The United States Border Patrol is asking citizens to keep on the lookout for a red 1951 Chevy that they suspect is being used to smuggle illegal immigrants across the border from Mexico and into points along the U.S. border. If you see the vehicle, and have reason to believe that it is the suspect vehicle, you are urged to contact your local police department or the U. S. Border Patrol. A picture has been provided to help you better identify the vehicle. I hope you're keeping an eye open!!
This sent by a friend while I was away. (See 1 below.)
I am amazed that our president, who walks on water, is given a free ride by the press and media when it comes to oil spills. The MNS has been an ineffective agency for years and it is our own government that is as much to blame for the Gulf tragedy as was BP .
Had GW been president the howls would be deafening.
Obama, as is his usual style, has attacked BP just as he has attacked Wall Street, fat cat executives, Goldman Sachs, Israel, Netanyahu and the list is starting to become endless.
We need to drill for oil, we need to reduce our energy dependency. Obama knows how to whip up the uniformed but, in the long run, like Gore it will prove hollow and empty. (See 1a below.)
---
I got the distinct impression from my recent visit to Europe that Obama is loved because he is weak like the Europeans are. He is one of them.
I will develop this theme further and post as a separate LTE. (See 2 below.)
---
Being away helps to clear one's head and give one the chance for a new perspective.
However, when it comes to Roubini's thinking, I tend to agree and have been writing pretty much the same view, ie. still in the eye of the hurricane, second edge starting to hit as Europe pulls in its horns and inevitably so will we. First an attempt at getting out sized spending under control leading to weakening economic activity and deflation. Then the politicians will become frightened by what they are achieving and will re-inflate.
Not ever sure I am right but this is what is rumbling rund my addled brain. (See 3 below.)
---
First, failed policies that place solutions outside our grasp then, second, comes the need to shift blame. I've seen it many times.
Carter's weak and inept handling of the Iran situation followed by Clinton 's failure to grasp the growing menace from radical Islamism. Then GW's empty boasts followed by Obama's flacidness and we have a looming disaster in the making which hawkish Ralph Peters sees clearly. (See 4 below.)
---
From a dear friend and someone who deeply cares about our nation.:
I am totally conflicted by sending out this article- on the one hand- for years Jews and Blacks could not build in many parts of major cities- and I am a member of a primarily Jewish Golf Club up north because there was no way Jews would be allowed to be members of golf clubs, when our club was built. But this is 2010 and that is not the case for either Jews or Blacks- or anyone else. Proudly, both blacks and non-Jews are now members(as Martin Luther King - not by the color of there skin- but the content of there character)
Having said that- I am stunned at the insensitivity of the board that approved a mosque directly across from ground zero. Call me muslimphobic-and I think I might be- but until I hear loudly(like our Jewish communities constant criticism of Israel(even when I believe they are wrong)- it is that ability to speak out against that which you believe which makes this country great. I believe those Muslims who want to live in this great country should have the same rights as all other Americans- but with those rights come responsibilities. If the Muslim community cannot understand how painful this would be to those who lost love one's on 9/11 shame on them. I was personally stunned to read about this mosque - and unfortunately- the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is gaining in this country. Political correctness has gone too far. (See 5 below.)
---
I am not one to embrace conspiratorial thinking but I commend Daniel Greenfield's article and find it closer to the truth than not.
He connects some dots in ways I am not pre-disposed but I share his thinking regarding the end game. (See 6 below.)
---
Obama and the unions are incestuous partners. (See 7 below.)
---
A 'dummy 'president who actually is the one pulling our strings. (See 8 below.)
---
Eric Johnson, who I am supporting for Governor , is no dummy. (See 9 below.)
---
Dick
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1)Thoughts on Gorism
From the Sanctimonious to the Ridiculous
I think sometime this year elite radical environmentalism died. And at about the same time perished also the notion of the man in the mansion as the man on the barricades. Let me explain.
Gorism
We all know that Al Gore has become a near billionaire through tirelessly warning the Western world that our daily habits have ruined the planet and nearly doomed us. Gore argues that what we take for granted — the too large homes in which we live, the carbon-spewing cars that we drive, the superfluous vacations and energy-hogging appurtenances that we enjoy — are all pernicious to the environment, and unsustainable.
That advocacy — expressed through investments, partnerships, advertising, movies, lectures, books, private companies, ads, and essays — has made Al Gore fabulously wealthy. The recent Climategate scandal concerning fudged science did not affect the religion of Gore, LTD.
Nor did the horrendous natural ash cloud that blanketed Europe — and in unprecedented fashion shut down all European air travel for days — remind a humbled Gore that sometimes nature in a second has the destructive power to alter the very way we live in a way that man does not over decades.
No, what ended the gospel of Gorism was Al Gore himself.
In this context, the recently purchased Gore second mansion at Montecito, in Oprah country, is of some national interest. Why would Gore purchase a second energy-guzzling estate, replete with several fireplaces, fountains and bathrooms, when he was stung so badly about his hypocritically profligate energy use in his Tennessee compound, his houseboat, and his private-jet junketeering? Does he understand that his newest mansion is a sort of volcanic ash-cloud that has now overwhelmed Earth in the Balance, Inc?
Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
The answer is sort of important, because it is emblematic of the decline of liberalism over the last thirty years. Collate the anti-capital rants of a zillionaire currency speculator George Soros, the green sermons from a late Ted Kennedy who stopped a wind farm from marring his vacation home’s views, a John Edwards of “two nations” fame constructing a Neronian Golden House, a Tom Friedman warning of the consumer habits that lead to a hot, flat earth from a 10,000 square foot English-style estate of the sort that 18th-century English barons built after successful careers in the Raj, the comic case of Jeremiah Wright moving to a mostly white golf course to dream up more sermons about “white folks’ greed runs a world in need,” or a $5 million a year earning Obama — with all his expenses picked up by the government — lamenting out loud why rich people seem to want ever more money they don’t need. Some spread the wealth around.
We can call this malady Gorism — living not merely at odds with your zealotry, but living entirely against your zealotry — and it seems to reflect a few assumptions of the modern progressive elite that are not mutually exclusive:
a) Penances and Indulgences. A life professed spectacularly at odds with one lived seems a psychological mechanism akin to medieval penance. The sinner finds exculpation through loud confession of, or material payment for, his sins. And the payment is not just for past hypocrisies, but works preemptively — in the expectation of present and future enjoyments to come once the pay-as-you-go formula is established: one new docudrama about a polar bear trapped on a melting ice shelf, one new mansion in and about Santa Barbara.
The more spectacularly Mr. Gore’s veins bulge, the more he hits the high notes with “digital brownshirts” and “he lied to us!,” and the more he weeps over shrinking ice caps and coastlines on the rise, the more these manors — and others to come — become morally acceptable. In other words, gallantly bearing the environmental cross more than earns the Gores’ hot tub and Pacific view. By now, given the decade of Gore’s indulgences, I think he can do just about whatever he pleases and still enter the green fields of Elysium.
b) The Guardian Mystique. Plato’s Guardians at least took on some sort of sacrifice as the price to dictate to others. Our new ones do not. Al Gore has convinced himself that if he is to triple his productivity on our behalf, he really must, from time to time, endure a ride on a private, carbon-spewing jet — to ensure that there are fewer carbon-spewing jets.
1a)Frustration mounts as oil seeps into Gulf wetlands
By GREG BLUESTEIN
ROBERT, La. – Anger grew along the Gulf Coast as an ooze of oil washed into delicate coastal wetlands in Louisiana, with many wondering how to clean up the monthlong mess — especially now that BP's latest try to plug the blown-out well won't happen until at least Tuesday.
"It's difficult to clean up when you haven't stopped the source," said Chris Roberts, a councilman for Jefferson Parish, which stretches from the New Orleans metropolitan area to the coast. "You can scrape it off the beach but it's coming right back."
Roberts surveyed the oil that forced officials to close a public beach on Grand Isle, south of New Orleans, as globs of crude that resembled melted chocolate washed up. Others questioned why BP PLC was still in charge of the response.
"The government should have stepped in and not just taken BP's word," declared Wayne Stone of Marathon, Fla., an avid diver who worries about the spill's effect on the ecosystem.
The government is overseeing the cleanup and response, but the official responsible for the oversight said he understands the discontent.
"If anybody is frustrated with this response, I would tell them their symptoms are normal, because I'm frustrated, too," said Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen. "Nobody likes to have a feeling that you can't do something about a very big problem."
As simple as it may seem, the law prevents the government from just taking over, Allen said. After the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, Congress dictated that oil companies be responsible for dealing with major accidents — including paying for all cleanup — with oversight by federal agencies.
BP, which is in charge of the cleanup, said it will be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot mud into the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf, yet another delay in the effort to stop the oil.
A so-called "top kill" has been tried on land but never 5,000 feet underwater, so scientists and engineers have spent the past week preparing and taking measurements to make sure it will stop the oil that has been spewing into the sea for a month. They originally hoped to try it as early as this weekend.
BP spokesman Tom Mueller said there was no snag in the preparations, but that the company must get equipment in place and finish tests before the procedure can begin.
"It's taking time to get everything set up," he said. "They're taking their time. It's never been done before. We've got to make sure everything is right."
Crews will shoot heavy mud into a crippled piece of equipment atop the well, which started spewing after the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers. Then engineers will direct cement at the well to permanently stop the oil.
BP, which was leasing the rig and is responsible for the cleanup, has tried and failed several times to halt the oil.
Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Friday that a mile-long tube inserted into the leaking pipe is sucking about 92,400 gallons of oil a day to the surface, a figure much lower than the 210,000 gallons a day the company said the tube was sucking up Thursday. Suttles said the higher number is the most the tube has been sucking up at any one time, while the lower number is the average.
Crews have been using oil-soaking booms to corral the spill, and BP said Saturday that booms made of hair would not be used because they don't absorb enough oil and sink too quickly.
The company has conceded that more oil is leaking than its initial estimate of 210,000 gallons a day total, and a government team is working to get a handle on exactly how much is flowing. Even under the most conservative estimate, about 6 million gallons have leaked so far, more than half the amount spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
On Saturday, the blossoming investigation into the spill progressed when President Barack Obama announced that former Florida Sen. Bob Graham and former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly will lead a presidential commission probing the spill.
Graham, a Democrat, is a former Florida governor and senator. Reilly ran the Environmental Protection Agency under Republican President George H.W. Bush. His tenure at the agency included the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Obama intends to name five others to the panel.
Meanwhile, frustrated local and state officials were also waiting for the Army Corps of Engineers to issue permits so they can build sand berms in front of islands and wetlands to act as buffers between the advancing oil and the wetlands.
In a statement, corps spokesman Ken Holder said officials understand the urgency, but possible environmental effects must be evaluated before even an emergency permit can be issued.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry also took BP to task for not responding aggressively enough to oil coming ashore in Terrebonne Parish, La., to the west of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Public interest in the spill is high — after lawmakers pressed BP for a live video feed of the leak this week, so many people tried to view it that they crashed the government Web site where it was posted.
BP executives say the only guaranteed solution to stop the leak is a pair of relief wells crews have already started drilling, but the work will not be complete for at least two months.
That makes the stakes even higher for the top kill.
Scientists say there is a chance a misfire could lead to new problems. Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University professor of environmental studies, said the crippled piece of equipment called a blowout preventer could spring a new leak that could spew untold gallons of oil if there's a weak spot that is vulnerable to pressure from the heavy mud.
BP is also developing several other plans in case the top kill doesn't work, including an effort to shoot knotted rope, pieces of tire and other material — known as a junk shot — to plug the blowout preventer, which was meant to shut off the oil in case of an accident but did not work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)The fruits of weakness
By Charles Krauthammer
It is perfectly obvious that Iran's latest uranium maneuver, brokered by Brazil and Turkey, is a ruse. Iran retains more than enough enriched uranium to make a bomb. And it continues enriching at an accelerated pace and to a greater purity (20 percent). Which is why the French foreign ministry immediately declared that the trumpeted temporary shipping of some Iranian uranium to Turkey will do nothing to halt Iran's nuclear program.
It will, however, make meaningful sanctions more difficult. America's proposed Security Council resolution is already laughably weak -- no blacklisting of Iran's central bank, no sanctions against Iran's oil and gas industry, no nonconsensual inspections on the high seas. Yet Turkey and Brazil -- both current members of the Security Council -- are so opposed to sanctions that they will not even discuss the resolution. And China will now have a new excuse to weaken it further.
But the deeper meaning of the uranium-export stunt is the brazenness with which Brazil and Turkey gave cover to the mullahs' nuclear ambitions and deliberately undermined U.S. efforts to curb Iran's program.
The real news is that already notorious photo: the president of Brazil, our largest ally in Latin America, and the prime minister of Turkey, for more than half a century the Muslim anchor of NATO, raising hands together with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the most virulently anti-American leader in the world.
That picture -- a defiant, triumphant take-that-Uncle-Sam -- is a crushing verdict on the Obama foreign policy. It demonstrates how rising powers, traditional American allies, having watched this administration in action, have decided that there's no cost in lining up with America's enemies and no profit in lining up with a U.S. president given to apologies and appeasement.
They've watched President Obama's humiliating attempts to appease Iran, as every rejected overture is met with abjectly renewed U.S. negotiating offers. American acquiescence reached such a point that the president was late, hesitant and flaccid in expressing even rhetorical support for democracy demonstrators who were being brutally suppressed and whose call for regime change offered the potential for the most significant U.S. strategic advance in the region in 30 years.
They've watched America acquiesce to Russia's re-exerting sway over Eastern Europe, over Ukraine (pressured by Russia last month into extending for 25 years its lease of the Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol) and over Georgia (Russia's de facto annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is no longer an issue under the Obama "reset" policy).
They've watched our appeasement of Syria, Iran's agent in the Arab Levant -- sending our ambassador back to Syria even as it tightens its grip on Lebanon, supplies Hezbollah with Scuds and intensifies its role as the pivot of the Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas alliance. The price for this ostentatious flouting of the United States and its interests? Ever more eager U.S. "engagement."
They've observed the administration's gratuitous slap at Britain over the Falklands, its contemptuous treatment of Israel, its undercutting of the Czech Republic and Poland, and its indifference to Lebanon and Georgia. And in Latin America, they see not just U.S. passivity as Venezuela's Hugo Chávez organizes his anti-American "Bolivarian" coalition while deepening military and commercial ties with Iran and Russia. They saw active U.S. support in Honduras for a pro-Chávez would-be dictator seeking unconstitutional powers in defiance of the democratic institutions of that country.
This is not just an America in decline. This is an America in retreat -- accepting, ratifying and declaring its decline, and inviting rising powers to fill the vacuum.
Nor is this retreat by inadvertence. This is retreat by design and, indeed, on principle. It's the perfect fulfillment of Obama's adopted Third World narrative of American misdeeds, disrespect and domination from which he has come to redeem us and the world. Hence his foundational declaration at the U.N. General Assembly last September that "No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation" (guess who's been the dominant nation for the last two decades?) and his dismissal of any "world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another." (NATO? The West?)
Given Obama's policies and principles, Turkey and Brazil are acting rationally. Why not give cover to Ahmadinejad and his nuclear ambitions? As the United States retreats in the face of Iran, China, Russia and Venezuela, why not hedge your bets? There's nothing to fear from Obama, and everything to gain by ingratiating yourself with America's rising adversaries. After all, they actually believe in helping one's friends and punishing one's enemies.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)Roubini Predicts 20 Percent Stock Market Fall
By: Julie Crawshaw
New York University economist Nouriel Roubini says stocks will tumble another 20 percent, that cash is the safest place to be and that investors can use options to hedge against future market risk he is certain will come.
"There are some parts of the global economy that are now at the risk of a double-dip recession," Roubini says. "From here on I see things getting worse," says the head of Roubini Global Economics.
"What needs to be done is clear. We need to raise taxes and cut spending. Otherwise we're going to get a fiscal train wreck," he told CNBC. "It's going to take years of sacrifices."
WARNING: David Frazier Predicted Correction, Says Looming Market Crash Could Wipe Out Your Wealth.
A slowdown in the U.S. economy coupled with weakness in the euro zone will cause price drops in both stocks and commodities and leaving little room for growth in most investment classes, Roubini says.
"There is that risk because the problems on the macro level are first in the euro zone,” he observes. “Then in China there is evidence of economic slowdown ... Japan is in trouble and U.S. economic growth is going to slow down.”
“There is also regulatory risk because we don't know how financial reform is going to occur."
Other than cash, Roubini suggests investing in short-term government bonds of countries that don't have a serious debt problem, such as Germany and possibly Canada.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4)Dumping Israel
By Ralph Peters
'It's those damned Jews." That's the muffled message I hear when,
pretending to represent our national interest, voices call for the
abandonment of Israel.
We've heard it from agenda-driven scholars who write that our alliance
with Israel is responsible for our problems in the Middle East.
More worrisome still, I've begun to hear it from a minority of military
officers, as well as from Washington types.
This latest, and sadly lasting, bout of moral cancer can be dated back
to 2006 and the publication of an article that had sought a home for
years, "The Israeli Lobby And US Foreign Policy," by professors
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.
The book's assault on Israel was welcomed by figures including
President Jimmy Carter's national-security adviser, Zbigniew
Brzezinski -- a hoary Israel detractor. With their Ivy League
credentials, Mearsheimer and Walt made anti-Israeli diatribes
(semi-)respectable. Their effect has been lasting.
OK, let's get one thing straight: There is no evidence that if Israel
disappeared tomorrow, the Middle East would suddenly blossom into
a pro-American model of justice, hard work and progress.
Nor is there any evidence that anti-American terrorism would slacken.
In al Qaeda's list of complaints, Israel barely makes the top dozen.
A US turn away from Israel would only encourage and empower
terrorists, convincing them of our cowardice and folly.
The grotesquely failed societies of the Middle East desperately need
Israel and the US to blame for their self-wrought problems.
Neither Washington nor Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are responsible for
the Arab world's pervasive corruption, stagnation, oppression of
women and lack of creativity or a work ethic.
Neither the US nor Israel is to blame for the unprecedented
squandering of wealth by Arab oil powers, for their failure to invest
in human capital or productive infrastructure, for the absence of
democracy and respect for human rights, or for the region's mockery
of the rule of law.
Given the vast homemade tragedy of the greater Middle East,
it's inevitable that Israel's hated for its shining success amid the
local squalor. Likewise, the US is hated for our might -- and the
seductiveness of our civilization.
But if that explains why Arabs, Persians and others would relish,
but not reward, our abandonment of Israel, it doesn't explain the
American voices repeating Arab propaganda about devious Jews
controlling our foreign policy.
I divide the dump-Israel movement's leaders and fellow travelers into
four groups:
Old-fashioned anti-Semites: It's no longer socially acceptable to
accuse Jews of sacrificing Christian infants. But it's quite fashionable
to blame Israelis for the suffering of Palestinian children. One doesn't
mention "Jews." But calumnies against "Israelis" are the new,
politically correct blood libel.
Academics: It's more than simply the juvenile leftism that diseases
liberal-arts faculties. This is also a financial transaction. Massive Arab
gifts and endowments have turned many of our "leading" universities
into intellectual brothels.
President Obama's left-wing base: From the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's
congregation to the administration's "social activists," this bunch long
has accepted as gospel the notion that Palestinian terrorists are
"freedom fighters" while Israelis are "fascists." Don't try to reason with
them -- this really is their "gospel."
Military officers: I take this one personally. While only a sliver of the
officer corps mumbles about Israel's purported negative effect on our
regional policy, this is nonetheless an alarming development.
I read this uniformed lunacy as a schizophrenic reaction to a decade's
involvement in Iraq.
On one hand, extended first-hand experience of Arab culture has not
filled our troops with respect for the same (any officer who had
fairy-tale, Lawrence-of-Arabia notions about the region has had
them extinguished, to put it mildly). Yet the daily drone of Arab
complaints about Israel -- blamed for every Arab misfortune back to
the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols -- has had a cumulative
effect. Criticism takes the form of "A plague on both their houses."
I ask the gripers categorized above for any evidence that our betrayal
of Israel would have the slightest positive effect. The Saudis wouldn't
even drop the price of oil for 24 hours.
Go back to the bordello side of all this: Wealthy Arabs have bought a
great deal of influence in Washington, lavishing money on think tanks,
contracts on US firms and expensive gifts on individuals. (A few years
back, one American "authority" on the Middle East delightedly told me
that he'd been given five Rolexes.)
In contrast to these ingratiating, deep-pocketed Arabs, Israelis are
brusque and dismissive, relying on American Jews to smooth things
over. Well, sorry, Israel needs to rediscover public relations.
With the global media rabidly pro-Palestinian, Israel had better get
back in the information fight.
The recent attacks on Israel that masquerade as sober analysis boil
down to the age-old anti-Semitic query: "Wouldn't we better off without
those Jews?"
My answer, as an American, is "No."
Ralph Peters' latest book is "Endless War."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5)Mosque to go up near New York's ground zero
By Nicole Bliman, CNN
The mosque project has gotten mixed reviews from families and friends of 9/11 victims.
New York Plans to build a mosque two blocks away from ground zero have set off an emotional debate among area residents and relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Cordoba House project calls for a 15-story community center including a mosque, performance art center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.
The project is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, both of which work to improve relations with followers of the religion.
The two groups presented their vision to part of the Community Board of lower Manhattan on Wednesday night.
Ro Sheffe, a board member who attended the meeting, said the project did not need to get the board's approval.
"They own the land, and their plans don't have any zoning changes," Sheffe said. "They came to us for our opinions and to let us know their plans. It was purely voluntary on their part."
The 12 members who were at the meeting voted unanimously to support the project. Community board members are appointed by the borough president and serve as advisers to the borough president and the mayor's office.
Daisy Khan, executive director of the Muslim society, described her vision of a center led by Muslims, but serving the community as a whole.
"It will have a real community feel, to celebrate the pluralism in the United States, as well as in the Islamic religion," Khan said. "It will also serve as a major platform for amplifying the silent voice of the majority of Muslims who have nothing to do with extremist ideologies. It will counter the extremist momentum."
The need for the center is twofold, Khan said, because it will support the needs of the growing Muslim community.
"The time for a center like this has come because Islam is an American religion," Khan said. "We need to take the 9/11 tragedy and turn it into something very positive."
Sheffe said a community center for lower Manhattan residents is "desperately needed." The area was mostly commercial, Sheffe said, but as more people move downtown, the lack of residential amenities is a problem.
The project got mixed reviews from families and friends of September 11 victims.
"I think it's the right thing to do," said Marvin Bethea, who was a paramedic at ground zero. "I lost 16 friends down there. But Muslims also got killed on 9/11. It would be a good sign of faith that we're not condemning all Muslims and that the Muslims who did this happened to be extremists. As a black man, I know what it's like to be discriminated against when you haven't done anything."
Herbert Ouida, whose son was killed in the attacks, supports the project as a way to bridge cultural divide.
"I understand the anger, the bitterness and hatred, but it only generates more hatred," Ouida said. "Such a large part of the world has this faith, and to say anyone who has this faith is a terrorist, it's terrible."
Others decried the idea of building a mosque so close to where their relatives died.
"Lower Manhattan should be made into a shrine for the people who died there," said Michael Valentin, a retired city detective who worked at ground zero. "It breaks my heart for the families who have to put up with this. I understand they're [building] it in a respectful way, but it just shouldn't be down there."
Others such as Barry Zelman said the site's location will be a painful reminder.
"[The 9/11 terrorists] did this in the name of Islam," Zelman said. "It's a sacred ground where these people died, where my brother was murdered, and to be in the shadows of that religion, it's just hypocritical and sacrilegious. "
However, Khan emphasized that the attacks killed Muslims, too.
"Three hundred of the victims were Muslim, that's 10 percent of the victims," she said. "We are Americans too. The 9/11 tragedy hurt everybody including the Muslim community. We are all in this together and together we have to fight against extremism and terrorism."
Cordoba House is still in its early stages of development. The American Society for Muslim Advancement is hoping to raise funds for the center to be completed in three to five years.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6)Obama's Plan to Destroy Israel
By Daniel Greenfield
If there's one thing that the Carter Administration can be given credit for, it's creating the new wave of Islamist terrorism, both Sunni, operating out of Afghanistan, and Shiite, operating out of Iran. The Carter Administration cracked down on Israel and put its "faith" in Muslim terrorists, who then went on to wage war on America, even while Carter was in office. 28 years after Carter was removed from office, we're in reruns again with the Obama Administration, which is not only following the Carter line, but whose plans greatly exceed it.
28 years ago, Wahhabi Sunni and Shiite terrorists were generally an afterthought when compared to the standard
Iran is to be our new best friend under this arrangement, Israel is to be our new best enemy.
USSR backed Marxist terrorist groups, such as the PLO.
Today, thanks in part to the Carter Administration, they control several countries and have designs on several more. From Pakistan to Afghanistan, from Gaza to Lebanon, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia, the threat is very real and bigger than ever particularly as the race by both Sunni and Shiite groups to build and deploy nuclear weapons continues.
Like Carter before him, Obama has chosen to cut backdoor deals with the Mullahs in Iran, offering them power over Iraq and Afghanistan, in exchange for quieting things down enough to let him hang up a Mission Accomplished banner and pull the troops out. "Peace with honor", preferably before the next election. The rape law for Shiites in Afghanistan, the push for a US funded Hamas/Fatah Unity government in the territories and the rising expansion of the Taliban are all fruits of this arrangement.
If Iran is to be our new best friend under this arrangement, Israel is to be our new best enemy.
Obama stacked the deck by deploying Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in a position that gave her an important title, but absolutely no power to go with it, while stacking the National Security Council and even the Pentagon with oil appointees in the pockets of the Saudis or his own left wing radical friends.
Israel electing a conservative government really put the ball into play, freeing up even more resources for attacking Israel. The strategy runs something like this.
The Obama Administration has broken down the Israel problem into two subsections, Israel itself, and American Jews.
Obama's people have studied the problem and understand where Carter went wrong. Obama does not want to have the same image problems as Carter in the Jewish community. Should that happen, the Beloved Leader and his lapdog press are fully prepared to unleash a Chavez style hate-on targeting American Jews. But that would be inconvenient and messy. Even with the changing face of America, there are significant differences between the average American and European or Venezuelan, and what kind of ugliness they are willing to tolerate. So Obama's people have split their attention in handling the two factors as two different problems.
American Jews - Obama has been clever about putting his Jewish appointees front and center. Like many minorities, some American Jews suffer from self-esteem problems that are soothed when they see a seeming acceptance. Of course what they fail to realize is that exploitation is not acceptance. And that Obama's appointees are creatures of his backers, Nazi collaborators like Soros, who have nothing but contempt for Jews, individually or collectively.While outwardly courting Jews, Obama's people have also been quietly shoving Jewish organizations and their leaders into a corner. Within the Jewish organizational world there has been a silent but deadly takeover of major Jewish groups by left wing radicals. Former alumni of the far left wing and anti-Israel groups like Breira or Coname in the 70's have been elevated to key positions in such organizations as the UJA Federation. Behind the scenes any Jewish leaders who expressed even doubts about Obama during the primaries
Much as with conservatives, a list has been drawn up of those figures who can be won over, and those who cannot. The ones who can be won over are described as "moderates", the ones who cannot be won over are described as "extremists".
Meanwhile a bevvy of left wing Jewish In Name Only groups have been organized to play their part. Key among them is the Soros funded J Street, a group created as an anti-Israel lobby meant to eventually replace AIPAC. Meanwhile AIPAC itself has been kept on the ropes with such things as the well timed Harman leak. The message once again is fairly clear, cooperate and keep quiet, or we'll destroy you.
The multi-layered approach to American Jews can then be summed up as follows;
1.) Co-opt existing Jewish organizations and swing them to the left using old school 70's leftists.
2.) Create new "progressive" organizations to appeal to a younger generation of ethnically Jewish youth detached from any actual identity. Have these organizations generate attacks on the Israeli government and pro-Israel Jews, while creating phony polls indicating that most American Jews are behind them and Obama.
3.) Silence and intimidate remaining Jewish organizations and leaders behind the scenes.
The overall idea is to keep a happy face pasted on American Jewry while the knives are out in the dark.
Israel - The basic understanding in the Obama Administration is that Israel Must Go. In the worldview of the more moderate Obama appointees, Israel is a destabilizing factor in the Middle East. To the more left wing Obama advisors, Israel is a Western imperialist colonialist state that must be destroyed in the name of revolutionary justice. To the Islamist mindset, Israel is a Kufir state that has no right to exist in the Dar Al Islam.While intractably hostile to Israel, the Obama Administration wants to avoid the kind of public confrontations that marked the Carter and Bush Sr administrations. Instead they would much rather model the way that the Clinton Administration waged a quiet war against Israel, removing one government, and forcing extensive concessions to terrorists, all the while keeping a happy face pasted on the whole affair.
On the one hand that means avoiding harsh public attacks on Israel, but keeping the pressure up for Israel to make extensive far reaching one sided concessions, to accept Saudi and Arab League "peace plans", to legitimize Hamas as the new government of the Palestinian Authority, and to insure that Israel does not reply to any rocket or terrorist attacks.
There are two forms of quiet leverage that the United States has on Israel, the first is financial and the second is military.
On the financial side, the goal will be to bring down the Netanyahu government coalition by destabilizing Israel economically. This is the surest and most direct path to bringing down Israel's conservative government and replacing it with a left of center coalition. The Obama Administration has a wide variety of tactics at its disposal for doing so, from the overt, such as targeting Israeli exports and imports, to the covert, that would involve targeting the Shekel. Additionally fundraising in the US could be investigated and groups such as the Jewish National Fund, prevented from raising money in the US. All of these have been in play before at one time or another.
On the military side, Obama's people will make their non-existent efforts to stop Iran's nukes conditional on more concessions to terrorists. Since Israel will never be able to make enough concessions and since Obama is working with Iran, rather than working to stop Iran's nukes, this is a hollow charade.
Furthermore while Israel has already been locked out of the military technology pipeline for anything cutting edge, it still remains dependent on US military equipment for parts and supplies. The decades of US foreign aid have also served to create dependency. Unlike many other countries, including even Sweden, Israel does not have its own jet fighter. Israel's Air Force is heavily dependent on US weapons, parts and equipment. Cutting Israel off, would leave the Israeli military dangerously vulnerable in the case of a war. This is an effective chokehold that has been used before to prevent Israel from attacking Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, as well as preventing Israel from carrying out a preemptive strike against its enemies before the Yom Kippur War.
The overall Obama policy will be to push Israel to the brink, using financial and military blackmail against the Netanyahu government, while maintaining control over American Jews to prevent any protests or backtalk. ...American Jewish groups will support Obama... some because they were created precisely for that purpose, and others because they have been hijacked, cowed or subverted.
The more Israel will offer, the more the Obama Administration will tighten the screws. No offer will be good enough, and Israel will be blamed for every breakdown in talks and every bit of violence that takes place. The media will portray Israel and particularly Netanyahu as extremist and intransigent. Hamas will be slowly whitewashed in the media, the same way that Arafat's goons were, (assuming that they prove more willing to cooperate in creating a positive media image of themselves than Ahmadinejad is.)
The plan is to destroy Israel, and to do it by pushing Israel to the edge of the cliff and then over the cliff. Israel's enemies will be getting top of the line US military equipment. Israel will not. Israel will be squeezed economically until the Netanyahu government collapses, leaving a weak left wing leader like Livni in charge of Israel, and in charge of acceding to the new Pharaoh's demands.
That is the game plan and some of it's coming. The rest is already here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7) Rule change favors unions at airlines, railroads
New rule makes union organizing easier at airline, railroad companies
By Sam Hananel
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a major victory for organized labor, unions will have an easier time signing up airline and railroad workers after the Obama administration Monday changed a 76-year-old rule on union elections.
The change is the most significant so far in a string of White House moves designed to boost unions, which are struggling to reverse years of decline in membership.
The new rule, announced by the three-member National Mediation Board, would recognize a union if a simple majority of workers who cast ballots approve organizing. The previous rule required a majority of the entire work force to favor unionizing. That meant workers choosing not to vote at all were effectively counted as "no" votes.
Airlines that fought the change say it will lead to more labor disputes that could disrupt commerce and increase delays in an industry already reeling from recession, higher fuel costs and stepped-up security measures.
The most immediate impact of the change would be at Delta Air Lines Inc., where unions are trying to organize about 20,000 flight attendants. Unions are also expected to target workers at smaller carriers, including Allegiant Air, JetBlue Airways, Republic Airways and SkyWest.
"We applaud the NMB for taking this historic and courageous step to bring democracy to union elections," said Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.
But the Air Transport Association, which represents most major airlines, is expected to file a lawsuit challenging the new rule.
"It is quite clear to us that the NMB was determined to proceed despite the proposed rule's substantive and procedural flaws, leaving us no choice but to seek judicial review," the industry group said in a statement.
The rule will take effect 30 days after publication Tuesday in the Federal Register. The flight attendants' union said it would seek a representation election at Delta soon afterward.
Proponents of the change say the old rule ran contrary to democratic standards, where the outcome of an election is determined by the majority of those who vote. The change puts union elections at airlines and railroads under the same procedures followed by most other companies, which are overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.
"After decades of operating within a system that is rigged against them, rail and aviation workers have at least gained a right that most of us take for granted," said Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department.
The board proposed the rule change in October after a request from the AFL-CIO. That request came soon after President Barack Obama named Linda Puchala -- the former head of a flight attendant union -- to a seat on the board, shifting the balance of power.
The final rule was approved 2-1, with chairwoman Elizabeth Dougherty issuing a fierce dissent. Dougherty, appointed by President George W. Bush, said the change is "an unprecedented departure for the NMB and represents the most dramatic policy shift in the history of the agency."
Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin said Delta would support an industry lawsuit challenging the rule change.
"While disappointed, we are not surprised by the majority members' decision in view of the way this rule change has been handled," Laughlin said.
Airlines and railroads employ more than 500,000 workers, and about two-thirds of those are already in unions. That's much higher than the overall union membership rate of 12 percent.
One exception to the higher rate of union representation is at Delta, where only about 15 percent of workers were union members before the carrier merged with heavily unionized Northwest Airlines two years ago. Unions representing flight attendants and ground workers who worked for Northwest want the new rules to cover elections at the combined carrier.
In a 2008 election, 5,253 Delta flight attendants voted to be represented by the AFA. But the union lost under the old election rules because the roughly 8,000 flight attendants who didn't vote were counted as "no" votes.
The new election rules will also help the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents Northwest ground workers such as baggage handlers and gate agents. Delta says it has roughly 30,000 workers in that group, including roughly 10,000 who came from Northwest.
AP Airlines Writer Joshua Freed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8)Wall Street Journal Sizes up Obama
By Eddie Sessions:
"I have this theory about Barack Obama. I think he's led a kind of make-believe life in which money was provided and doors were opened because at some point early on somebody or some group took a look at this tall, good looking, half-white, half-black, young man with an exotic African/Muslim name and concluded he could be guided toward a life in politics where his facile speaking skills could even put him in the White House.
In a very real way, he has been a young man in a very big hurry. Who else do you know has written two memoirs before the age of 45? "Dreams of My Father" was published in 1995 when he was only 34 years old. The "Audacity of Hope" followed in 2006. If, indeed, he did write them himself. There are some who think that his mentor and friend, Bill Ayers, a man who calls himself a "communist with a small 'c'" was the real author.
His political skills consisted of rarely voting on anything that might be deemed controversial. He went from a legislator in the Illinois legislature to the Senator from that state because he had the good fortune of having Mayor Daley's formidable political machine at his disposal.
He was in the U.S. Senate so briefly that his bid for the presidency was either an act of astonishing self-confidence or part of some greater game plan that had been determined before he first stepped foot in the Capital. How, many must wonder, was he selected to be a 2004 keynote speaker at the Democrat convention that nominated John Kerry when virtually no one had ever even heard of him before?
He outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton in primaries. He took Iowa by storm. A charming young man, an anomaly in the state with a very small black population, he oozed "cool" in a place where agriculture was the antithesis of cool. He dazzled the locals. And he had an army of volunteers drawn to a charisma that hid any real substance.
And then he had the great good fortune of having the Republicans select one of the most inept candidates for the presidency since Bob Dole. And then John McCain did something crazy. He picked Sarah Palin, an unknown female governor from the very distant state of Alaska . It was a ticket that was reminiscent of 1984's Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro and they went down to defeat.
The mainstream political media fell in love with him. It was a schoolgirl crush with febrile commentators like Chris Mathews swooning then and now over the man. The venom directed against McCain and, in particular, Palin, was extraordinary.
Now, over a full year into his first term, all of those gilded years leading up to the White House have left him unprepared to be President. Left to his own instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It swiftly became a joke that he could not deliver even the briefest of statements without the ever-present Tele-Prompters.
Far worse, however, is his capacity to want to "wish away" some terrible realities, not the least of which is the Islamist intention to destroy America and enslave the West. Any student of history knows how swiftly Islam initially spread. It knocked on the doors of Europe, having gained a foothold in Spain .
The great crowds that greeted him at home or on his campaign "world tour" were no substitute for having even the slightest grasp of history and the reality of a world filled with really bad people with really bad intentions.
Oddly and perhaps even inevitably, his political experience, a cakewalk, has positioned him to destroy the Democrat Party's hold on power in Congress because in the end it was never about the Party. It was always about his communist ideology, learned at an early age from family, mentors, college professors, and extreme leftist friends and colleagues.
Obama is a man who could deliver a snap judgment about a Boston police officer who arrested an "obstreperous" Harvard professor-friend, but would warn Americans against "jumping to conclusions" about a mass murderer at Fort Hood who shouted "Allahu Akbar." The absurdity of that was lost on no one. He has since compounded this by calling the Christmas bomber "an isolated extremist" only to have to admit a day or two later that he was part of an al Qaeda plot.
He is a man who could strive to close down our detention facility at Guantanamo even though those released were known to have returned to the battlefield against America . He could even instruct his Attorney General to afford the perpetrator of 9/11 a civil trial when no one else would ever even consider such an obscenity. And he is a man who could wait three days before having anything to say about the perpetrator of yet another terrorist attack on Americans and then have to elaborate on his remarks the following day because his first statement was so lame.
The pattern repeats itself. He either blames any problem on the Bush administration or he naively seeks to wish away the truth.
Knock, knock. Anyone home? Anyone there? Barack Obama exists only as the sock puppet of his handlers, of the people who have maneuvered and manufactured this pathetic individual's life.
When anyone else would quickly and easily produce a birth certificate, this man has spent over a million dollars to deny access to his. Most other documents, the paper trail we all leave in our wake, have been sequestered from review. He has lived a make-believe life whose true facts remain hidden.
We laugh at the ventriloquist's dummy, but what do you do when the dummy is President of the United States of America ?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Fellow Georgian,
My name is Eric Johnson, and I want you to hire me to be Georgia’s next Governor. I know who we are and what we believe in. And you can trust me to continue to fight for our conservative values as Governor.
There is a lot of talk from politicians these days about what they’re going to do. But the proof isn’t in slick talking points and poll tested sound bites. It’s in their deeds.
I began fighting for our conservative values in the trenches as a county party chairman. As Republican Leader in the State Senate, I battled Roy Barnes in his first and only term as Governor. By standing up for what we believe in- strong families, smaller government, and free markets- I led Georgia Republicans to our first majority in the Senate in 130 years.
Today, all that we have worked for is under attack. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of the top down, government knows best approach we’re seeing from Barrack Obama and his allies like Roy Barnes. I’m taking a stand! Will you join me by clicking here to volunteer?
Liberals in Washington are raising our taxes, taking over private industries, killing our banks, and running up our national debt to record levels. Here in Georgia, I worked to pass over $2 billion in tax relief, empower the private sector, and balance the budget every year! As Governor, I will do everything in my power to fend off the overreaching federal government and protect the common sense, conservative actions we have taken in our state.
We have passed tough laws cracking down on illegal immigrants, and I will enforce those laws. We empowered parents to decide where and how their children are educated and I will expand those opportunities. We have protected unborn life, the 2nd Amendment, and traditional marriage, and I will make sure that no politician, liberal interest group, or activist judge overturns the will of the people.
With your support, my top priority as Governor will be creating new jobs by cutting taxes, prioritizing government spending, and getting rid of silly regulations. I know these are challenging times, but don’t let anybody tell you that our best days are behind us. With the right leadership, we can make sure our state emerges out of this recession faster than the rest of the nation and be stronger than ever before! And folks, I’m just the guy to do it.
You can learn more about my proven record, my ideas for the future, and how to help our campaign by visiting www.JohnsonForGeorgians.com. Together, let’s put Georgia back to work!
Yours for a better Georgia,
Eric Johnson
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment