new federal health insurance law -- the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- is fully implemented. What do Medicare spending cuts mean at the individual level? Prior to the new law, Medicare spending per beneficiary in 2010 dollars was expected to rise from $11,000 to just over $13,000 by 2019. Under the new law, Medicare spending per beneficiary is expected to be only $11,571 in 2019. In 10 years, projected per capita Medicare benefits (net of Part B and D premium payments) will be almost $1,700 lower than last year's projections in today's dollars. In 20 years, the average net benefit will be $3,256 lower than last year's projections. The lower Medicare spending mostly reflects a reduction in payments to health care providers. Medicare payments will fall from an average of 20 percent less than what private insurers paid in 2010 to almost one-third less (68 percent) in 2019, and to only half by 2050. In less than 10 years, Medicare will go from paying 18 percent more than Medicaid today to paying less than Medicaid pays. This could lead to an increasing number of providers who are unwilling to treat additional Medicare patients and may opt out of the program.

School Choice in Canada: Lessons for America

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/11/School-Choice-in-Canada-Lessons-for-America

Abstract: In Canada, the province of Alberta has long encouraged school choice. Historically, Alberta has had two school systems between which parents may choose: the “public” system and a “separate” system. Other Alberta choices include charter, private, and French-language schools. Homeschooling is encouraged and supported by the provincial government, and “blended” programs are available where children can take some courses at home and others at school. This large variety of educational choice has led to positive results. International test results have placed Alberta students among the world’s top performers, including immigrant children who fare equal to or better than non-immigrant children. In Alberta, parents expect—and have—a wide variety of educational options for how to educate their children, a policy outcome that American states should emulate. (Canada may not have an inner city culture that is anti-education, which is celebrated by multiculturalists. ~Bob.)

Pilot To Hannity: The TSA Wanted To See My Penis

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/18/pilot-to-hannity-the-tsa-wanted-to-see-my-penis/

Excerpt: Yeah, he really said that, which caught Hannity completely off guard. What he was really talking about was going through the airport scanners. Michael Roberts, a pilot who is now suing Homeland Security decided to forgo the airport scanners and the fully body ‘love pats’ and took the third option of going home, which is where he’s been every since. He says that he’s always gone through the metal detector, but this is going way too far. A point that Hannity made which I find interesting is that the logic fails on scanning and searching pilots because they can ultimately crash the plane anyway. There’s no procedure in the world that can prevent that and it just shows how ludicrous these measures have become. Last night on the O’Reilly Factor, Ann Coulter asked if body cavity searches would be next, considering that terrorists have already used this method to conceal explosives. (The safest flights in the world are from Israel, as they put the lives of their people ahead of political correctness and profile. ~Bob.)

The Blind Who Will Not See: The President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Iranian Death Spiral

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaelledeen/2010/11/17/the-blind-who-will-not-see-the-president-the-secretary-of-defense-and-the-iranian-death-spiral/?singlepage=true

Excerpt: In the old days, Gates was a great analyst, but I think he has decided to be a blind man when it comes to Iran. He said a few other astonishing things as well. “We even have some evidence,” he said, “evidence that Khamenei is beginning to wonder if Ahmedinejad is lying to him about the impact of the sanctions on the economy, and whether he’s getting the straight scoop in terms of how much trouble the economy really is in.” I think I can help the secretary of Defense here: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei doesn’t believe anything President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says about anything. He knows he is not going to get the straight scoop from the man most Iranians refer to, not with great affection, as the chimpanzee. Khamenei only listens to a handful of people, including his son and designated successor, and members of his inner circle who have names like Larijani and Jaffari. For the record, Khamenei said today that he and the Chimp get along famously, and the sanctions aren’t affecting much of anything in the Islamic Republic. Khamenei’s lying. He knows that the country’s going to ruin. Just read this, which tells of a secret analysis prepared for Khamenei, and which predicts the total collapse of the national economy in the near future. (One of the greatest failures of “the war on terror” has been our failure to support the Iranian Green movement. The overthrow of the ayatollahs, more than any other single thing, would advance the cause of freedom and tolerance in the region, cut off funding and arms shipments for many organizations whose only purpose is terror, and help bring peace to the Middle East. We’ve missed this opportunity under both Bush and Obama; do we have to wait until the next election before something is done to help the Greens? Ron P.)

Vote for the Marine

Marine Jake Coffman, a veteran of two deployments to Iraq and a defensive lineman for Northern Illinois University, needs your vote in Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. Read about him and vote for him. You can vote every day. Presently, he is one of the top vote getters. Jake leads the NIU Huskies onto the field in every game carrying the U.S. flag. Tuesday, in his last home game, he carried the flag that him mom flew at home while he was in Iraq.

Buy Thanksgiving Dinner for the family of a wounded vet

https://www.saluteheroesproject.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=69&custom_1=CHP7NEFE&custom_3=E065P

Cutting the Federal Budget

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neC0gFmmdpk

By Quang Nguyen.

Lap Two for Tea Party

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/11/lap_two_for_the_tea_party.html

Excerpt: To win in 2012, we will need to do two things: First, once again, we will need to keep the GOP establishment from screwing up while pulling in every "small-c" conservative voter. And then we will have to do something we really didn't do this last time around: We will need to get a fair number of Americans who plan to vote Democratic to switch their votes. This is going to be harder than it sounds for a reason I am loath to articulate for fear of offending people I like, admire, and support: Simply put, there is a broken strand of DNA in the Republican genetic code. What's missing is the gene that gives us the ability to convince people who don't agree with us to change their minds. So we argue rather than explain; we assert rather than persuade. (They also need to not push candidates with bad baggage or foot-in-mouth disease who will lose, just because they say the right conservative things. And they need to understand that blue states like Massachusetts or Delaware are not going to elect a Jim DeMint or Tom Coburn, and that a RINO who votes to put conservatives in charge of the senate is better than a Blue Dog Democrat who votes to put Harry Reid in charge. ~Bob.)

This Lame Duck Session Should Be the Last

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575620440847127442.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Excerpt: Americans ought to make this lame duck session of Congress the last in history. Members who lose re-election have no moral authority to continue governing: They were fired by the voters, who should demand that they clean out their desks and go home. On Nov. 2, the voters replaced the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives with at least 61 new Republican members who campaigned on lower spending and less government power. Allowing members who were not re-elected to legislate national policy or set the 2011 federal budget is like allowing a fired employee to run the office another two months, or letting your ex-spouse continue managing your checkbook. Lame duck sessions were unavoidable before jet planes. The framers of the U.S. Constitution provided 17 weeks for newly elected members to travel to the capital and take their seats on March 3. That was the 18th century. In 1933, Americans ratified the 20th Amendment to eliminate lame duck sessions. It set Jan. 3 as the day newly elected members would take their seats. That still left seven weeks after the election, but no one imagined that the old Congress would return to the capital during that time. For a half-century, the 20th amendment worked. Except during World War II and the Korean War, Congress did not reconvene after November elections.

Mr. West goes to Washington

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/30093

Excerpt: This should be interesting. Colonel Allen West is someone with whom the Congressional Black Caucus is exceedingly unfamiliar: a man of African heritage who refuses to play victim and who lives by the words “let us judge men not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The CBC will hear, when they hear from Mr. West, the truth about their policies, the damage they inflict, and their failed philosophy. (I hope Alan West doesn’t let the GOP make him into a rock star, appearing around the country as a black Republican. To be effective in the House, you need to be there awhile. 2012 will be a far different election. He needs to be in the district every weekend, working it, touching the folks, so he goes back in January 2013. I won my senate seat by 9 votes in 1972 and by 10,000 in 1974, following this philosophy. ~Bob.)

Student Body President At Calif State Fresno Is Illegal Immigrant

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/student-body-president-at-cal-state-fresno-is-illegal-immigrant/

Excerpt: Immigration activists are cheering for Cal State Fresno student body president Pedro Ramirez for being an example of the potential of America’s illegal immigrant population. But since an anonymous tip to the school’s newspaper outed Ramirez as an illegal alien who has been living in the U.S. since he was three-years-old, critics are demanding his resignation. According to the LA Times, Ramirez learned he wasn’t a United States citizen when his parents revealed the secret as he was filling out college applications. Ramirez carried the secret with him to Cal State University where the 22-year-old now studies political science.

Ethics chief counsel recommends censure for Rangel on 11 counts

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/129957-gop-lawmaker-tells-rangel-he-has-no-one-to-blame-but-himself

The Republicans should move for expulsion and demand a roll call vote to get them on record. ~Bob. Excerpt: The House ethics committee's chief counsel recommended Thursday that Rep. Charles Rangel be formally censured by the full House for violating 11 House ethics rules. Short of expulsion, censure is the most serious sanction the ethics panel can recommend. A majority of the full House would have to vote to censure Rangel should the ethics committee officially recommend that punishment.

Deficit Proposal Draws Mixed Review

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703688704575620891838063332.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

Excerpt: President Barack Obama and many lawmakers say they will work to rein in the federal deficit, but a new survey underscores the challenges they face in taking specific steps that could help reduce the red ink. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Americans skeptical of deficit-cutting proposals laid out by the chairmen of a commission appointed by the White House. In the survey, 57% of respondents said they were uncomfortable with gradually raising the Social Security retirement age to 69 over the next 60 years. Some 41% said they were somewhat or very comfortable with the idea.

Pakistan and the Naxalite Movement in India

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20101117_pakistan_and_naxalite_movement_india?utm_source=SWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=101118&utm_content=readmore&elq=213b63a030c14be1a24e01e89716c16f

I wonder if the Indians asked Obama about the White House Christmas Tree decoration with Mao’s picture? ~Bob. Excerpt: Indian Maoist militants, known as Naxalites, have been meeting with members of the outlawed Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), according to the director-general of police for India’s Chhattisgarh state. Based on information from a police source, state police chief Vishwa Ranjan said Nov. 11 that two LeT operatives attended a Naxalite meeting in April or May. While their presence at the meeting still needs to be corroborated, the chief said, it appears very likely that the Naxalites held the meeting to adopt a new policy and plans for increasing “armed resistance” in order to seize political power in India.

Hey, Michael Moore! Clinton, Gore and Kerry Lost the 'White Vote,' Too

http://townhall.com/columnists/LarryElder/2010/11/18/hey,_michael_moore!_clinton,_gore_and_kerry_lost_the_white_vote,_too

Excerpt: "The statistics don't lie," Moore plowed ahead. "I'm not talking about polls. I'm talking about that the young people in '08 was the only -- do you know this? -- it's the only demographic -- white demographic -- that Obama won, 18- to 29-year-olds. Every other demographic, over 29, Obama lost the white vote. Every single one." Crime solved. Case closed. Book 'em, Danno. Except for one minor detail: No Democratic presidential candidate has won the "white vote" since 1964. Add Obama's name to a long list of white Democrats who lost that demographic: Humphrey in 1968; McGovern in 1972; Carter in 1976 and 1980; Mondale in 1984; Dukakis in 1988; Clinton in 1992 and 1996; Gore in 2000. In fact, white voters preferred Obama to Sen. John Kerry -- who lost the white vote by 17 points in 2004, while Obama lost it in 2008 by "only" 12 points. (Larry Elder is one of the new breed on black writers who are off the Demo-corrupt plantation. ~Bob.)

Iranian Pastor Accused of ‘Thought Crimes’ to Die by Hanging

http://www.assistnews.net/STORIES/2010/s10110093.htm

Death for apostasy! Coming soon to a multicultural, Shari’a-tolerant society near you. ~Bob. Excerpt: An Iranian court has passed down a death sentence on a Christian pastor, who was found guilty of so-called “thought crimes.” According to www.presenttruthmn.com, the official verdict has now been delivered in writing to Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, stating that he is to be hung for the crime of apostasy.

New Jersey: Boy suspended from school because Muslim girl overheard him saying "Taliban"

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/11/new-jersey-boy-suspended-from-school-because-muslim-girl-overheard-him-saying-taliban.html

Excerpt: She "perceived" that he was looking at her when he said it. And so he is duly suspended, because the new cardinal rule is that one must not offend the new Privileged Class. They say they suspended him because her feelings were hurt -- yet if that became the criterion for suspension in high school, there would be no more than one or two students in class at any given time.

Five Muslim boys and white girl, all 12, excluded over Facebook death threats to classmate who supported British troops
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330517/Facebook-death-threats-5-Muslim-boys-white-girl-excluded-school.html

Didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A 13-year-old boy who penned an online Remembrance Day tribute to Britain’s fallen soldiers was subjected to a vicious hate campaign by fellow pupils. A gang of 12-year-old pupils made up of five Muslim boys and one non-Muslim girl made death threats to Darius Gill involving knives and knuckle-dusters because of his support for British troops. One member of the gang also posted a picture of himself holding a rifle and threatened to hijack a plane.

Pakistan mosque shootout leaves 18 injured

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/17/pakistan-mosque-shootout

Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Gun battle followed dispute between rival religious factions over who should lead prayers.

The Left's Delusion over Islam is Baffling to Middle-Eastern Christians

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100063895/the-lefts-delusion-over-islam-is-baffling-to-middle-eastern-christians/

Excerpt: Christians in Jordan and Syria are protected. But despite the Left’s “myth of the myth” of the clash of civilisations, the simple fact is that almost nowhere in the Islamic world are Christians free in the same way Muslims are free in Europe. Deniers of this essential truth usually fall back on historical arguments about Islam’s famed tolerance, but this is deceptive. During the high middle ages, the Islamic world was far more tolerant than Christendom, but it couldn’t be otherwise. North of the Alps Europe was 95-99 per cent Christian, so minorities faced persecution; the “Muslim world” had enormous Christian minorities throughout this period and in some cases majorities, and this goes for modern-day Iraq, Syria, Egypt (probably majority Christian until the 18th century), Lebanon and Palestine. That they slowly became Islamic was largely down to two facts of life which make a mockery of the tolerance myth: Muslims could not generally become Christians, and Christians had to pay a special tax, and so the class of people who subsidised the rest of the population gradually shrank over generations (a system that bears more than a passing resemblance to the modern British welfare state). From the 19th century a third factor arose when it became possible for Christians to emigrate to the West.

6 GOP Hispanics Loosen Democrats' Grip On Hill

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/15/6-gop-hispanics-loosen-democrats-grip-on-hill/

excerpt: As the newly elected Republican class of the 112th Congress gathers at the Capitol this week for freshmen orientation, the group boasts a record six Hispanics - loosening the Democratic Party's long held grip on the nation's fastest-growing minority group. But whether the surge is a one-year anomaly or portends a future of Hispanic GOP pickups in the 2012 election remains to be seen. "We're watching this with interest to see whether it is the beginning of a trend," said Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning Washington think tank. "We know that out there there are a significant number of conservative Hispanics willing and eager to move up in the there are a significant number of conservative Hispanics willing and eager to move up in the political world, so it's not at all out of the question to me that we could see an upsurge."

If you are American and conservative, read this... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100063988/if-youre-american-and-conservative-read-this/

Excerpt: Every British Tory, including the Prime Minister, reads ConservativeHome. Over the past three years, Tim Mongomerie, Jonathan Isaby and Paul Goodman have made their pages the focal point of the British Centre-Right, with perhaps 1000 times as many readers as the official Conservative Party website. There has until now been no American equivalent. Although there are many more Rightist blogs in the US than in Britain, with a higher total readership, no single site has established a hegemony. Now, though, the excellent Ryan Streeter has launched an American version of ConservativeHome: read it here. He has borrowed the formula that brought ConHome to pre-eminence, reporting on the Republicans in an intelligent and sympathetic but keenly independent way, and understanding that the GOP is simply one element – not always the most important element – in the wider conservative movement. If you’re American and conservative, I’m sure ConservativeHome USA will become part of your daily reading.

Internet Prayer Request

We are asking everyone to say a prayer for "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families. They are fighting it out in Afghanistan and have lost 9 Marines in 4 days. Please send this on to other prayer chains. It would be nice to know everyone is praying. God bless them everyone!

Worse Than Ward Churchill

http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeAdams/2010/08/05/worse_than_ward_churchill/page/full/

Excerpt: A few years ago, Ward Churchill made a name for himself by referring to victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center as “little Eichmanns.” Since then, his name has become synonymous with academic lunacy. But, contrary to popular belief, Churchill is not the biggest lunatic to (dis)grace higher education in recent years. That honor goes to Julio Pino of Kent State University. Just last week, Pino sent me the following email using his Kent State University e-mail account: Sorry about the loss of your 66 dogs; maybe the c**** should have stayed at home……NATO announced Friday that six more U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 66 and surpassing the previous month's record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly 9-year-old war…..The notion that a professor would praise the killing of 66 American troops is pretty sickening. But the idea that he would use public property to refer to our war heroes as “dogs” and “c****” is simply unacceptable. (I stumbled across some articles about this truly horrible professor named Julio Pino, going back 3-4 years. He makes Ward Churchill look not half so bad. Here is the most recent article about him, Mike Adams has been writing about the guy for a couple of years now. Examining Pino's writings and activities really makes you wonder what it would take for the powers at Kent State to get off their duffs and start some action against him, tenure does not mean you are totally immune from any review of your behavior no matter how outrageous it is. The guy hates the USA with a passion, and revels in his making a very nice living in the system while doing everything in his power to brainwash more young minds to hate the system and become agents of destruction. Tolerating this is absolutely nuts. –Del. Frankly, I think this is how most of the left feels, but are too politic to say. ~Bob.)

Judith Curry: Climate change can be categorized as a “wicked problem,” praises blogosphere and cites a need for acknowledgement

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/11/18/judith-curry-climate-change-can-be-categorized-as-a-%e2%80%9cwicked-problem-%e2%80%9d-praises-blogosphere-and-cites-a-need-for-acknowledgement/

Excerpt: That headline is Dr. Judith Curry’s testimony before The House Testimony on global warming yesterday. It had a number of excellent presentations, and you can watch the entire video here. Some excerpts below, the entire presentation is available for download after the break. Climate change can be categorized as a “wicked problem.”1 Wicked problems are difficult or impossible to solve, there is no opportunity to devise an overall solution by trial and error, and there is no real test of the efficacy of a solution to the wicked problem. Efforts to solve the wicked problem may reveal or create other problems. (The US House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment took testimony yesterday on the current state of climate science. There were several good presentations made. WUWT covers four of them, Dr. Judith Curry, Dr. Richard Lindzen, Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr., and Dr. Heidi Cullen. If you have time, read them all, if not, try to get at least Curry's and Lindzen's (they are the most accessible). I wouldn't be surprised if the hearing is repeated in a few months under the incoming leadership. This one leaned heavily toward the AGW crowd. Ron P.)