Do Obama and Hillary Make Jimmy Look Better?

The field has finally narrowed to two Democrat candidates - Obama and Clinton. It has been a bruising campaign. Even delegates from Florida and Michigan have been excluded because of internal party rules. The quip by Will Rogers rings truer with the passing of each day. When asked whether he belonged to an organized political party he said no, he was a Democrat.

Upon closer examination Obama and Clinton are very similar in their approach to our nation's many problems. Neither believe individuals can or should lift themselves by their own boot straps. Both believe government and/or villages are best suited to help and/or raise individuals. Both have secure Liberal voting records, Obama being even more to the Left than Hillary. Their recent proposals for additional regulatory actions are almost parallel. Both want to bring the troops home, both want to raise taxes and both believe "fairness" is what democracy is all about. Roosevelt gave us a great deal of fairness. We are still paying for it.

If Obama and Clinton's policies are similar then, except for their opposite gender, one must look to distinguishing personal traits and characteristics. When one does, except for skin color, they seem fairly "cloned" in this regard as well. Obama struggles with telling the truth and Hillary seldom does. Both are light on executive experience so they have concocted stories that make them bigger than they are. Obama struggles with the Rev. Wright albatross and Hillary is constantly shadowed by her husband's history of an unzipped mouth and trousers.

Both would have us believe their judgement is sound. Obama asks not to be judged by his associations and Hillary constantly asks not to be judged her by her failures.

Then what is left to base one's decision? In Obama's case it is his cadenced empty oratory and in Hillary's, her teary plea about being picked on by aggressive males.

One would hope that a major political party could flush up better candidates but pandering to and controlled by their extreme is why Democrats are in their current dilemma.

As for the Republicans, they have selected a candidate who does not satisfy their extreme. Thus, he is having a hard time raising money, making decisions that do not further alienate his base knowing full well he must capture the middle to win. Recent revelations about Rev. Wright has surely driven many independents into McCain's arms and Hillary's bizarre behaviour, high negatives and inability to tell the truth has begun to sour even her most devoted. It has finally become politically correct to "diss" the Clinton's. I thought I would never live to see the day!

Can McCain capitalize remains the unanswered question?

McCain may not be the choice I would have preferred but when set against the Democrats' two "burnt and bruised offerings," McCain looks better each day. Were the phone to ring at 3AM and were either Obama or Clinton to answer, I would hope they would not hear because after listening to them incessantly at all hours I am completely turned off.

Even Jimmy Carter is beginning to look good in comparison.

Perhaps somewhat over the top to make a point but stop and think about the many subliminal messages Far Left Liberals send and want you to embrace:

Love government, hate WalMart

Love unions, despise corporations

Worship Socialism, distrust Capitalism

Respect trial attorneys, suspect business executives

Welcome rules and regulations,encumber free markets

Love the poor, hate the rich

Embrace Pelosi and Reid, reject Neo-cons

Believe our Allies, doubt GW

Protect terrorist's right to privacy, sue telephone companies

Save domestic jobs, restrict global trade

Go green, don't develop indigenous resources

Complain about gasoline prices, don't build refineries

Believe Al Gore, disregard scientific evidence

Worship the New York Times, sneer at religion

Accept political correctness, curb free speech

Increase taxes, decrease competitiveness

Mock Cheney, ignore Rev. Wright and Michelle Obama

Everything is relative, there are no absolutes

Multi-culturism in, nationalism out

I could go on but I hope by now you get the point. I admit I have stretched to make you aware of the many inconsistencies of far Left thinking, how it, all too often, defies logic and is quite anti-reality. Extremes in one direction beget counter extremes. Over the years we have turned centrality into barbell government. This is why, in my opinion, the political scene has become so rancorous, contentious and so out of touch with where most people mentally and philosophically reside. The many issues facing any society are complex and are made more so by its non--homogeneity. Therefore, we must still consider America to be a challenged experiment.

This is certainly what Sen. Obama wants us to think about. I do not believe he has the correct prescription but I give him high marks for bringing it to the fore. Though I am sure he would not have done so had he not been compelled by the revelations of his minister.

This in part, I believe, explains why we have become more disunited. When you fail to love your country, disbelieve its motives and express contempt for its leaders, it is little wonder you become despised by others who also resent your success. Our allies may feign outward concern but they cheer inwardly when we are on our knees partly because of jealousy but mostly because, subconsciously, they fear they see themselves.

Abbas may have had his own reasons for his harsh rhetoric and lies in Damascus. If Abbas was posturing and throwing down the gauntlet to the Israelis, it will not make Sec. Rice's job easier. She is in the Middle East for trilateral talks between the Palestinians and Israelis. (See 1 below.)

Dutch film maker and member of their Parliament releases a film deriding Islam at the risk of his life and his first attacker is the U.N.'s Sec. General,Moon. (See 2 below.)

Sarah Honig does not find Swiss chocolate appealing nor their recent gas deal with Iran. (See 3 below.)

1)Abbas’ virulent anti-Israel rhetoric in Damascus greets Rice’s arrival to promote peace mission


US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tel Aviv Saturday night for a three-day push to breathe life into the fading Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations. She plans to join sessions between foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia and talks between defense minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, a trilateral format representing the first direct US intervention in the peace process.

At the Arab League summit in Damascus, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of collective punishment against the Palestinian people and called on the Arabs and international community to help protect them.

Likud parliamentary leader Gideon Saar called his words a resounding slap on the face to prime minister Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and President Peres who advocate concessions to the PA such as the transfer of side-arms.

He said unilateral concessions jeopardize Israel’s security and distance the prospect of peace.

The Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi declared that Israel’s retreat to 1967 borders was not enough. Does Palestine consist only of Gaza and the West Bank? he asked. He demanded a “unified popular Palestinian state” and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes.

2) Fitna the movie defeating Islamic censorship
By Andrew Walden

Nothing makes people want to see something more than banning it, or even better yet, telling them they may not be able to handle it (remember the Blair Witch Project?). On that basis, the new film Fitna, must be pulling in internet viewers by the tens of millions.

Everyone who's anyone in the "world community", from the Dutch Prime Minister to the OIC to the EU to the UN, is telling the world this is mighty hateful stuff.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is denouncing the internet premier of Fitna, claiming,

"The right of free expression is not at stake here,"


But Ban seems to imply there may be limits,

"...there is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence."


Oddly he was talking about the movie, not the Islamic violence portrayed in it, or that which is feared in response to it. In doing so, Ban places the UN at the head of the Islamic mobs which do indeed put the right of free expression at stake here.

Fitna, Arabic for "strife" or "disturbance", is the work of filmmaker and Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders. Wilders point is clear: Islamist terror is neither a distortion nor a departure from Koranic teaching. Terrorists are following the instructions of the Koran to the letter.

Unable to find a Dutch television channel brave enough to play the video, Wilders went to the internet. But even the internet-based world premier of Fitna was temporarily blocked by fearful Internet registrar Network Solutions. This is the first time any website has been peremptorily removed from the allegedly free-flowing internet. But after its producers found another web host willing to stand up to Islamist retaliation, Fitna is finally available on-line.

View Fitna here in English. If this site is disabled go to this link to find a new viewing location.

Within two hours, 1.5 million people had viewed it in either English or Dutch. By the time you read this, who knows?

In producing Fitna, Wilders follows in the footsteps of Theo van Gogh. The great-grandsonof Vincent van Gogh's brother (the movie Vincent & Theo was about the brothers), Theo was brutally shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street November 3, 2004. This was in retaliation for directing the short feature video Submission, which focuses on Koranic instructions for violence against women.

His murderer was a Muslim who impaled a manifesto of Koranic verses complaining about Van Gogh's movie to his chest. After the director's murder, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the writer of Submission, was eventually stripped of her seat in the Dutch Parliament and forced into exile by the Dutch government. Following in the footsteps of an earlier generation of European exiles, she is now living in the United States with a position at the American Enterprise Institute.

You can view Submission here. (It appears that part 2 is missing, however).

Release of Fitna is causing panic in Dutch political circles. Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende says Wilders' movie "threatens the nation."

Wrong.

It is Islamic violence which threatens Holland and all of Europe. Exactly as in the 1930s, it is the weakness of European leaders which allows the threat to grow. Just as the League of Nations refused to stand up to fascism in pre-WW2 Europe, the United Nations grovels before Islam today.

But they do more that grovel. Out of fear they have actually taken up the work of Islam and are enforcing the Islamic law against "blasphemy" while the Islamists stand by approvingly. The role of the world's leaders of Liberal Democracy in enforcing Islamic Law echoes the Koranic description of Armageddon (al-Malhamah al-Kubrah in Arabic). In it, Jesus returns to Earth at Damascus, becomes a Muslim and leads the Muslims in slaughtering all the Christians and Jews. As the Hadith explains;

"When the liar [the Christian enemies of Islam] will see Jesus, he will start dissolving like the salt in water."


Apparently the Islamists expect that civil libertarians will similarly "dissolve" in the face of their leaders' treachery.

Likewise, the Dutch Islamic Federation is so far avoiding street action or assassination and instead is going after Wilders in the courts, hoping to see that the Dutch and possibly European Union judiciary will serve Islam by jettisoning free speech and enforcing Islamic law. They demand a 50,000 Euro ($79,000) daily fine. Under Dutch "hate speech" laws, the Court very well may do just that. The expulsion of Ayaan Hirsi Ali was more satisfying than the murder of Theo van Gogh. The gradual bankrupting and then likely expulsion of Wilders would be equally satisfying. He will serve as an example to others.

Dutch protesters are also serving Islam, 3000 staging a March 22 street demonstration to denounce the movie (which they had not yet seen) and distance Holland from it. In Mumbai, India dozens performed civil disobedience, accepting arrest to protest the film. A statement issued by the World Muslim Congress emphasized how many Hindus and Christians were willing to do Islam's work for it.

Meanwhile Muslims are feigning outrage at Wilders' assertion that Islamic violence is rooted in the Koran and are still promising to riot. The Grand Mufti of Syria has determined that Wilders will be solely responsible for all the carnage -- an assertion apparently echoed by the Dutch government, the UN and by street demonstrators.

The Grand Mufti did not clarify whether current world-wide Islamic riots would be stopped in order to commence new riots over the movie -- or if the existing conflagrations will simply be re-branded and re-directed by local Islamic leaders.

But as yet -- 24 hours later -- there have been no apparent orchestrated outbreaks of violence. Islam may wish to watch the spectacle of the once-mighty Western Powers jettisoning their basic beliefs in order to submit to the will of Islam. Nothing better shows potential jihadis just how weak and decadent their enemy has become. No better terrorist recruitment tool exists.

Wilders is risking his life in order to bring this message to the world. To view it and even more important -- to publicly show it -- defeats the Islamist claim that the West, unlike some of its leaders, is prepared to submit to Islam.

3) Another Tack: No Swiss surprise
By SARAH HONIG

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her urbane entourage are reportedly stunned by neutral Switzerland's hardly neutral multi-billion-dollar gas deal with Iran. No sooner had new Swiss ambassador Walter Haffner presented his credentials here last week than he faced a dressing-down by the ministerial Western European Desk chief.

It goes without saying that nothing less than a major upset could have elicited such uncharacteristic ferocity from Tzipi's tame sticklers for protocol. Wringing their hands in disbelief, Israel's diplomats moaned that Switzerland had "sold its principles" for cold, hard cash.

But that's a silly complaint. Switzerland could no more have sold its principles than it could have sold its soul to the devil. For all its syrupy sanctimony, it has no principles - much less a soul. Switzerland is no rookie at playing footsie for profit with genocidal tyrants, especially the sort not overly enamored of Jews.

It has long aspired to match its Alpine chocolate-box prettiness with claims of lofty moral beauty. Neutrality is but one expression of its self-ascribed virtue. The Red Cross is another. Founded and based in Geneva, its stated mission is to alleviate suffering regardless of nationality, race, religion, class or politics. Its passivity - if not far worse - toward European Jewry's bitter fate during the Holocaust is a matter of indisputable record.

Already soon after WWI, goody-goody Switzerland experienced great angst about a dreaded Jewish influx, dubbed at the time uberjudung (over-Judaization). The Swiss penchant for marking personal documents with "Js" or Stars of David was born then. It kicked into extra high-gear when German Jews began to desperately flee the increasingly ominous Third Reich. Compassionate Switzerland was so leery of admitting them that its vetting criteria meshed with Nazi racist designations.

SWITZERLAND'S immigration policy studiously and shamelessly adhered to the letter of the Nuremberg laws. Visas were required of "non-Aryans" and, to erase any possible lingering doubts, Bern persuaded Berlin to stamp the passports of all departing Jews (even if they possessed Swiss citizenship) with a big, glaring red "J." The Swiss government itself publicly apologized for the J-stamp on March 8, 1995.

After the Final Solution was officially inaugurated at Wannsee in 1942, Switzerland closed off its borders altogether. This, judged the Swiss-ordained Independent Commission of Experts (ICE) in its 2002 report, "made it more difficult for refugees to reach safety, and by handing over the refugees caught directly to their persecutors, the Swiss authorities were instrumental in helping the Nazi regime attain its goals."

With no punches pulled, the above means nothing less than collaboration in mass-murder. The Swiss turned away tens of thousands of Jews, sending them to certain, cruel death. Their blood indelibly stains Switzerland's reputation.

Without even touching on the business of banking hanky-panky and greed-gratifying benefits reaped by Switzerland from the incomparable Jewish tragedy, Switzerland did well for itself via exports of war materials to Hitler's Germany, extending it credit, all manner of financial underpinning and loot-laundering services. All this time, Switzerland gloried in resplendent neutrality, which, in the oblique phrasing of the ICE report, was "inappropriately invoked to justify not only decisions made in all kinds of spheres, but also inaction on part of the state."

Clearly yesteryear's Swiss weren't excessively concerned even by the hypothetical risk of protracting the war. Their refrain back in the 1940s was almost identical to current Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey's assertion that "Switzerland is an independent country which has its own strategic interests to defend."

In other words, then as now, if there's a bundle to be made, Switzerland will without compunction trade with pathological Jew-haters - who inter alia also pose imminent danger to the entire free world. It betrayed helpless asylum-seekers and buttressed Hitler's economy despite his blaring threats to annihilate all Jews. Likewise, it helps fortify Ahmadinejad's economy despite his blaring threats to annihilate the Jewish state.

Calmy-Rey has never missed an opportunity to reproach Israel for "disproportionate" responses to any and all terrorist outrages. Concomitantly, she is exceedingly sparing in even the minutest display of sympathy for Israeli suffering. Her selective humanitarianism enables her to pooh-pooh Teheran's nuclear buildup, terror sponsorship and human rights abuses.

In the hallowed name of neutrality she mounted a pilgrimage to Iran to "witness" the signing of that momentous 25-year gas-supply contract. Sporting a sheer white headscarf - so as not to offend Ahmadinejad's famous sensibilities - she lent a higher profile, prestige and legitimacy to the occasion. Thumbing her nose at fellow western democracies, Calmy-Rey emboldens Ahmadinejad as even few of the more cynical appeasement-minded EU statesmen dare.

BY CALMY-REY'S reckoning, her personal stamp of approval alone suffices to justify and elevate any caprice to the moral high ground. She is the ultimate arbitrator of righteousness. In the name of superior Swiss rectitude, the hyperactive socialist pushed for "alternative negotiations" with Iran, promoted (and financed) the Meretz-brand Geneva Initiative and advocated that the Red Cross replace the verboten Star of David with a meaningless red "crystal." Her combination of guile and smile has made her one of her country's more popular politicos, to the extent that she was elected Swiss federal president for 2007. In that capacity she responded to Ahmadinejad's Holocaust-denial conference by proposing in the tactless spirit of her "active neutrality" that Switzerland host no less than an international symposium on "the varying perspectives of the Holocaust." Ahmadinejad was to be invited to voice his version, while Calmy-Rey was, presumably, to hold court as the upright impartial moderator.

Thankfully, the Swiss government was embarrassed enough to nip her notion in the bud. A pseudo-academic deliberation on whether the Holocaust ever took place would have been too discomfiting for the country that capitalized so unstintingly on the enormous Jewish bloodletting.
But no such unease limits lucrative commercial ties with the Middle East's Hitler wannabe. These remain as compelling as were the ultra-rewarding transactions with the original WWII-model Fuehrer. Hence Israeli shock is as preposterous as Livni's premise that other states share Israel's goal to isolate rogue regimes. This is no Swiss surprise. Just more of the same.