Thanks,

Veer Right

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

Essentially this is Senate bill 2433 enacted.  The way it is written, it doesn’t matter what President gets elected next.  The US will have to meet the Millineum  Development Goals.  At this time we can’t afford to give away any more money.  With Senate bill 2433, the US Sovereignty will be gone.  We will be subject to the UN and their laws.

Rush Limbaugh responds:

… There are two things going on here. One prong of the Great Unifier’s plan is to isolate elected Republicans from their voters and supporters by making the argument about me and not about his plan. He is hoping that these Republicans will also publicly denounce me and thus marginalize me. And who knows? Are ideological and philosophical ties enough to keep the GOP loyal to their voters? Meanwhile, the effort to foist all blame for this mess on the private sector continues unabated when most of the blame for this current debacle can be laid at the feet of the Congress and a couple of former presidents. And there is a strategic reason for this.

Secondly, here is a combo quote from the meeting:

“If we don’t get this done we (the Democrats) could lose seats and I could lose re-election. But we can’t let people like Rush Limbaugh stall this. That’s how things don’t get done in this town.
” …

Put simply, I believe his stimulus is aimed at re-establishing “eternal” power for the Democrat Party rather than stimulating the economy because anyone with a brain knows this is NOT how you stimulate the economy. If I can be made to serve as a distraction, then there is that much less time debating the merits of this TRILLION dollar debacle.
…

If I can be made to serve as a distraction, then there is that much less time debating the merits of the trillion dollar debacle.
…

Obama’s ties to the teachings of Saul Alinksy while he was community organizing in Chicago.
Here is Rule 13 of Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals:

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”

track backs:

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/23/limbaugh-obama-should-have-invited-genuine-conservatives-to-dinner/

For those who think the global war on terror is just a bad memory from the Bush administration, you might be surprised to discover it isn’t. The threat is real — even more so, given that so many people are convinced it no longer exists.

An overlooked news item out of Algeria puts to rest that notion. The report says that an al-Qaida affiliate there abruptly closed a mountain training base after an experiment with biological weapons went wrong.

A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition he not be named, confirmed the accident that led to a shutdown of the training facility in Tizi Ouzou, a province in eastern Algeria.

He said the U.S. intercepted desperate communications between the group and al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan’s tribal region earlier this month suggesting that the camp had been quickly abandoned.

A report by the Sun, a British tabloid, said at least 40 operatives belonging to al-Qaida in the Land of the Maghreb (AQLIM), an al-Qaida affiliate in North Africa, were killed in a training accident.

From the sound of it, they were likely killed by a strain of the bubonic plague — the deadly rat-borne bacterial disease that ravaged much of the world in the 13th and 14th century, wiping out fully a third of Europe’s population. An airborne version, pneumonic plague, is equally deadly.

The details are horrific. The Algerian victims were said to be afflicted with horrible boils in different parts of their bodies, dying in excruciating pain after just a few hours. It’s an awful way to die.

Since AQLIM boasts of 1,000 members in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Nigeria, the loss of 40 terrorists will barely scratch the surface of their membership.

What worries us is that if the “accident” was part of a wider program to create a deadly bioweapon to be used against civilians — possibly in the U.S. or Europe — then we are in serious danger.

Read the full article

This while Dana Priest of the Washington Post declares that Obama has ended the War on Terror.  Oh Really???  Now, Dana can you please notify al Qaida who still aims to kill Americans about this.  Because al Qaida’s pursuit of the destruction of the West and instituting Sharia law has not changed.

With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the “war on terror,” as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.

While Obama says he has no plans to diminish counterterrorism operations abroad, the notion that a president can circumvent long-standing U.S. laws simply by declaring war was halted by executive order in the Oval Office.

Key components of the secret structure developed under Bush are being swept away: The military’s Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, where the rights of habeas corpus and due process had been denied detainees, will close, and the CIA is now prohibited from maintaining its own overseas prisons. And in a broad swipe at the Bush administration’s lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

I’d like to know what long standing US laws have been violated conidering the eleventh amendment of the US Constitution specifically states that foreign nationals have no rights under the US Constitution.

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

I would also like to point out that there is precedence under FDR, yes FDR for US citizens and foreign nationals involved with a terrorist attack on US soil to be tried under the UCMJ.

Should a terrorist have more constitutional rights than a person in the military? If a military person commits a crime, they are tried under the UCMJ. So should a terrorist have more rights than our own military? There is precedence for Guantanimo Bay and terrorists being tried under the UCMJ. Read this Wall Street Journal article which states the following:

“There is ample constitutional precedent to support the detention of a suspected al Qaeda agent, even an American citizen, who plans to carry out terrorist attacks on our soil. During World War II, eight Nazi saboteurs secretly landed in New York to attack factories and plants. Two of them were American citizens.

After their capture, FDR sent them to military detention, where they were tried and most of them executed. In Ex Parte Quirin, the Supreme Court upheld the detention and trial by military authorities of American citizens who “associate” with “the military arm of the enemy” and “enter this country bent on hostile acts.” If FDR were president today, Padilla might have fared far worse than he has.”

read more

…[Tom] Coburn twice proposed measures that would have pulled money from legislator’s pet projects – for example, a baseball stadium in Montana and a visitor’s center in Morgan City, Louisiana – in order to redirect the cash toward shoring up levees in New Orleans and rebuilding the city.  Obama voted against the reform position on both of those occasions, and in favor of the pet projects. 

When Coburn proposed an amendment redirecting funds from the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska to reconstruction of the Twin Spans bridge in New Orleans, Democratic senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Feingold were all willing to stand with him against the pork-barrellers.  … Obama voted with eighty-one of his Senate colleagues against New Orleans and in favor of the Bridge to Nowhere.   ( The Case Against Barack Obama, p. 94-95)

Let’s talk about Katrina.  Yes it was a catastrophe.  Having lived in the Gulf Coast and near the East Coast my whole life, I know about hurricanes and evacuations.  The US cannot plan for the worse case scenerio of all catastrophes. The reality is that people were asked to evacuate and many did not.  The mayor of New Orleans had an evacuation plan, but never followed it.  Any one that knows anything about New Orleans knows it is below sea level.  Flooding in an area such as this will be worse than other areas.  The last hurricane that hit Galveston was deadly also, but did they sit around and blame Bush?  No.  They evacuated and did what was required.  Of course there are always some people who refuse to evacuate. When this happens they are taking their own loves into their own hands.  To blame Bush for Katrina and not rebuilding the area is ridiculous.  I love the way BHO blames Bush when he voted against funds going to New Orleans.

In one of his first acts in office President Obama has ordered the U.S. government to suspend prosecutions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days, military officials said Tuesday.

Papers filed at the U.S. prison camp said the request is made “in the interest of justice and at the direction of the president of the United States.” It seeks a delay in proceedings until May 20.

“The judges will receive the requests and review them, and we anticipate a ruling soon,” said Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman.

Tuesday’s directive was issued verbally through Defense Secretary Bob Gates, according to a military official.

Obama had vowed to close the naval prison at the U.S. base. While Obama’s order does not go that far, it will stop the prosecutions of 21 detainees currently facing war crimes charges.

The Eleventh Amendment states:

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

Should a terrorist have more constitutional rights than a person in the military? If a military person commits a crime, they are tried under the UCMJ. So should a terrorist have more rights than our own military? There is precedence for Guantanimo Bay and terrorists being tried under the UCMJ. Read this Wall Street Journal article which states the following:

“There is ample constitutional precedent to support the detention of a suspected al Qaeda agent, even an American citizen, who plans to carry out terrorist attacks on our soil. During World War II, eight Nazi saboteurs secretly landed in New York to attack factories and plants. Two of them were American citizens.

After their capture, FDR sent them to military detention, where they were tried and most of them executed. In Ex Parte Quirin, the Supreme Court upheld the detention and trial by military authorities of American citizens who “associate” with “the military arm of the enemy” and “enter this country bent on hostile acts.” If FDR were president today, Padilla might have fared far worse than he has.”

read more

Investor’s Business Daily had a great article on this:

On Jan. 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan welcomed the return of American hostages in victory. On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama will welcome the closing of Guantanamo in appeasement. Yes, change has come.

For anti-war liberals, closing the prisoner of war camp at Guantanamo has long been a cause celebre, one the president-elect warmly embraced.

On ABC’s “This Week,” he gave supporters pause when he suggested actually closing the facility within his first 100 days would be a “challenge.” At least one Obama transition team adviser reassured them on Monday not to worry.

An executive order to close the camp could be issued as early as Inauguration Day. The pathway to trials in American courts with American lawyers and American rights would be set for those jihadists captured on the battlefield trying to kill Americans.

One of the problems is exactly where to relocate the remaining 248 prisoners. Few places are standing in line for the privilege. Maybe ACORN could use a few more volunteers.

This moment stands in stark contrast to the day in 1981 when President Reagan took the oath of office as American hostages were winging their way back to freedom after 444 days of captivity in a Tehran prison. The mullahs set them free rather than deal with a resolute new commander in chief, and in the knowledge they wouldn’t have Jimmy Carter to kick around anymore.

Now it is we who are capitulating.  Last May, the Defense Department said at least 36 former Guantanamo detainees are “confirmed or suspected” of having returned to the battlefield. If Obama orders a shift out of Gitmo, you can be sure more terrorists will return to the front.Among those previously released are Abdullah Salim Ali al-Ajmi, who was first detained in Afghanistan and spent three years at Gitmo before being released in 2005. Al-Ajmi returned to Kuwait and last May went to Iraq to become a suicide bomber. He was successful in his new line of work.

Abdullah Mehsud spent 25 months at Gitmo until his release from such inhuman bondage in March 2004. While out on his own recognizance, he returned to his native South Waziristan where he rebuilt and led a Taliban cadre estimated at 5,000 foot soldiers conducting cross-border raids from Pakistan.

Guantanamo is home to some of the world’s most dangerous Islamists: Chechen jihadists, Afghan mujahedeen and Taliban fighters, and al-Qaida terrorists from across the Middle East and North Africa. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, architect of the USS Cole bombing in 2000, are among the 14 “high value” detainees.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Gitmo detainees have not been held without some form of adjudication. All have undergone two levels of review, one to determine their status as enemy combatants, the other an annual review to determine their fitness for release. Obviously this part is not an exact science.

Guantanamo and the incarceration and interrogation of its inhabitants have saved thousands of American lives and untold tragedy. While it has existed, America’s enemies have had a harder time plying their trade.

In his first post-election interview with “60 Minutes” last Nov. 16, Obama said: “I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I’ve said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture.

“Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.”

We are more concerned with guaranteeing America’s survival.

Read the full article

Trackbacks:

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/21/gitmo-trials-halted-by-obama-order/

Principles are the same period. Principles are the same regardless of our circumstances. For example, supply and demand affects prices period. Big government spending is bad, not good. Roosevelt actually made the depression worse and last longer because of his New Deal.  Now The One wants us to think old arguments don’t work?  A shift has occurred, so what we think is no longer correct.  He is basing his economic stimulus on Roosevelt’s failed New Deal.  Talk about old ideas.  What is new about his economic stimulus plan?  Its back to the 1930′s courtesy of BHO.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them _ that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works _ whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account _ to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day _ because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Now considering that the Economic Crisis fundamentally was caused by the Community Reinvestment Act and the CEO of Fannie Mae cooking the books, how did the market spiral out of control?  The CEO of Fannie Mae made $90 million in 6 years after cooking the books.  He has not been named once by the MSM or Obama.  You see when government steals from the American people, no one cares.  Especially when its Dems protecting Dems.  Big government means more stealing by corrupt officials.  There won’t be any hearings just like there hasn’t been one for Franklin Raines.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control _ and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart _ not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

Essentially Guantanimo will be closed and so called torture will not be permitted.  Obama is forgetting that the Constitution does not guarantee rights to foreign nationals.  In fact under Roosevelt terrorists were tried under the UCMJ and given the death sentence.  A lead al Qaeda terrorist and mastermind of the planes operation had to be waterboarded 100 times in 2 weeks before he broke.  Because of this, we have gotten the most information from Khalid Sheik Muhammad about al Qaida and its inner workings.  Don’t worry America the terrorists now know they won’t be tortured and won’t talk.  Forget about stopping the next terrorist attack.  Since the Average American doesn’t know what the US Constitution says and is ill advised on US History, Obama make statements such as this.  Notice how he doesn’t call out the ideology we at war with today.  It is not a War on Terror.  Its is a war on Radical Islam.  Obama cannot state the truth in this matter.  We called out communism and fascism when we were at war with these ideologies.  In a report on defeating al Qaida given to Congress calling out the ideology of radical Islam was described as one part of defeating it.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers … our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. 

He wants to leave Iraq responsibly to its people.  Oh really because when things got tough he wanted to cut and run while leaving Iraq to the terrorists.  Yes Obama will usher in a new era of so called peace while appeasing the terrorists and rogue states.  Believe me there will be another attack on the US and it will be because of Obama’s appeasement and lack of strength.  

We are the keepers of this legacy.  Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort _ even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus _ and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West _ know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

The next paragraph is yes all about Senate bill 2433.  Rich nations must share their wealth with poor nations.  AKA more money going to rogue nations and dictators.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

This ending is nice, but its sad that the freedoms that our forefathers fought and died for – smaller government and lower taxes – will be a faint memory once Obama has instituted his bigger government and redistribution plans.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world … that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).”

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Trackbacks:  http://hotair.com/archives/2009/01/20/good-luck-mr-president/

From Hot Air:

“Though the plan still is emerging, one source with knowledge of the internal discussion said the organization could have an annual budget of $75 million in privately raised funds. Another said it would deploy hundreds of paid staff members — possibly one for every congressional district in certain politically important states and even more in larger battlegrounds such as Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia and North Carolina…”

Americans need to wake up and understand that Radical Islam is a threat to our very existence.  We can never allow Sharia law or Islamic ghettos where Muslims only have their schools and children are unable to socialize with children of other beliefs.  This is wrong any way you look at it.  Political correctness and appeasement will not fix this problem.  Radical Islam is THE THREAT to the world as we know it today.  Sorry libs its NOT global warming, its radical ISLAM.  If Muslims want to live in the US, then they have to integrate with us and live under our laws.  That’s it period.  In researching my book The Link, I found an interesting Congressional hearing titled “9/11 FIVE YEARS LATER: GAUGING ISLAMIST TERRORISM” from September 7, 2006 that describes how to defeat radical Islam. A major way is first to call out Radical Islam and not be politically correct.   These people want one thing, the complete domination and destruction of the Western World as we know.  Just think of it as the Taliban taking control of every country in the world.

From ”9/11 FIVE YEARS LATER: GAUGING ISLAMIST TERRORISM”:

In War Footing, we offer a number of specific recommendations about how America

could implement such strategies at this juncture. They include the following:

1. Stop evading the issue. No government strategy to date for the so-called ‘‘War

on Terror’’ has included political warfare as an element of the American arsenal.

2. Devise, staff up, and begin executing a political warfare strategy. Countering the

Islamofascist ideology must be its principal focus.

3. De-legitimize Islamist extremism in the eyes of Muslims, and especially its potential

supporters. We need to show that, although violent Islamism is certainly a

problem for us in the West, it is a vastly greater problem for the Muslim community.

• Challenge the Islamists on religious grounds. Many Muslim leaders teach the

message of civility and tolerance, and their voices need to be amplified. We

can help call attention to contradictions between Islamism and the Koran, on

such matters as prohibitions of violence against Muslims; relations between

Muslims and ‘‘people of the book’’ (Jews and Christians); the ban on compulsion

in religion; the doctrine of jihad; the rules of war; killing of innocent civilians,

prohibition of suicide, and so forth.

• Expose economic disaster. There is ample evidence that Islamism, and its imposition

of Shari’a law, results in crippling limitations to economic development,

and thus to the socioeconomic well-being of Muslims. Relevant cases

are Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, and Nigeria.

• Celebrate educational opportunity. Radical Islam has a strongly negative effect

on educational standards, due to its narrow emphasis on Koranic instruction

which fails to equip graduates with any practical job skills, destining

them for jihad or unemployment. Where Islamists hold sway, an erosion in

quality similarly afflicts what had been secular educational systems. There is

evidence, moreover, that with the proliferation of madrassa education, functional

illiteracy is spreading, and literacy rates for women are stagnating.

Any serious effort at political warfare must emphasize the huge costs to societies

that do not fully use the talents of half of their population.

• Emphasize progress. Shari’a-ruled countries exhibit a strong bias against

science and technology education, to the huge detriment of their economic de-

Arab world has yet to join the Industrial Revolution—let alone the Information

Revolution—and that it neither produces much scientific literature nor

carries out real research. A successful political warfare strategy must highlight

this key failure by documenting the numerous religious prohibitions and

restrictions on scientific and technological pursuit imposed by Islamist ideology.

• Enshrine human rights. The regular and officially sanctioned abuse of basic

human rights in Shari’a-dominated countries is yet another glaring Islamist

misdeed that needs to be exposed. Such abuse includes the widespread judicial

and customary discrimination and outright mistreatment of women, from

uncivilized practices such as forced marriages to truly inhumane treatment

such as genital mutilation and ‘‘honor’’ killings. Virtually all of these extreme

Islamist tenets and practices stand in direct contradiction to the UN Universal

Declaration of Human Rights—an international human rights standard

to which all of the Shari’a-dominated countries nominally adhere.

4. Use legislative vehicles for political warfare. Congress has an important role to

play. The groundbreaking 1972 Jackson-Vanik Amendment made favorable trade relations

with the Soviet Union contingent on its permitting free emigration. Under

the leadership of the remarkable Senator Henry M. Jackson, this legislation proved

to be a powerful congressionally created political weapon, one that was used to decisive

effect in de-legitimizing totalitarian Soviet Communism. Sanctions legislation

and assistance to democratic opposition movements can serve a similar purpose in

the War for the Free World.

5. Use our strengths. The good news is that Americans are among the world’s experts

at political warfare. The bad news is that we mainly use it against each other:

After all, the strategies and tactics of any hard-fought election campaign are precisely

the stuff of applied political warfare. The talent, creativity, ingenuity, and,

yes, ruthlessness of top-flight political campaign strategists of both parties should

be mustered for the purpose of fighting our enemies and helping our friends rather

than fighting each other.

The model for such an effort is the ‘‘dollar-a-year man,’’ the highly skilled privatesector

leaders who volunteered their services to the government to assist in the

World War II effort. With this kind of help, we could quickly be well on the way

to building a national political warfare capability.

6. Invest in the instruments of political warfare, including public diplomacy. Public

diplomacy, intended to influence perceptions, attitudes, and actions abroad, must

be viewed as a form of political warfare. We have been dramatically underfunding

an important area of natural American expertise and capability: multimedia communications

aimed at foreign audiences. As part of our War Footing strategy, we

must stop nickel-and-diming our international broadcasting operations. All too frequently

in recent years, we have increased transmission to one region at the expense

of reducing it to another.

An immediate and sweeping ramp-up of our international broadcasting capabilities

is needed to provide high-quality programming:

• Voice of America; ‘‘free radios’’; new services like Radio Sawa and Al Hurra;

and support for the extremely effective private-sector broadcasts (for example,

those beamed into Iran from Los Angeles and more innovative, sometimes

covertly sponsored forms).

• A range of formats (television, satellite, AM/FM or shortwave radio or both,

and the Internet).

• Operating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, where appropriate.

• Serving every country currently or potentially under assault from Islamism.

The cost of such an ambitious undertaking—though appreciably greater than the

stingy investment we are making in international communications today—pales by

comparison with the costs of military warfare. The investment will be well repaid

if it helps us protect and expand the Free World against the Islamists and their

friends, without resorting to further use of military force.

7. Use the Internet as a tool of political warfare. In particular, the power of creative

Web sites,Webcasting, and blogging should be aggressively exploited.

8. Strengthen the CIA clandestine services, and authorize and fund them for longterm

strategic political warfare.

9. Grant the Department of Defense the primary responsibility for political warfare.

Just as the State Department leads in public diplomacy, the ‘‘warfare’’ side of

communications is legitimately a Pentagon function and must not be assigned to our

diplomats.

10. Don’t forget political warfare in non-Islamist areas. The United States must

combat adversarial political warfare wherever it arises, even in countries traditionally

considered friendly. Despite their differences, the United States and Germany

continue to have strong political, economic, cultural, and military ties. Yet the Socialist/

Green coalition ruling Germany during the first years of the war went out

of bounds in its differences with U.S. policy—to the point of deliberately undermining

American security interests for the sake of political gain in domestic elections.

When politicians cross the line between opposition and sabotage, the United

States must have capabilities to battle them politically.

11. Reinforce and strengthen our friends. By demonstrating that there are not only

consequences for opposing us, but also real and tangible benefits from supporting

us, we can maximize the chances of our success. Critical in this regard is the American

commitment to the continued survival of one of the most exposed countries of

the Free World: Israel.

Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for “global governance” and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.

By Thursday, Mrs. Browner’s name and biography had been removed from Socialist International’s Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group’s congress in Greece was still available.

Socialist International, an umbrella group for many of the world’s social democratic political parties such as Britain’s Labor Party, says it supports socialism and is harshly critical of U.S. policies.

The group’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society, the organization’s action arm on climate change, says the developed world must reduce consumption and commit to binding and punitive limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr. Obama, who has said action on climate change would be a priority in his administration, tapped Mrs. Browner last month to fill a new position as White House coordinator of climate and energy policies. The appointment does not need Senate confirmation.

Mr. Obama’s transition team said Mrs. Browner’s membership in the organization is not a problem and that it brings experience in U.S. policymaking to her new role.

Read the full article.

Investor’s Business Daily had a nice write up about Mrs. Browner also:

Is anyone surprised that the would-be czarina of federal climate and energy policy has ties to a socialist group? The environmental movement’s goal is to afflict the economy, not comfort the ecology.

Carol Browner, who’ll run the new White House office of climate and energy policies, isn’t new to Washington. The public will recognize her name from the years she served as Environmental Protection Agency administrator under Bill Clinton.

The public, however, knows little or nothing about her work with Socialist International, a group that describes itself as a worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labor parties that envisions a “new, democratic world society” and typically takes anti-U.S. positions.

Within its declaration of principles there are clear signs it’s comfortable with using the authority of the state to establish a global socialist regime.

Equally as telling are its member groups, including Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Liberation Front, Democratic Socialists of America, and socialist and labor parties from dozens of nations.

Browner was linked to Socialist International through her leadership post on the group’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society. The Washington Times reports Browner was also listed as an individual member of Socialist International.

In her role as a White House aide, Browner should be looking out for U.S. interests. Yet, according to the Times, Socialist International’s Commission for a Sustainable World Society not only wants America, as well as other developed nations, to cut their current levels of consumption. It has called for a “fair approach” to global warming and climate change that “must be centered on solidarity and aim to reduce the disparity between the developed and the developing countries.”

Reducing the disparity will come, of course, at the expense of wealthy nations. Socialists dream of an egalitarianism that is reached not by lifting the fortunes of everyone but by redistributing wealth downward. They pretend to be interested only in taking care of the planet. But another purpose seems to be containing or even shrinking thriving economies. They are little more than socialists disguised as activists.

Evidence of Browner’s association with Socialist International has been largely scrubbed from the group’s Web site. Someone in the incoming administration — Browner herself? — must have felt it wouldn’t be wise for people to know about it.

This we can understand. What we can’t understand is why those ties didn’t disqualify her for the job.

After learning about Mrs. Browner, I think Al Gore may have been a better choice as ridiculous as that sounds.

Two more top al-Qaida operatives collected their virgins on New Year’s Day. Justice may be delayed, but not denied. Look up in the sky: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a . . . Predator drone!

U.S. officials have confirmed that a Jan. 1 missile strike killed two top al-Qaida members long sought for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

Cross Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheikh Ahmed Salem Swedan off the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list.

Msalam, also known as Usama al-Kini, and Sedan both from Kenya. Both are believed to have been involved in last September’s bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, that killed 53 people. The two were killed by an unmanned aircraft operated by the CIA while they were in a not-so-safe house used for explosives-training near the town of Karikot in South Waziristan.

Kini trained terrorists in Africa in the 1990s. After 9/11, he became al-Qaida’s emir of Afghanistan’s Zabul province and later rotated among Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Africa, planning suicide missions, training operatives and raising money.

Transferred to the home office two years ago, he became al-Qaida’s operations director for Pakistan and was responsible for at least seven suicide attacks. These included an assassination try aimed at former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who would be murdered in December 2007.

South Waziristan has become a prime hunting ground for Predator drones in recent months as part of a campaign to destabilize al-Qaida by decimating its leadership and killing key operatives. The attacks, occurring once every three days, have resulted in the deaths of at least eight top al-Qaida leaders since July.

Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal has compiled a list of some of those who have received final justice recently. They include Abu Laith al Libi, a senior military commander in Afghanistan, who was killed in a strike in North Waziristan last January. Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al-Qaida’s external operations chief, was killed in a strike in Bajaur in March.

Abu Khabab al Masri, al-Qaida’s weapons of mass destruction chief, and several senior members of his staff were killed in a strike in South Waziristan in July. Khalid Habib, leader of al-Qaida’s paramilitary forces in the tribal areas, was killed in North Waziristan in October. Abu Jihad al Masri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and member of al-Qaida’s top council, last October was also killed in North Waziristan.

The next month, Rashid Rauf, mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, was killed when a 100-pound Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone struck a tribesmen’s house in the village of Ali Khel in North Waziristan. Rauf was the architect of the liquid bomb plot that forces travelers to limit fluids to 3.5 ounces in carry-on baggies.

The idea that the U.S. hasn’t taken the battle to the enemy sanctuaries in Syria and Pakistan, or that we are losing control of Afghanistan, isn’t exactly accurate. The terrorists we fight are scurrying about as we lift the remaining rocks they hide under. But there’s no place for them to hide.

Waziristan used to be called al-Qaida’s hideout. Now it’s what American pilots call a target-rich environment. If this campaign continues, maybe we’ll soon find and send to his just reward al-Qaida’s tape-of-the-month club director, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or maybe even his cave-dwelling boss.

We’re running out of targets.

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The Guardian has spoken to three people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp.

There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on in his administration, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive.

Richard Haass, a diplomat under both presidents Bush who was named by a number of news organisations this week as Obama’s choice for Middle East envoy, supports low level contacts with Hamas provided there is a ceasefire in place and a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation emerges…

Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert at the Georgetown school of foreign service, said it was unlikely Obama would move to initiate contacts with Hamas unless the radical faction in Damascus was crippled by the conflict in Gaza. “This would really be dependent on Hamas’s military wing having suffered a real, almost decisive, drubbing.”

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I suggest Obama read Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones which is the Islamic Jihadists manifesto.  There is no negotiating with these people.  When every country in the world has submitted to Sharia law, they will no longer be a problem.  Read how Carter’s negotiations with terrorists caused grave damage to this nations security that remain to this day.

“The basis of the message is that one should accept the sharia without any question and reject all other laws in any shape or form. This is Islam. There is no other meaning of Islam.”

- Seyyid Qutb

Obama has no understanding of the roots of radical Islam. It began long before the US invaded Iraq. Although Sayyid Qutb wrote the jihadist manifesto Milestones which is commonly compared to the communist manifesto, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini was the true forefather of radical Islam. Al-Husseini preceded Qutb in his radical anti-Western, anti-semitic ideals. Al-Husseini was a Nazi who worked directly with and for Hitler actively recruiting Muslims to fight in Hilter’s Army.

The scary part is that Obama is being an apologist when he needs to be strong against our enemy, radical Islam. What would have happened if we had tried to appease Hitler? We would all be speaking German now.

On Monday, after a flurry of ballots that materialized after election night, the Minnesota Canvassing Board determined that Al Franken is the duly elected junior senator from the land of 10,000 lakes and almost as many questionable ballots. The margin was 225 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.

Franken is the former comedy writer and performer who played self-help guru Stuart Smalley (“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and, doggone it, people like me!”) on “Saturday Night Live” before he launched a talk show on the Air America Radio network that went bankrupt in 2 1/2 years.

Franken is not quite senator yet. Incumbent Norm Coleman, who led on election night by more than 700 votes, has filed what is called an election contest. This is a legal proceeding, held before a panel of judges to be appointed by the chief judge of the Supreme Court, to determine the winner of the election.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn’t waiting. “Al Franken has won the election,” he told reporters. “Everything is over.” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., new head of the Senate Rules Committee, also jumped the gun.

Coleman’s term officially ended Saturday. Schumer proclaimed Franken the winner on Sunday.

To be resolved through the election contest are a few tidbits such as 650 additional improperly rejected absentee ballots identified by the Coleman campaign that were excluded from the recount.

Among absentee ballots, 138 appear to have been double-counted in Franken’s favor. And 133 missing ballots from a heavily Democratic Minneapolis precinct were nevertheless included in the recount.

Interestingly, as Newsmax has reported, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who orchestrated the recount that gave Franken a lead six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day, has extensive ties to the ACORN organization under federal investigation for vote fraud.

All this could have been avoided if Minnesota had a law like Georgia’s allowing for a runoff if no candidate had a majority in the original contest. But then, as in Georgia, it might result in a Republican holding the seat.

Fears that a special election might result in a GOP victory led Illinois Democrats to rescind their own call for one and create the second ring in this three-ring election circus. Instead, we have the spectacle of perennial wannabe Roland Burris showing up on the steps of the Senate pleading that he is the junior senator from Illinois and can he come in and play.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

Pelosi’s rule changes — which may be voted on today — will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”

In reaction, the House Republican leadership is sending a letter today to Pelosi to object to changes to House Rules this week that would bar Republicans from offering alternative bills, amendments to Democrat bills or even the guarantee of open debate accessible by motions to recommit for any piece of legislation during the entire 111th Congress. These procedural abuses, as outlined in the below letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, would also include the repeal of six-year limit for committee chairmen and other House Rules reform measures enacted in 1995 as part of the Contract with America.

Maybe any tax cut is better than no tax cut, but a clear view of what the incoming Obama administration has planned raises serious concerns.

Not surprisingly, considering the class-warfare rhetoric of his campaign, the next president has fallen into the politics-driven trap that has plagued so many of his fellow Democrats: being unable to support a plain old across-the-board cut because “the rich” might get to keep more of their money.

So instead of simply accepting the wisdom of the big Bush across-the-board tax cuts on income and investment, he’ll propose what you could call “outcome-based tax-cutting”: You’re getting a tax cut because Uncle Sam wants a certain thing to happen, like a failed business to unfail.

That philosophy of government micromanagement of the private sector cannot work.

First, there’s the glaring flaw that the Obama business tax plan gives a one-year tax credit for companies that generate new jobs or back off on layoffs.

The idea is to give them some relief while they’re under strain, like handing a cup of Gatorade to a long-distance runner. But no one can run a marathon without food in his stomach and a road without obstacles.

Businesses need the certainty of low taxes in the long-term future to get past the financial crisis and do well, not the fiscal policy equivalent of a performing seal being rewarded with a sardine from its master.

Then there’s Obama’s proposed expansion of the write-off for businesses from the current $175,000 to as much as $250,000 for the next two years. This rewards firms who have done badly and may even encourage losses in the future.

Businesses that have done well get no such bonus. It’s like applying the failed thinking behind welfare — cash handouts from the government for those who fail — to industry.

What’s more, this would superimpose more complexity onto an already burdensome tax code. For accountants, the New Year’s Eve party may have only just begun.

Finally, for run-of-the-mill taxpayers, there’s Obama’s “Making Work Pay” program. It begins with yet more rebates, which — as the Bush administration discovered twice — does little if anything to stimulate the economy.

Sending out nice, fat checks from the U.S. Treasury is an idea that goes back at least to the failed presidential campaign of George McGovern in 1972. But for a tax cut to have any real stimulative effect on productivity, it must serve to reward that productivity: the more you produce (i.e., earn), the bigger your tax cut.

Barack Obama may soon be saying in every speech he makes as president that he enacted the biggest tax cut in history — citing the mind-boggling figure of $300 billion.

But cash from Washington for people who don’t pay income taxes, and for businesses that don’t work, is not tax-cutting. Instead, it’s exactly what Obama the candidate promised Joe the Plumber: wealth redistribution.

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