Political Digest for November 28, 2010

I post articles because I believe they will be of interest, not because I agree with every—or even any—opinion in them.

Merry Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

For readers who like me celebrate the bringing of Hope and Change into the world. Enjoy. ~Bob.

Workers World Party Activist – “I Got My Scope on You Tea Party Fascists”

http://sz0043.ev.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/mail#4

Good thing a Tea Party protester didn’t say something like this. Would have been front page in the NYT, etc. condemning violent radicals. ~Bob. Excerpt: One of America’s most extreme communist organizations, the Workers World Party held a national convention in New York, November 13 and 14 2010. One member, Florida based Cuban-American Mike Martinez fired up the crowd with an original poem. Martinez openly condoned violence against Tea Party activists and called for armed revolution, “people’s war” and firing squads for “greedy” bosses. Martinez also “rapped” that Lakota activists, armed with AK47s were preparing for war in the Dakotas and that New Black Panther Party “comrades” were ready to start “uprisings” in ghettos across America.

                                 

Calling a Shamrock a Shamrock

http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=22075

As the European economy grapples with yet another bailout of a bankrupt sovereign state, a storyline is emerging that seeks to frame this latest instance of government interventionism along deliberately disingenuous lines. According to this misleading narrative, Ireland’s abysmal fiscal condition did not come as a result of chronic state overspending, but is instead due to the island nation’s comparatively-low corporate income tax rate. Sound like a familiar song? On both sides of the ocean there appear to be plenty of Keynesian apologists who believe that economic downturns are always caused by greedy capitalists – never by greedy politicians and government bureaucrats.

Smugglers' Paradise: Perhaps Janet Napolitano should visit the Peck Canyon Corridor outside of Nogales—with an armed escort

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/smugglers-paradise/Content?oid=2365902

No to the Armed Escort. It would send the wrong message to these Undocumented Democrats she wants to welcome. Going unarmed would show how safe she and BO have made the country. Soon, please. ~Bob. Excerpt: From the idyllic shelter of Peck Canyon outside of Nogales, Edith Lowell reflects on what it's like to share her beloved ranch with violent drug-smugglers, illegal aliens and automatic-weapon-toting bandits.

What to do if a Tea Party member moves in next door!

http://www.therightscoop.com/what-to-do-if-a-tea-party-member-moves-in-next-door

Excerpt: First, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!  But if that doesn’t work, then follow this wonderful primer given to us by the Coffee Party in Northern California (h/t CM Sackett): First, don’t panic. This is important as these people have guns. Lots of guns. You are probably worried about property values, neighborhood safety, and a general deterioration of area living conditions. While adjustments to your daily life are certainly important for your general state of quiet and peace, there are things that you can do to lessen the impact. Step one is to begin keeping a detailed journal. I prefer to write in the morning while my mind is fresh and having had time to quietly mull over the previous day. Writing in the evening will most always lead to a level of frustration and anger from what you have recently seen that will cloud your reflections. In addition to relating your personal feelings, use the journal to take note of more mundane happenings. Times of vehicle coming and goings, license plate numbers, descriptions of visitors. Frequency of deliveries such as UPS are also collectable information as most deliveries to such homes will be weapon related. Ammunition, guns, militia equipment…etc. This information will be invaluable to local law enforcement agencies when something happens in your general community. It is only a matter of time. (Better, yet, move to the South Side of Chicago. Tea Party people tend to avoid neighborhoods where the beauty of multiculturism has flourished and there are almost daily murders by gang bangers. [303 shot, 33 dead in July, five cops gunned to death this year.] Since most of the victims are black, as a white liberal this won’t bother you at all. And you won’t have to worry about the dangerous Tea Party folks, as the media told you they were all racists, so they’ll stay out of your neighborhood. ~Bob)

Allen West: Define the Enemy: What it takes to win in Afghanistan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhOzIQ1-CmQ&feature=related

FBI foils Oregon terror bomb plot

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/11/27/FBI-foils-Oregon-terror-bomb-plot/UPI-45581290860564/?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BM8R$eB8V8yUK1

Every notice how many guys named “Mohamud”: didn’t get the “Islam is a religion of peace” memo? ~Bob. Excerpt:  The FBI said it began investigating 19-year-old Somali immigrant Mohamed Mohamud in August 2009 and learned he planned to bomb the popular tree lighting ceremony at Portland's

Pioneer Courthouse Square

minutes before it took place at 6 p.m. Friday.  Working with state and local police departments, the FBI allowed the plan to park a bomb-laden van near the square to proceed, but with a harmless dummy bomb, The (Portland) Oregonian reported Saturday.  Mohamud was arrested as he tried to detonate the device with a cell phone, Oregon U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton said.

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/

Wish this stuff wasn’t reported at all. ~Bob. Excerpt: In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond. The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters where scientists in the clutches of an evil master are secretly building a weapon that can destroy the world. Then render that weapon harmless and escape undetected. But in the 21st century, Bond doesn't get the call. Instead, the job is handled by a suave and very sophisticated secret computer worm, a jumble of code called Stuxnet, which in the last year has not only crippled Iran's nuclear program but has caused a major rethinking of computer security around the globe. Intelligence agencies, computer security companies and the nuclear industry have been trying to analyze the worm since it was discovered in June by a Belarus-based company that was doing business in Iran. And what they've all found, says Sean McGurk, the Homeland Security Department's acting director of national cyber security and communications integration, is a “game changer.” The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus. Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

GM's union recovering after stock sale: Taxpayers and investors not as fortunate as UAW

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/25/gms-union-on-road-to-recovery-after-stock-sale/

If you have an IRA, 401k, are in a pension fund, or mutual funds, this probably came out of your pocket twice, as an investor and taxpayer, as Obama bought votes with your money.  ~Bob. Excerpt: Thanks to a generous share of GM stock obtained in the company's 2009 bankruptcy settlement, the United Auto Workers is well on its way to recouping the billions of dollars GM owed it — putting it far ahead of taxpayers who have recouped only about 30 percent of their investment and further still ahead of investors in the old GM who have received nothing. The boon for the union fits the pattern established when the White House pushed GM into bankruptcy and steered it through the courts in a way that consistently put the interests of the union ahead of many suppliers, dealers and investors — stakeholders that ordinarily would have fared as well or better under the bankruptcy laws.

Shiite deal gives militants new Afghan access

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101127/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_making_deals

Shiite Muslim

The hate each other, but not as much as they hate the infidel. ~Bob. Excerpt: Shiite militias in Pakistan's tribal regions are helping some of NATOs fiercest enemies evade missile attacks from U.S. drones to cross safely into Afghanistan, a tribal activist told The Associated Press. Shiites, who control a key piece of tribal real estate, cut a deal with the deadly Haqqani network to give insurgents a safe, alternative route to Afghanistan through Pakistan's Kurram tribal region, said Munir Bangash, who is familiar with the deal. A second tribesman from Kurram confirmed the deal but spoke only on condition of anonymity fearing retribution from the Taliban and from fellow tribesmen.

A MUSLIM artist sparked outrage last night after his £3,500 picture of the bombed 7/7 bus went on display just a mile from the atrocity that killed 13 people.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3246581/Muslim-artist-sparks-outrage-with-picture-of-bombed-77-bus.html#ixzz16Ws94omI

Art showing Islam as a Religion of Peace. This smears Islam more than any cartoon, but draws no Muslim protests. ~Bob. Excerpt: It shows four angels above the wreckage - the number of al-Qaeda suicide bombers who left 52 dead across London's transport network on July 7, 2005. What appear to be souls of the victims are shown streaming out of the bus. On the side of the vehicle is an advert which was actually on the bombed bus reading "Outright terror... bold and brilliant".

UK: Muslim cab driver refuses blind couple with guide dog

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/11/uk-muslim-cab-driver-refuses-blind-couple-with-guide-dog.html

The Muslim revulsion for dogs comes from Muhammad: "Ibn Mughaffal reported: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) ordered killing of the dogs, and then said: What about them, i. e. about other dogs? and then granted concession (to keep) the dog for hunting and the dog for (the security) of the herd, and said: When the dog licks the utensil, wash it seven times, and rub it with earth the eighth time." -- Sahih Muslim 551 Here again, even in the West, non-Muslims must accommodate Muslim mores -- never the other way around.

State’s error, not muckraker’s

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/11/12/states_error_not_muckrakers/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z

Just because you pay the taxes for food stamps doesn’t give you the right to know how they are spent. Shut up and back to work. ~Bob. Excerpt: MICHAEL MORISY, cofounder of MuckRock, a pro-open-government website, followed all the rules when he posted information about how much in food stamps has been spent at Massachusetts businesses over the last five years under the Agriculture Department’s federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. He submitted a Freedom of Information Act request, and the Department of Transitional Assistance fulfilled it a month later, providing him with data that he then published, along with analysis of what it meant, on his website.

Rio gangs flee as police raid slum

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/8161359/Rio-gangs-flee-as-police-raid-slum.html

This will come here, as our cities descend in to a gang and drug fueled hell. ~Bob. Excerpt: Hundreds of gang members have been filmed fleeing from a Rio de Janeiro slum after police launched a crackdown following five days of violence which have seen at least 26 people killed.

America's Standard

http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=MTA5MTUwNTU=

Health Care: Those who wish to nationalize medicine point to America's low position in world health rankings. But when a rich Saudi who could go anywhere for treatment chose, where did he go? America, of course. When King Abdullah flew out of Saudi Arabia Monday to be treated after a blood clot had complicated a slipped disc, he didn't choose France, Italy, Britain, Canada, Morocco, Oman or Cyprus, all nations that stand higher than the U.S. in the World Health Organization's ranking of health care systems. Neither did he stay in Saudi Arabia, travel to relatively nearby Malta or Greece. He avoided Andorra, Spain, Monaco and the United Arab Emirates, again, all judged by WHO to have better health care than the U.S. So why did the man who has the resources to go anywhere in the world choose America? The answer isn't one Michael Moore, who thinks Cuba has better medicine than the U.S. and once said "we have the worst health care in the Western world," wants to hear. Neither will the Democrats, who have been agitating for decades for a socialist health care system, be happy with the answer. But they will have to live with the facts — the 86-year-old Saudi King flew to the U.S. because that's where the best care is found.

Video: American Exceptionalism

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/26/video-american-exceptionalism/

Excerpt Bill Whittle concludes his excellent “What We Believe” video series for Declaration Entertainment with a look at American exceptionalism, and why it remains a powerful force not just in American politics but in real, practical terms for the world. Bill walks through the ways in which America leads the world and has for much of the last century not for the sake of brag (or at least not much for the sake of brag), but to make a more basic point.  For a nation with only 5% of the world’s population, these results cannot have come by accident.   We have achieved leadership in military, economic, scientific, and cultural arenas because of the environment fostered by the American state — a state that allows its citizens the widest latitude for creativity and innovation, where success gets rewarded without government approvals and bureaucratic interference. That environment is in danger of disappearing, which is why the Tea Party has arisen: to stop the trend towards nanny-state stagnation and the inexorable erosion of the very freedoms that have put the US into the position of global leadership.  The conclusion pulls this all together into one final argument:

The Taliban Call a Time-Out

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/27/taliban-we-need-a-time-out.html?from=rss

Why not? Every time we had North Vietnam on the ropes, we stopped bombing or fighting and gave them time to rebuild their forces. ~Bob. Excerpt: Even so, Taliban forces—the real ones—are definitely feeling the impact of stepped-up U.S. action in southern Afghanistan. A group of 17 ground commanders recently traveled to the Pakistani frontier city of Quetta to meet with one of their top military chiefs, Abdul Qayum Zakir, say four Taliban officials who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons. The commanders informed Zakir that they and their men were temporarily suspending combat operations and asked that he either transfer them to less hotly contested areas or let them recover in Pakistan until the spring thaw. “We have lost many friends and commanders,” one member of the delegation told Zakir, says Mullah Salam Khan, a midlevel commander in Helmand province who was briefed on the meeting by a participant. “We are tired and want to take a rest.” Zakir, says Khan, acknowledged their complaint—but said he needed the commanders to help him keep up at least a harassing presence in their areas so villagers could see that the insurgents are not on the run. They promised to do what they could. Senior NATO officers have said that Coalition forces have killed or captured more than 350 Taliban commanders and killed at least 1,000 fighters in the past three months. One of the Taliban officials admits that the insurgency is losing skilled commanders at an alarming rate.

Political Digest for November 27, 2010

I post articles because I believe they will be of interest, not because I agree with every—or even any—opinion in them.

Important: There's No Escaping Hauser's Law

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703514904575602943209741952-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwNjEyNDYyWj.html

Excerpt: Even amoebas learn by trial and error, but some economists and politicians do not. The Obama administration's budget projections claim that raising taxes on the top 2% of taxpayers, those individuals earning more than $200,000 and couples earning $250,000 or more, will increase revenues to the U.S. Treasury. The empirical evidence suggests otherwise. None of the personal income tax or capital gains tax increases enacted in the post-World War II period has raised the projected tax revenues. Over the past six decades, tax revenues as a percentage of GDP have averaged just under 19% regardless of the top marginal personal income tax rate. The top marginal rate has been as high as 92% (1952-53) and as low as 28% (1988-90). This observation was first reported in an op-ed I wrote for this newspaper in March 1993. A wit later dubbed this "Hauser's Law." Over this period there have been more than 30 major changes in the tax code including personal income tax rates, corporate tax rates, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, investment tax credits, depreciation schedules, Social Security taxes, and the number of tax brackets among others. Yet during this period, federal government tax collections as a share of GDP have moved within a narrow band of just under 19% of GDP.

Doctors say Medicare cuts force painful decision about elderly patients

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112503638.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

Of course, the doctor cuts were included in BO’s estimates of costs under ObamaCare, though no one expects them to go into effect. But a one-year patch costs about $17B. One year only. If the cuts go into effect, the doctor flight from Medicare with go from a steady stream to a raging torrent, and the elderly, though insured, won’t have access because there simply won’t be enough docs seeing them. ~Bob. Excerpt: Want an appointment with kidney specialist Adam Weinstein of Easton, Md.? If you're a senior covered by Medicare, the wait is eight weeks. How about a checkup from geriatric specialist Michael Trahos? Expect to see him every six months: The Alexandria-based doctor has been limiting most of his Medicare patients to twice yearly rather than the quarterly checkups he considers ideal for the elderly. Still, at least he'll see you. Top-ranked primary care doctor Linda Yau is one of three physicians with the District's Foxhall Internists group who recently announced they will no longer be accepting Medicare patients. "It's not easy. But you realize you either do this or you don't stay in business," she said. Doctors across the country describe similar decisions, complaining that they've been forced to shift away from Medicare toward higher-paying, privately insured or self-paying patients in response to years of penny-pinching by Congress. And that's not even taking into account a long-postponed rate-setting method that is on track to slash Medicare's payment rates to doctors by 23 percent Dec. 1. Known as the Sustainable Growth Rate and adopted by Congress in 1997, it was intended to keep Medicare spending on doctors in line with the economy's overall growth rate. But after the SGR formula led to a 4.8 percent cut in doctors' pay rates in 2002, Congress has chosen to put off the ever steeper cuts called for by the formula ever since.

Alaska native status gave tiny, inexperienced firm a $250 million Army contract

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112503333.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

May not be wise to give government contracts to the inexperienced, but it’s PC! ~Bob. Excerpt: The Army responded by reaching out to a tiny firm in Delaware. It was an unlikely choice for such a sensitive task. The year before, United Solutions and Services, known as US2, had just three employees and several small contracts for janitorial services and other work. It was based in a four-bedroom colonial, where the founder worked out of his living room. But the firm had one quality the Army prized: It was co-owned by an Alaska native corporation (ANC) and therefore could receive federal contracts of any size without competition, under special set-aside exemptions granted by Congress to help impoverished Alaska natives. On Sept. 2, 2008, US2 was granted a deal worth as much as $250 million - 3,000 times the $73,000 in revenue the firm claimed the year before.

Liberals resort to conspiracy theories to explain Obama's problems

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112502553.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

Excerpt: Following two years of poor economic performance and electoral repudiation, liberalism is casting around for narratives to explain its failure - narratives that don't involve the admission of inadequacies in liberalism itself. For some, the solution is to lay the blame on President Obama. He hasn't been liberal enough. He can't communicate. "I cannot recall a president," Robert Kuttner says in the Huffington Post, "who generated so much excitement as a candidate but who turned out to be such a political dud as a chief executive." Obama is "fast becoming more albatross than ally." This is an ideological movement at its most cynical, attempting to throw overboard its once-revered leader to avoid the taint of his problems. But there is an alternative narrative, developed by those who can't shake their reverence for Obama. If a president of this quality and insight has failed, it must be because his opponents are uniquely evil, coordinated and effective. The problem is not Obama but the ruthless conspiracy against him. (When Hillary was blaming Bill Clinton’s not on his lying under oath in a sexual harassment case—women don’t deserve the truth in such cases apparently—I got a button that reads, “Proud Member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to Get Bill Clinton.” Guess I need to update it. ~Bob.)

Police, not teenage girl, greeted sex-sting suspect

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/25/AR2010112503880.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

Another Democrat trapped by the Vast, Right-Wing Conspiracy. Pity. ~Bob. Excerpt: The New Jersey congressman's chief of staff, one of 11 men snared in a recent Montgomery County sex sting, arrived at an apartment complex expecting to meet a teenage girl, but instead was greeted by officers in the parking lot, authorities said. Robert Decheine, 48, was charged with solicitation of a minor and remained free Thursday on $15,000 bond, court records say. U.S. Rep. Steven R. Rothman (D-N.J.) fired Decheine over the incident.

Police officer, another person fatally shot in South Chicago

http://mobile.chicagotribune.com/wap/news/text.jsp?sid=289&nid=29985430&cid=16273&scid=-1&ith=0&title=Latest+From+Breaking+News+Center

Second this week, fifth officer shot dead this year. Sure is a good thing that honest citizens with no record cannot carry concealed in Illinois—might be dangerous to live in Chicago. ~Bob. Excerpt: A Chicago police officer and another person were shot and killed this afternoon in the South Chicago neighborhood on the South Side. The shooting happened about 1:30 p.m. near E

ast 81st Street and S

outh Burnham Avenue. T

he dead officer, a 46-year-old evidence technician, was a 20-year member of the department with a wife and four children, according to Supt. Jody Weis. He has three siblings on the force. 

New Zeal: ‘The Euro Game is Up!’

http://commonamericanjournal.com/?p=22073

Excerpt: United Kingdom Independence Party Member of the European Parliament Nigel Farage ruthlessly slams the corruption known as the European Union.

The Tea Party Movement Gains Traction In The Uk

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/26/tea-party-movement-gains-traction-uk

Excerpt: The Tea Party movement's recent electoral gains have gotten international attention, including in the mother country whose taxes inspired the first Tea Party -- the United Kingdom. A new rebellion against big government and high taxes is resonating in Ye Olde England. "Ideas around limited government, absolutely, there's lots of people in Britain who share those as well." says Matthew Sinclair of the Taxpayers' Alliance. The group -- formed in 2004, naturally calling for lower taxes -- is one of the largest in Britain with a Tea Party slant. It boasts some 60,000 supporters. The group organized workshops this past fall with FreedomWorks and other American Tea Party support groups. "We're always trying to learn how to campaign better. We're always trying to learn if there are policy initiatives in the states which have succeeded," Sinclair explains. Like the Tea Party in the U.S., there are many groups here vying for the label. From one strictly aimed at domestic politics, to another upset about tax money going to the European Union, and yet another nationalistic group upset about immigration  Daniel Finkelstein is the Executive Editor for the Times of London. "I think you may see in Britain what you've seen in the United States, which is a bit of a rebellion against the central party establishment that's fueled, to an extent, by issues."

Motes, Beams and the University of East Anglia

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100065446/motes-beams-and-the-university-of-east-anglia/

Excerpt: An email reaches me from the office of Sir Edward Acton, Vice Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. Apparently in my blogs I have expressed “inaccurate and vituperative views” about certain members of his hugely distinguished and globally admired seat of learning, and unless I apologise and retract he will report me to the Press Complaints Commission. As you can imagine I am keen as mustard to soothe the wounded feelings of Sir Edward and his world-renowned staff, but not if it means retracting statements which are patently true. For example, Sir Edward takes exception to my description of Prof Phil Jones, the head of his Climatic Research Unit, as “disgraced, FOI-breaching, email-deleting, scientific-method-abusing.” Clearly poor Sir Edward has not been kept in the loop by his minions, so I’d better break the sad news about something really quite embarrassing that happened to his university last year. It was a story called Climategate and involved numerous leaked emails, many of which showed the aforementioned Prof Jones in a not-altogether flattering light.

Rocking Obama's World

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1110/glick112610.php3

Excerpt: Crises are exploding throughout the world. And the leader of the free world is making things worse. On the Korean peninsula, North Korea just upended eight years of State Department obfuscation by showing a team of US nuclear scientists its collection of thousands of state of the art centrifuges installed in their Yongbyon nuclear reactor. And just to top off the show, as Stephen Bosworth, US President Barack Obama's point man on North Korea was busily arguing that this revelation is not a crisis, the North fired an unprovoked artillery barrage at South Korea, demonstrating that actually, it is a crisis. But the Obama administration remains unmoved. On Tuesday Defense Secretary Robert Gates thanked his South Korean counterpart Kim Tae-young for showing "restraint." Thursday, Kim resigned in disgrace for that restraint. The US has spoken strongly of not allowing North Korea's aggression to go unanswered. But in practice, its only answer is to try to tempt North Korea back to feckless multilateral disarmament talks that will go nowhere because China supports North Korean armament. Contrary to what Obama and his advisors claim, China does not share the US's interest in denuclearizing North Korea.

Poll: Palestinians will still seek Israel's destruction, even after peace

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=21774

Excerpt: The most recent poll of Palestinian Arabs revealed that even if US President Barack Obama gets Israel and the Palestinians to sign a peace deal, the violent efforts to destroy the Jewish state will not end. Obama is set to host the renewal of direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Washington on Thursday. Based on the Obama Administration's view that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and most of the Palestinians living under his rule are "moderates," a true and genuine peace is within reach. But the Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) based in the de facto Palestinian capital of Ramallah showed in its August 8-14 survey that Obama's view is way off base. (Interesting, in that 20 years ago, a much higher fraction of Palestinians said they would settle for the two-state solution.  The intervening years of radicalization by various fundamentalist factions, even after the concession of Israel leaving Gaza, have changed the general view of Palestinians.  These numbers, from an Arab organization, paint a dismal picture of the situation, and leave really no room for hope of peaceful coexistence.  As the saying goes, if the Arabs lay down their arms, there will be no more violence, if the Israelis lay down their arms there will be no more Israel.  What a tragic situation.--Del)

A 'moderate' outrage

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/moderate_outrage_Wfy6sOomAlGOF44IsLJCzM

Excerpt: Next time the White House criticizes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Ne tanyahu's reluctance to embrace the Palestinian Authority, it might consider the outrageous way those Palestinians are trying to rewrite history. The PA's information ministry this week released an official "study" declaring that the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City -- revered for 2,000 years as one of Judaism's holiest sites -- isn't Jewish at all. In fact, claims the report by a senior ministry official, it is nothing more than the western wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and has only been a worship site for Jews since World War I -- and then, only because of "Muslim tolerance."This, it should be noted, isn't coming from Hamas. It emanates from the same "moderate" Palestinians whom President Obama and the rest of the world embrace, make concessions to and trust with Israel's long-term security. (Things like this give rise to jokes like, "A moderate Muslim is one who is out of ammo.” No one defames Islam like Muslims do through outrageous behavior and statements. No one is better than Muslims at repeating the Big Lie—from Holocaust denial to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, until they believe it themselves. ~Bob.

A Thanksgiving Message to All 57 States

http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/a-thanksgiving-message-to-all-57-states/463364218434

Excerpt: My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country founded more than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate – from the FBI’s 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. And let’s face it, everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma and they end up taking up a hospital bed. It costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early, and they got some treatment, and ah, a breathalyzer, or an inhalator. I mean, not a breathalyzer, ah, I don’t know what the term is in Austrian for that…….Of course, the paragraph above is based on a series of misstatements and verbal gaffes made by Barack Obama (I didn’t have enough time to do one for Joe Biden). YouTube links are provided just in case you doubt the accuracy of these all too human slips-of-the-tongue. If you can’t remember hearing about them, that’s because for the most part the media didn’t consider them newsworthy. I have no complaint about that. Everybody makes the occasional verbal gaffe – even news anchors. Obviously, I would have been even more impressed if the media showed some consistency on this issue. Unfortunately, it seems they couldn’t resist the temptation to turn a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue of mine into a major political headline. The one word slip occurred yesterday during one of my seven back-to-back interviews wherein I was privileged to speak to the American public about the important, world-changing issues before us.

Muslim religious leader jailed for sex attack on girl

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Muslim-religious-leader-jailed-for.6633266.jp

At least he was a teen and not nine, the marriage age in many Muslim countries, based on the perfect example of the Prophet. ~Bob. Excerpt: A MUSLIM religious leader has been jailed after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young girl. Members of Portsmouth's Muslim community have spoken of their shock after Hafiz Rahman, a former Imam of the Southsea mosque, was convicted at Portsmouth Crown Court. Rahman, 67, molested the teenager in Portsmouth while he was supposed to be teaching her about the Qur'an. A jury of eight men and six women took less than two hours to find him guilty sexual activity with a child.

IRS to Jewish group: 'Does your organization support the existence of Israel?'

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1110/IRS_to_Jewish_group_Does_your_organization_support_the_existence_of_the_land_of_Israel.html?showall

Juden, Raus! ~Bob. Excerpt: A Pennsylvania Jewish group that has claimed the Internal Revenue Service is targeting pro-Israel groups introduced in federal court today a letter from an IRS agent to another,  unnamed organization that tax experts said was likely outside the usual or appropriate scope of an IRS inquiry. "Does your organization support the existence of the land of Israel?" IRS agent Tracy Dornette wrote the organization, according to this week's court filing, as part of its consideration of the organizations application for tax exempt status. "Describe your organization's religious belief system toward the land of Israel." The document emerged in the course of a lawsuit filed in August by Z

 Street, a

 hawkish group that casts itself as the Zionist answer to the liberal

J Street. Z

 Street claims that a different IRS agent reviewing its application for tax exempt status said the agency is "carefully scrutinizing organizations that are in any way connected with Israel" and that "a special unit" is determining whether its activities "contradict the Administration's public policies.'"

Anti-Semitic Board Games

http://www.theydontplay.info/boardgames.html

Investment opportunity here in Arabic translations. ~Bob. Excerpt: Very little is known about these two board games. The first one is called Adolf Hitler Legespiel and is a placement game. The second is entitled Juden Raus and claims to be 'The topical and extremely merry party game for adults and children'.

The Tragedy of Modern Environmental Thought

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/24/the-tragedy-of-modern-environmental-thought/

Excerpt: Policymakers and most Americans with an environmentalist stripe frame the debate over resource management as one of wasteful overconsumption of scarce resources.  Any resource used today, they argue, cannot be used tomorrow.  Good public policy consists, at the very least, of not squandering these precious resources. The way humans frame problems has tremendous influence on the way we analyze them.  With the framing above, policy questions about the environment boil down to “what should government do,” because the framing takes as axiomatic that individuals are over-consuming, ignorant of their overconsumption, untrustworthy and unwilling to modify their behavior in the face of crisis, and incapable of have a meaningful effect even if they were.  Yet collectivized “solutions” have been nearly universally disastrous.  What if the question has been framed wrong? Part of the attraction of the Malthusian-alarmist argument is that it just makes intuitive sense: there’s obviously a finite amount of stuff on this planet.  But consider a famous bet between economists Paul Ehrlich and Julian Simon: Ehrlich, a resource alarmist, believed we were rapidly depleting the stock of natural resources; Simon disagreed and bet that Ehrlich could select any bundle of five commodities he liked and would find that each was more abundant than it had been in prior years.  Ehrlich, confident of his common sense, took the bet — and lost. Part of the reason Ehrlich lost is that his conception of resources was very poor: the Malthusian model relies on the idea that resources are scarce. (In college, Paul Ehrlich was given to us as received wisdom and scientific fact. I decided to have no children. He turned out to be completely wrong, but a little late for me to add to the collapsing western demographic. One of the main reasons I didn’t believe the scientific consensus of “global cooling” in the 70s or “global warming” pre-Climategate. ~Bob.)

John F Kennedy’s dirty road to the White House

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/us-politics/8145356/John-F-Kennedys-dirty-road-to-the-White-House.html

Excerpt: So it comes as a shock to study Kennedy, the campaigner, properly, as I have been doing for a television documentary. The story of how a rich, preppy, party boy from Massachusetts managed to raise a roar for underdog America loud enough to carry him to the White House is gripping. But uplifting it certainly isn’t. Yes, it’s a tale of soaring and risk-taking rhetoric, partly fashioned by the late lamented Ted Sorensen, and of a candidate with remarkable energy. It is also, however, a tale of big money, smears, bribes, wire-pulling and bottomless cynicism. If you are asking what has gone so wrong with modern politics, Kennedy’s 1960 election campaign is a good place to start. (Vote fraud in Illinois and Texas probably helped. ~Bob.)

Political Digest for November 26, 2010

I post articles because I believe they will be of interest, not because I agree with every—or even any—opinion in them.

Funny earmarks cartoon

http://www.comicallyincorrect.com/comicallyincorrect_002.htm

Asian gang prowled streets searching for rape victims: Two respectable Asian family men trawled the streets, picking up, raping and sexually abusing up to 100 young girls over 18 months, police believe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8157739/Asian-gang-prowled-streets-searching-for-rape-victims.html

“Asian” is what the British press is allowed to say, as using “Muslim” when there is a crime is not PC. ~Bob. Excerpt: At home, Abid Saddique and Mohammed Liaqat, both of whom were married with young children, were considered clean, upstanding family men as well as devout Muslims. But once they left their front door and their wives behind, they turned into vodka-swilling, cocaine-binging paedophiles who spent every available moment randomly targeting young girls on the street, befriending them, and then horrifically abusing them. The 28-year-olds were at the head of a 13-strong gang who would film the assaults on their mobile telephones. …The victims, aged between 12-18, ranged from girls in care to a 14-year-old A-grade student from a strong, middle-class home. They were predominantly girls with a troubled background.

British soldiers in Afghanistan: meet the troops

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/8134201/British-soldiers-in-Afghanistan-meet-the-troops.html

Excerpt: After saying goodbye to his wife and daughter in the UK, Cpl Donald McMaster introduces his surrogate family - the troops with whom he will serve the next six months.

Are wind farms changing the weather?

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=a3fe78f74dd7c210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=China&s=News

Excerpt: As China plans new era of turbine power, the technology may not be as green as it seems. About 12 kilometres north of the Huitengliang wind farm at Xilinhot , Inner Mongolia , herdsman Siqinbateer has observed a weird phenomenon in his pasture that baffles even meteorologists. "The ground heats up quickly, like a pan on a stove, the wind blows like a headless fly and not a single drop of rain falls," he said in August, during the rainy season. He pointed at the spinning blades of the wind turbines over the horizon. "This started happening after they came." It is not just a herdsman's superstition or his distaste for modern technology. Siqinbateer's claim is backed up by government statistics.

West to the West Wing 2012

http://westforwestwing2012.com/about/

Perhaps a tad early, not that I wouldn’t vote for him over a lot of folks, including the incumbent. And we can call Democrats who don’t agree with him “racists”—won’t that be fun? ~Bob. Excerpt: Allen West is the only person on the public scene who has the combination of all the qualities we desperately need in our next president — not in 2016, not in 2020, but as soon as possible: in 2012. You can look at all the most frequently mentioned possibilities — from Sarah Palin and Marco Rubio to Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and several others, and — gifted as each of these individuals is in his or her own way — none of them have all the qualities we need if America is to survive as a Constitutional republic. And none of them — not one — will talk openly, knowledgeably and honestly about the number one threat to America’s existence: radical Islam. Not just terrorist attacks, but the creeping sharia right here within our borders, as in the New Jersey case where a judge let off a man accused of raping and beating his wife because the man was a Muslim and sharia law allows such abuse. Allen West knows the enemy as none of the others do. He is a scholar of Islam, but unlike most Islam experts, he has had actual battle experience in Iraq and, after retiring from active duty, as a civilian military adviser in Afghanistan. He is a warrior, but unlike many warriors, he has two master’s degrees — one in political science from Kansas State University, and one in political theory and military history from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff Officer College. His deep study of military history has given Allen the kind of insights you hear from Victor Davis Hanson but not from most of today’s political leaders. In addition to formal degrees, Allen has made an extensive personal study of Islam and Islamic history.

A regional approach to the medieval warm period and the little ice age

http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/a_regional_approach_to_the_medieval_warm_period_and_the_little_ice_age.pdf

Still another scholarly work showing the MWP was both real and world-wide. Ron P. Excerpt: Conclusion: The presently available palaeotemperature proxy data records do not support the assumption that late 20th century temperatures exceeded those of the MWP in most regions, although it is clear that the temperatures of the last few decades exceed those of any multidecadal period in the last 700–800 years. Previous conclusions (e.g., IPCC, 2007) in the opposite direction have either been based on too few proxy records or been based on instrumental temperatures spliced to the proxy reconstructions. It is also clear that temperature changes, on centennial time-scales, occurred rather coherently in all the investigated regions – Scandinavia, Siberia, Greenland, Central Europe, China, and North America – with data coverage to enable regional reconstructions. Large-scale patterns as the MWP, the LIA and the 20th century warming occur quite coherently in all the regional reconstructions presented here but both their relative and absolute amplitude are not always the same. Exceptional warming in the 10th century is seen in all six regional reconstructions. Assumptions that, in particular, the MWP was restricted to the North Atlantic region can be rejected.

Giving Thanks for the Free Market

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/11/25/morning-bell-giving-thanks-for-the-free-market-3/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Excerpt: As described by Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford in his diary Of Plymouth Plantation, the first Pilgrim winters in America were tough. The colonists failed to produce adequate food and shelter, and as a result, many did not survive. But eventually the colony rebounded. The Pilgrims did build sufficient homes and did plant enough crops to feed the entire colony. So great was their bounty that they celebrated with a harvest feast that eventually became the Thanksgiving holiday that we celebrate today. But what was the key to the colony’s turnaround? What drove them from poverty to prosperity? The answer may surprise you. When the first Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony, all property was taken away from families and transferred to a “comone wealth.” In other words, the Pilgrims tried to do away with private property. The results were disastrous. According to Bradford, the stronger and younger men resented working for other men’s wives and children “without any recompence.” And the women forced to cook and clean for other men saw their uncompensated service as “a kind of slavery.” The system as a whole bred “confusion and discontent” and “retarded much employment that would have been to [the Pilgrims’] benefit and comfort.” Unable to produce their own food, some settlers “became servants to the Indians,” cutting wood and fetching water in exchange for “a capful of corn.” Others tragically perished. It was not until private property rights were restored and every man was allowed to “set corn for his own particular” that prosperity came to the colony. Bradford reported, “This had very good success for it made all hands very industrious. … [M]uch more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. … Women went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn.”

You're not taking our baby! Heartstopping moment two young parents risk their lives to save their child in dramatic carjacking
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332864/Two-young-parents-risk-lives-save-baby-Kansas-carjacking.html

Great pictures. Courage has a happy ending. ~Bob.

Stimulus Provided Large Jobs Boost, Says CBO Report

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/stimulus-provided-large-jobs-boost-cbo-report-concludes/19732820?a_dgi=aolshare_email

I remain unconvinced. Why not print a trillion more dollars, spend them on favored groups, and give everyone jobs? ~Bob. Excerpt: Here is one thing you can be thankful for: The heavily criticized American Recovery and Reinvestment Act generated a rise of between 1.4 and 4.1 percent in national output from July to September, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. With the unemployment rate still at the forefront of public concerns, the CBO said the stimulus package also created between 1.4 million and 3.6 million jobs during the same period. The stimulus did not, however, decrease the unemployment rate to below 8 percent, as the Obama administration promised when it sold the stimulus at the height of the recession. That figure remains at 9.6 percent, a rate the CBO believes would be between 10.4 percent and 11.6 percent without the Recovery Act. If the CBO numbers are to be believed, the report is but one more piece of evidence that shows that the effects of the worst recession since the 1930s were greatly mitigated by the stimulus, Reuters reported.

Exposing the human rights facade

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=196659

Excerpt: The people and institutions that claim to uphold human rights and democracy are in fact nullifying these core moral principles. At 87, Robert Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch, began his second life. Thirty- three years after he founded Helsinki Watch in 1976, which evolved into HRW and became one of the most influential human rights organizations in the world, he disowned his earlier creation. In October 2009, in an explosive column published in The New York Times, Bernstein denounced HRW and its leaders for distorting and exploiting human rights to attack democracies, and for playing a central role in turning Israel into a “pariah state.”

Tennessee judge places blame for man killed by drunk illegal alien at Obama's feet

http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-national/tennessee-judge-places-blame-for-man-killed-by-drunk-illegal-alien-at-obama-s-feet

Excerpt: On November 5, Mexican national, Ramon Neri, 23, admitted to driving drunk and causing the crash that took the life of a father of five, Tika Koirala, on Christmas morning last year. Neri had a Blood Alcohol Concentration of .16 at the time of the accident. Neri tried to play upon the court’s sympathies, saying that he first walked across the border when he was only 15, ending up in New York in order to help his family. Through an interpreter, he said: “I was the one that was helping them stay afloat financially.” Over the next several years, he went back to Mexico, only to return to this country again. During that time, he was arrested multiple times in both New York and Nashville. Among the arrests, there were several for driving without a license.

Tea party activist launches Arizona-style immigration initiative for California

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/24/3208449/tea-party-activist-launches-arizona.html

Excerpt: The California secretary of state's office on Tuesday authorized a signature drive by a tea party activist to put an Arizona-style immigration law before California voters.

Called the "Support Federal Immigration Law Act," the proposal was submitted to state authorities in September by Michael Erickson, a tea party activist in the Bay Area city of Belmont and former chair of the Sonoma County Republican Party. (California has gone Brown, now hopeless. The “Entitlement Riots” will start there first. ~Bob.)

Quote

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value ZERO." --Voltaire 1729

Full Body Scanner -make TSA agent's day with these fashion tips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HXEENr2iDE&feature=player_embedded!

Too funny.

Hamas-linked CAIR to Muslims: Pat yourselves down in airport security checks

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/11/hamas-linked-cair-to-muslims-pat-yourselves-down-in-airport-security-checks.html

"It's all right, kaffir, I have checked myself and found nothing!"

From a press release sent out by Hamas-linked CAIR -- a group that never saw an anti-jihad terror initiative that it could support -- today (thanks to Twostellas): If you wear the Islamic head scarf and you are selected for secondary screening, ask the TSA officer if the reason you are being selected for secondary is because of your head scarf. If the officer confirms you were referred to secondary because of your head scarf, before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer, who should be of the same gender, that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They should not subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down. You can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area, and have the officer perform a residue swab of your hands.

Protesters oppose pardon for Pakistani Christian

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUWglt0yLb7Jqc3LTtxBjVVHGVBQ?docId=d706bc79e7094edbbce2eaa7bcd0d211

Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Around 250 hard-line Muslims staged a demonstration in the central Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, warning the president not to pardon a Christian woman sentenced to death for insulting Islam. They also denounced any attempt to change Pakistan's blasphemy law, which critics say is often misused to persecute Christians like Asia Bibi and other minorities. Her case has prompted outrage from human rights groups and a personal appeal from Pope Benedict XVI for her release. But hard-line Islamic groups in Pakistan have pushed back and some have even threatened officials in the past who suggested reforming or repealing the blasphemy law. These groups have significant power since politicians from the major parties rely on them for votes.

Taliban true followers of Islamic ideology: Pakistan minister

http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20101124/876/twl-taliban-true-followers-of-islamic-id.html

Bet this brings in a lot of American tourists. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Taliban are 'the true followers of Islamic ideology', says a Pakistan minister who also believes that 'America is the biggest terrorist of the world'. According to federal Minister for Tourism Maulana Attaur Rehman: 'Ulema and Taliban are the true followers of Islamic ideology and America is the biggest terrorist of the world, which is creating hatred against them.'

Moderate Muslim Watch: How the term "Islamophibia" got shoved down your throat

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/24/moderate-muslim-watch-how-the-term-islamophobia-got-shoved-down-your-throat/

Excerpt: The word “Islamophobia” is a nice example. Many of you, I’m sure, have felt a wash of annoyance upon hearing the word used to dismiss your concerns about what are obviously very real pathologies in the Islamic world. I find myself particularly vexed when the word is applied to me; for God’s sake, I’m sitting here in the heart of a city of 20 million Muslims, why would I be here if Islam itself gave me the vapors? The phrase “some of my best friends are Muslims” is more than a cliche in my case; most of my best friends are Muslims, all of my neighbors are Muslims, and the way I live my life would make no sense at all if I had a phobia–an “irrational intense fear” as the dictionary has it, one characterized by an “excessive and unreasonable desire to avoid the feared stimulus”–of Islam. I’d be like an arachnophobe hanging out in the woodpile, now, wouldn’t I? I have a rational fear, however, of political Islam, particularly the Wahhabi and Iranian revolutionary strains, which pose a very real threat not only to me and to the West, but–as Mansur very correctly points out–an even greater threat to my friends and neighbors.

Now here’s a point you might deeply consider: The neologism “Islamophobia” did not simply emerge ex nihilo. It was invented, deliberately, by a Muslim Brotherhood front organization, the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which is based in Northern Virginia. If that name dimly rings a bell, it should: I’ve mentioned it before, and it’s particularly important because it was co-founded by Anwar Ibrahim–the hero of Moderate Islam who is now trotting around the globe comparing his plight to that of Aung San Suu Kyi. Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former member of the IIIT who has renounced the group in disgust, was an eyewitness to the creation of the word. “This loathsome term,” he writes, is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.

Rage of the girl rioters: Britain's students take to the streets again - and this time women are leading the charge

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332811/TUITION-FEES-PROTEST-Students-streets-girls-leading-charge.html

The “Entitlement Riots” started in Greece, then France, now Britain. California is coming soon, as there are more “entitled” and fewer dollars every day. Look at the pictures. ~Bob. Excerpt: Rioting girls became the disturbing new face of violent protest yesterday. They threatened to overturn a police riot squad van as they smashed windows, looted riot shields, uniforms and helmets and daubed the sides with graffiti. Police fled the van as the young demonstrators against university tuition fees yelled obscenities only yards from Downing Street.

Anticommunist Movies Break Through Hollywood's Iron Curtain

http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2010/11/anticommunist-m.html

Excerpt: Bleak as things look lately for lovers of liberty, it may turn out that the catastrophic 2008 election was the high water mark for authoritarian collectivism. Even Hollywood could be starting to realize that we've swallowed something very harmful and need to have our stomachs pumped. After generations of dominance by the Left, the movie industry is taking aim at communism:

We still hold these truths

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaF1cpsDjf0&feature=player_embedded

Marines Unsure of New Rifle Plan

http://www.military.com/news/article/marines-unsure-of-new-rifle-plan-.html?ESRC=marine.nl

Excerpt: The general in charge of training and equipping Marines for the future fight said Nov. 16 that it is still unclear how infantry units will need to adjust to replace their light machine guns with the service's new automatic rifle. Lt. Gen. George Flynn, who heads the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, told reporters at a Washington, D.C. breakfast that the service plans to finish outfitting five battalions with the new M-27 Infantry Automatic Rifle next month and then will observe how those Marines use it on deployment before changing the organization, training, and tactics of infantry units around the new weapon. But Flynn pushed back at critics of the M-27, saying the improved accuracy of the Heckler and Koch-made automatic rifle makes up for a lower rate of fire compared to the M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon it's being fielded to replace. (H&K makes good stuff, and this weapon is supposed to be a lot less delicate than the SAW. Let's hope it works out as well as the commanders think. –Del)

Reflections on an Ailing Society

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/

Excerpt: Insanity is a force-multiplier in nuclear poker. North Korea is playing the Huns of the 5th-century AD to us, the tottering late Romans, who paid to avoid for a while the misery that was second nature to the barbarians. We are lectured, quite rightly, that Korea is grandstanding at a time of succession, that it is broke and wants a crisis to bring in some more bribe money (as if being unhinged were as good an asset as oil exports), that it shows off a new nuclear plant to garner more cash, and that it is close to implosion and has few choices. I hope so, but I am afraid also that 2011 will be our 1979, inasmuch as 2009-2010 bowing, apologizing, and treating enemies as friends and friends as neutrals is all so reminiscent of 1977-8. In short, North Korea may think 20011-12 is about the last chance it is going to get with a Carteresque president, and it wants to make the most of it, pronto.

How Many Drowning Polar Bears Can Dance On The Head Of A Pin?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100065251/how-many-drowning-polar-bears-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin/

Excerpt: In a nutshell, here’s what happened. In 1962 Rachel “more blood on her hands than Stalin” Carson published her junk science bestseller Silent Spring, predicting dire consequences (a cancer “epidemic”, no more birdies, etc) if man carried on spraying evil chemicals especially DDT. Despite none of this being true, environmental campaigners successfully demonised DDT as the new killer menace, leading to a drastic reduction in the use of this insecticide by the World Health Organisation (the UN body responsible for financing and co-ordinating the global strategy for fighting malaria), leading in turn – inevitably – in a massive world wide increase in malaria rates, and therefore in the number of third world deaths. (There is no limit to how many millions of black, brown and yellow kids liberals will let die in misery if it makes them feel good for saving the birds. ~Bob.)

President Obama Looks Like A Lame Duck On The World Stage As US Global Leadership

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100065133/president-obama-looks-like-a-lame-duck-on-the-world-stage-as-us-global-leadership-goes-awol/Excerpt:

President Bush may not have not have won the Nobel Peace Prize and was hugely unpopular at the dictator-friendly United Nations, but he was mightily feared by America’s enemies. Many a tyrant shuddered after US tanks rolled into Baghdad and removed one of the most odious psychopaths on the face of the earth from power. Even the supposedly unbeatable al-Qaeda wilted in the face of the surge in Iraq, suffering huge losses and humiliation at the hands of US forces. George W. Bush believed in American exceptionalism and wasn’t afraid to show it. He also believed that human rights and the spread of liberty and freedom across the world really mattered, and would be an integral part of American foreign policy. It is frankly hard to decipher what the current US administration believes in with regard to its foreign policy, except the language of appeasement and a belief in American decline as a global power. With the exception of Afghanistan, where the brilliant General Petraeus has recently been wiping the floor with the Taliban, the Obama administration is floundering in a sea of confusion on the world stage. And even in Afghanistan, military successes on the battlefield are being undermined by a destructive, artificial exit strategy set in path by the White House, which hands the long-term advantage to the enemy.

Barack Obama Gets Another Shellacking from the Tea Party

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100065119/latest-gallup-poll-barack-obama-gets-another-shellacking-from-the-tea-party/

Excerpt: According to USA Today: Just about as many Americans want Tea Party-backed members of Congress to take the lead in setting policy during the next year as choose President Obama, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. In a survey taken Friday through Sunday, 28% say Obama should have the most influence on government policy next year while 27% say the Tea Party standard-bearers should. GOP congressional leaders are chosen by 23%, Democratic congressional leaders by 16%. The results reflect the strength of the Tea Party movement as the GOP prepares to take control of the House of Representatives in January. These are striking figures when you consider the vast resources at the disposal of the White House, which is still backed by an overwhelmingly liberal “mainstream” US media, from The New York Times to the major television networks. In contrast, the Tea Party movement is largely a collection of thousands of local, grassroots groups, with extremely limited resources, and faced with a vast and hostile liberal media machine which tries to demonise it at every turn. As I’ve noted before, the Tea Party will go down in history as one of the most successful US political movements of modern times, playing a key role in the conservative revolution that swept America in 2012. Barack Obama continues to decline in the polls, while the Tea Party maintains its strength, and continues to build upon it.

Obama's Statement of Support for Lebanon Shows His Lack of Support for Lebanon

http://www.gloria-center.org/gloria/2010/11/obama-statement-of-support-shows-lack-of-support-for-lebanon

Excerpt: Even when you say the right thing it can only highlight the fact that you haven't been doing it. Take President Barack Obama's statement on Lebanon. The wording is all correct, yet it only makes the fact that this has nothing to do with actual U.S. policy stand out even more vividly. Thus, when Obama said that he is committed to keeping Lebanon free of "terrorism," the fact is that-in part due to weak U.S. policy-the country is largely under the control of Hizballah, a terrorist group. Right now, Hizballah doesn't have to make many terrorist attacks since it has already used terrorism successfully to gain veto power over state policy. Obama's statement was timed for Lebanon's Independence Day, but that is only all the more ironic because Lebanon has once again lost its independence to Iranian and Syrian control. The message was also prompted by growing tension over the special tribunal investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

TSA is a Joke to Al Qaeda too

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/22/tsa-is-a-joke-to-al-qaeda-too/

Not a joke. An ally. Even when their attacks fail, they damage us. At Khe Sanh ville in 1967, the NVA could keep us up all night on jittery watch by having one guy tell the villagers to stay in that night. The only defense is to find them and kill them. ~Bob. Excerpt: "Operation Hemorrhage" - al Qaeda's name for the ink-cartridge attacks - cost only $4,200, which they claim "will without a doubt cost America and other Western countries billions of dollars in new security measures. That is what we call leverage." The fact that the attacks failed is irrelevant; the underwear bomber didn't detonate his bomb but the Obama administration went off the deep end in response. It is "such a good bargain," al Qaeda explains, "for us to spread fear amongst the enemy and keep him on his toes in exchange of a few months of work and a few thousand bucks." Al Qaeda has correctly diagnosed that the most effective terror attacks are not "spectaculars" like Sept. 11, 2001, but numerous small-scale strikes that prompt the government to overreact. "To bring down America we do not need to strike big," they reason. "In such an environment of security phobia that is sweeping America, it is more feasible to stage smaller attacks that involve less players and less time to launch and thus we may circumvent the security barriers America worked so hard to erect." They call this "the strategy of a thousand cuts. The aim is to bleed the enemy to death." The new strategy may show the influence of al Qaeda operations commander Saif al Adel, who until recently had safe haven in Iran, and who has long challenged al Qaeda's orthodoxy favoring "big bang" attacks.

Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks proves short-lived

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112400488.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

This is going to become the kiss of Death. ~Bob. Excerpt: Senate Republicans' ban on earmarks - money included in a bill by a lawmaker to benefit a home-state project or interest - was short-lived. Only three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe's water rights claim against the government. Kyl slipped the measure into a larger bill sought by President Barack Obama and passed by the Senate on Friday to settle claims by black farmers and American Indians against the federal government. Kyl's office insists the measure is not an earmark, and the House didn't deem it one when it considered a version earlier this year.

Live Ammo Found in Seat Back Pocket of Southwest Flight

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/live-ammo-found-in-seat-back-pocket-of-southwest-flight/19732315?a_dgi=aolshare_email

So that’s where I left it. Damn stuff is hard to track. ~Bob. Excerpt: In preparation for landing, please bring your seat backs and tray tables to the upright position, stow away all carry-on luggage, and remove any live ammunition from the seat back pocket in front of you. In the midst of a national freak out over TSA "we might touch your junk" pat-downs, somehow a child on a Southwest flight to Phoenix knocked a loaded gun magazine from the seat pocket in front of him, according to Gregg Canes, a CNN photographer who was on the flight.

The Virginity Capsule - Now for Sale

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/11/virginity-capsule-now-for-sale.html

Excerpt: We have discussed the phenomenon of hymen restoration surgery for Muslim women to appear more like virgins for their wedding night, and how it is illegal in many Arab countries. But since it can save the lives of many women who might be murdered by their new husbands, the procedure is even covered by British national health insurance. But now, there is a cheaper method. According to Elaph.com, a capsule is being sold in Arab communities in the Middle East - including in Israel - that is inserted vaginally before the wedding night. It then explodes, giving off a red dye that resembles blood, thus potentially saving the woman's life, as well as her reputation. Not bad for a few bucks.

Rallying Cry

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-culture/featured/6456128/part_3/rallying-cry-.thtml

Excerpt: At the root of all this is a terrible culture malaise. There’s a widespread belief — lovingly nurtured, daily, by the BBC — that if the government didn’t take ever greater chunks of our income and spend it on ‘vital’ areas like health and education, social injustice would prevail and the nation would go to hell in a handcart. Yet, as Durkin showed, this has not been the Hong Kong Chinese example. There, thanks to the groundwork of perhaps the 20th century’s most able and farsighted administrator — a British civil servant called John Cowperthwaite — Hong Kong has been run since the 1960s on impeccably classical liberal lines. The top rate of tax is 15 per cent; the poor don’t pay any. The economic growth it has experienced as a result has been spectacular, but not to the detriment of the poor (who remain perfectly well looked after) nor to public services such as the transport system (shinier, cleaner, vastly superior to our Moscow c.1950-style Underground because — true Arthur Laffer principles — low-tax regimes bring in more to the Exchequer than high-tax regimes.

U.S. aircraft carrier's arrival off Korean peninsula also sends a message to China

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112407028.html?wpisrc=nl_headline

Excerpt: In dispatching the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, the Obama administration said it was putting on a show of U.S. support for South Korea.

Canada won't attend Durban racism 'hatefest,' Kenney calls it 'charade'

http://beta.ca.news.yahoo.com/canada-wont-attend-durban-racism-hatefest-kenney-calls.html

Need this type strong leadership in the US. ~Bob. Excerpt: Canada will not attend a United Nations conference on racism next year, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Thursday. "Our government has lost faith in the Durban process," Kenney told a news conference. "Canada will not participate in this charade. We will not lend our good name to this Durban hatefest. "Canada is clearly committed to the fight against racism, but the Durban process commemorates an agenda that actually promotes racism rather than combats it."

Remember That Crazed “Tea Partier” Whose Threats Led to Lockdown of 300 Schools and Resignation of Joyce Kaufman as Allen West’s Chief-of-Staff?

http://weaselzippers.us/2010/11/25/remember-that-crazed-tea-partier-whose-threats-led-to-lockdown-of-300-schools-and-resignation-of-joyce-kaufman-as-allen-wests-chief-of-staff/

Excerpt: The woman charged by the FBI with making a threat that led to the lockdown of more than 300 Broward County schools after hearing the words of right-wing talker Joyce Kaufman isn’t a member of the Tea Party — she’s a member of the Green Party.