Right Truth

Under the Nuclear Deluge: Practical Planning for the Unimaginable

Under the Nuclear Deluge:
Practical Planning for the Unimaginable

by R.J. Godlewski

Paper Originally submitted to American Military University

July 7, 2009

I am incensed, and I think we should all be incensed, that the courageous passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 were the White House’s first and only line of defense on September 11—not the CIA or the FBI or the Immigration and Naturalization Service or any other office or agency that we pay our taxes to support.   (Baer 2002, xix)

    The evolutionary nature of terrorism dictates that its practitioners will utilize the most destructive weapon at their disposal and when this option finally reaches the nuclear stage, the subsequent evolution of society may become its first casualty. With the United States firmly pegged as Islamic terrorism’s ennemi public numéro un, America’s leaders have emulated the character Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark – desperately trying to outrun the nuclear “boulder” at the expense of merely getting out of its way. Stepping aside of nuclear terrorism may not seem politically palatable, but until the United States Government seriously considers proactive response to the threat, even simple blackmail could significantly disrupt America’s future  (Ferguson and Potter 2004, 5).  Such a future may, therefore, rest entirely within the hands of ordinary citizens.

Alice through the cooking gas.

    High-casualty terrorist attacks on American interests have had “significant strategic outcomes” for the benefit of those perpetrating such heinous crimes  (Merari 1998, 192). Nothing, however, could be considered more strategically “significant” than a nuclear attack upon American soil. Although few terrorist groups can be considered sufficiently motivated to unleash nuclear horror upon the United States  (Ferguson and Potter 2004, 6), this does not preclude the existence of a rogue state inspiring a non-state partner. Nor does it dismiss the reality that prior to September 11, 2001 few considered the use of commercial aircraft as guided missiles capable of taking out one of the world’s most recognized landmarks.

    In fact, the events of 9/11 may have been a low-cost, low-tech alternative to using a crude nuclear device to topple the World Trade Center  (Hughes 1996, 56).  Would the “next 9/11” progress further up or down the technology scale? The world will not know until it actually happens. Fortunately, there is some historical precedence in terrorists using tried and true methods to enact their craft  (Ellis 2007, 118-151). This would seem to suggest that the nuclear option is not considered practical enough for experimentation. Having said that, we need to consider not only September 11th – which took vehicular borne attacks to literally new heights – but also the Chechen separatists’ use of cesium-137 in Moscow  (Aloise 2007, 6).

    Nuclear devices thus represent the epitome of terror weapons and, therefore, symbolize the Holy Grail for any organization that seeks to grab the attention of the world’s political, media, and public bodies. Just the mere thought of vaporizing tens of thousands, if not millions, of innocent souls is sufficient enough to safeguard the objective of any terrorist organization. Moreover, a nuclear weapon in the hands of a rogue organization need not be as accurately delivered as its Cold War superpower cousins. A simple device touched off within the confines of any metropolitan area will far exceed the total death and destruction of both the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks in 2001.

    The lethality of a nuclear explosion rests with the combination of blast, thermal, and radiation energies unleashed upon the target environment  (Glasstone and Dolan 1977, 588). The significant difference in comparsion with conventional explosives being that those caught outside during a nuclear attack are more susceptible to radiation exposure than those safely tucked away in office buildings  (Glasstone and Dolan 1977, 588). The awesome power of even a relatively small Improvised Nuclear Device (IND) warrants considerable attention from the federal government. Yet, the question remains, has the United States Government effectively planned for this potentiality?

To defend or not to defend, that is the question…

Get Real Hip Hop for peace in the Middle East

Posted at Michael's request:

.
.

Identity Grab

Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears

Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.

It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.

Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner downloaded to his laptop the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.

Increasingly, government officials are promoting the chipping of identity documents as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.

(AP) In this April 10, 2009. photo, Chris Paget, a self-described "ethical' hacker," sits with his... Full Image

But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge.

He filmed his heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.

Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.  (continue at

AP News My Way)

Sotomayor Hearings

First impressions:  As participants give opening remarks, I am drawn to Sonia Sotomayor.  She looks tired, scared, drugged, pale.  I generally do not comment on someone's appearance, but she doesn't look good.  She is sitting perfectly still, I cannot even see her eyes blink at first, her expression is static, no movement of body, hands glued to the table, no facial expressions, no nothing -- almost zombie-like.  Perhaps her handlers kept her up too late last night cramming for the hearing this morning.   If so, they have done her no favor.

The United States Constitution mandates that the Senate confirm all Supreme Court nominees. This confirmation process is critical, and it is essential that during this process both Judge Sotomayor and the Senate strictly adhere to the Constitution, as the Founders intended, according to the Heritage Foundation.  As we have seen in the past these hearings end up being bloviating sessions for everybody involved, they do love that face time on the news.

Republicans:  Comments from Republicans are pretty much as expected.  They seem more concerned that the hearings are respectful in tone than whether Sotomayor wants to make law or set policy, whether she has her own political and social agenda, or whether she is racist and unfit for the highest court in America. 

Every member of the committee who believes in the Constitution of the United States of America should agree with Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions:

So, we have reached a fork in the road. And there are stark differences between the two paths.

I want to be clear:

I will not vote for—no senator should vote for—an individual nominated by any President who is not fully committed to fairness and impartiality towards every person who appears before them.

I will not vote for—no senator should vote for—an individual nominated by any President who believes it is acceptable for a judge to allow their own personal background, gender, prejudices, or sympathies to sway their decision in favor of, or against, parties before the court.

In my view, such a philosophy is disqualifying.

Such an approach to judging means that the umpire calling the game is not neutral, but instead feels empowered to favor one team over the other.

Call it empathy, call it prejudice, or call it sympathy, but whatever it is, it is not law. In truth it is more akin to politics. And politics has no place in the courtroom.

Republican Sen. john Cornyn:

Over time, however, the Supreme Court has often veered off the course established by the Framers. First, the Supreme Court has invented new rights not clearly rooted in any constitutional text. For example, the Supreme Court has micromanaged the death penalty, creating new rights spun from whole cloth. It has announced constitutional rules governing everything from punitive damages to sexual activity. It has relied on international law that the People never adopted.

The Supreme Court has even taken on the job of defining the rules for the game of golf. [snip]

As the Supreme Court has invented new constitutional rights – it has often neglected the old ones. This flip side is troubling, too. Many of the original important safeguards on government power have been watered down or even ignored.

Don't get me started on RINO Lindsey Graham, who started out by saying, "No Republican would have chosen you, Judge; that's just the way it is. We would have picked Miguel Estrada ..."    Then he quickly reverted to type by saying  "Now, unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed. (LAUGHTER) And I don't think you will, ..."  *SIGH*

You can read the full opening statements of Sens.Chairman  Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Jeff Sessions Republican of Alabama, Chuck Grassley Republican of Iowa, Democrats Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, Benjamin Cardin of Maryland Democrat, Dianne Feinstein Democrat of California, Republican John Cornyn of Texas, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

The response to Sonia Sotomayor should be "NO."  "HECK NO."

The Country That Squeaks

Everyone knows that the United States of America is the most giving nation on the planet Earth.  We are attacked by an enemy, we defeat the enemy, then we help them rebuild with American finances, supplies, manpower, and resources.  What other nation does that?

In the movie The Mouse that Roared staring Peter Sellers, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides that the only way to get out of their economic woes and escape bankruptcy, is to declare war on the United States, lose and accept foreign aid.  Prime Minister Mountjoy says: "In other words, gentlemen, in effect, we declare war on Monday, we are defeated on Tuesday and by Friday we will be rehabilitated beyond our wildest dreams."

While the above story is pure fiction, there are many truths throughout the movie.  The United States has in the past been the country that roared.  When anyone was in trouble, when innocents were being attacked, the US stepped forward to do her part in protecting the innocent party.  When the US roared, people listened.

Seems things may be changing now under the leadership of Barack Obama, a/k/a the apologizer in chief, citizen of the world, hater of America. 

On July 9, 2009, 5 students in Iran were hanged in public for protesting a crooked presidential election and Islamic rule.  The protests continue today, July 12, 2009. The people are chanting: “Death to the turbans,” “Down with the dictator,” “We want democracy.”  (Dr. Phyllis Chesler has more)

Where is the roar of objection from the United States?

“President” Karzai of Afghanistan signed legislation that allows men there to starve their wives if they refuse to have sex with them. It’s an amendment to the law which gives husbands the right to force themselves on their wives if they’re not consenting.

More than 20 American Somalis have left the US, returned to Somali to join the jihad, three have lost their lives.  If they want to leave this country and die in Somalia, that's their choice.  What about the terror threat from Somalia to the rest of the world, and to those innocents within her borders? 

What about all those czars -- the latest John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar, says: Forced abortions and mass sterilization needed to save the planet.

Social Sense produces the following video on Arrogant Americans (hat tip Maggie's Notebook):

.

.

Not only should America be roaring about what's going on in the world, Americans should be roaring about what's happening in our own country.  What are we mice or men?  Do we squeak or roar?  Do we want to live as a free nation or die under socialism?

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee asked, "Who is really running this country?  The President or the people?"  I don't think there is any question -- Obama gets what Obama wants with our present Congress and wimpy opposition party Republican RINOs. 

It's going to take all those arrogant Americans joining together to fight and defeat the tyranny consuming our nation before we find ourselves in the same situation.

Let's again be the country that roars when confronted with evil, not one that hides behind a president of questionable citizenship who's favorite activity is trash-talking America.

From Infidel Bloggers Alliance:  Obama declares to Africa: End tyranny, corruption

America's first black president spoke with a bluntness that perhaps could only come from a member of Africa's extended family.

    "No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers," he said

    "No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery.

    "That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there," he said, "and now is the time for that style of governance to end."

Yeah, no shit.  So, why tell Africa? Why not tell yourself?

Apparently, what is good for Africa is not good for the American people? I don't get it.  I feel a strange tingle going up my leg. It must be Obama "meddling".  -- Pastorius

Are American Catholics more Obaman than the Pope?

Are American Catholics more Obaman than the Pope?

By R.J. Godlewski
© July 12, 2009, All Rights Reserved
(Right Truth Exclusive)

“Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but ‘in body’ not ‘in heart’” [837]

“…the approval of new forms of consecrated life is reserved to the Apostolic See.” [919]

“’For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.’” [882] -- Catechism of the Catholic Church

    When I heard about the recent commentary in Newsweek that suggested that President Obama was more Catholic than the Pope was, I could not stop laughing long enough to post these thoughts precisely when I wanted them to appear. It took a day or two, or maybe three now before I calmed down sufficiently to deal with this latest progressive liberal (read that, asinine) outlook on reality. I could very easily have tossed this insanity into the same trashcan that bears that report that informs us that ninety-odd percent of the U.S.-manufactured guns involved within Mexico’s drug wars can be traced back to the U.S. For the same reason, I am quite willing to suggest that at least ninety percent of federal government paychecks can be traced back to the U.S. taxpayer.

    As I said, I wanted to get on with life. To worry about things more important than what progressives spout through their mouthpieces. Important topics such as university homework assignments, whether the first place Tigers will lose two in a row to a last place team again, and whether I have Brats or burgers for dinner. Regardless, as a Roman Catholic layperson I have a fundamental responsibility to protect my Church and, henceforth, I do not want to deal with such secular issues on the Holiest day of the week.

    For starters, I am more African-American than President Obama is Catholic (hint for you liberals: both sets of my grandparents were Polish). Regardless of where Mr. Obama spent his childhood schooling, being Catholic is an “is or isn’t” proposition. You can be Roman Catholic for ninety years of your life and once you abandon the Church’s teachings, then you cease being Roman Catholic. God’s laws do not incorporate any “independents” like within American politics. This is precisely why we have had the 265 Popes descended directly from Saint Peter. Every decent Catholic bible has these popes outlined for the entire world to see and my trusty New American Bible that I have had beside me since February, 1994 states neither a Pope Barack Obama I nor a Saint John Q. Public of America in the leadership of Christ’s Church here on Earth.

    For starters, I fully understand that progressive liberals tend to pick and choose their beliefs to suit some specific agenda. This tinkering of the human mind leads to some pretty confiscatory thoughts as “Pro-Choice Catholics” when the Church has always been defensive of the unborn. This is why Pope Benedict reamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ass whereas the good pontiff merely spoke pleasantries with the current President. I am quite certain that, had Obama been a member of the Catholic Church, then Pope Benedict would have sent the politician to Ghana waddling as if his thongs were ten sizes too junior.

    The fact is, a pope leads his Church; he does not merely preside over it. He holds the literal keys of the “kingdom of heaven” and thereby gauges whatever loose on earth will also be loose in heaven. [Matthew 16:19 NAB] Christ did not pick a mere “community organizer” on which to build His Church. He picked a rock. If President Obama were even a legitimate Christian, he would be speaking out in fervent protest against abortion, against homosexuality, against government control, and against illegal immigration. Notice, friends, that I did not say procurers of abortion, homosexuals, or illegal aliens.

    The truth is, President Obama is a politician and nothing more. Albeit a significantly opportunistic one, but his talents to lead are no stronger than either Madonna’s or Michael Jackson’s abilities to entertain. It is not what we are that counts, but who. In others words, our actions speak volumes compared with our thoughts. Unfortunately, this is where we get into trouble here within America.

    Some sources have the number of “Catholic” voters who cast their lot with President Obama as high as eighty-percent. That is not a very scientific estimate. I would counter and say that no true Catholic ever voted for President Obama. Some erstwhile pew-warmers may have voted for Obama because they were concerned about the economy, or the poor, or the war in Iraq, but these are simply topics that even Christ largely ignored (You know, the poor will always be with us, don’t fret about tomorrow, etc. etc.).

    Those Americans who voted for the President because they supported abortion rights, gay marriages, or euthanasia for that matter have long since forfeited their allegiance to either Christ or His Church. They have simply abandoned their oaths of baptism and confirmation. Americans do that from time to time – abandoned their personal responsibilities in exchange for temporal convenience. Hispanics, for one, are notorious for this.

    Tomorrow begins the week of confirmation hearings for what could possibly be the United States’ first Latino justice of the Supreme Court. Already, thousands of Hispanics within this country are calling for her to be confirmed. I have nothing against the woman herself, but her policies and actions are definitely anti-Latino. It is just another egregious example of an overwhelmingly Catholic culture abandoning its principles on a matter of race. And they call us white folk racist…

    Roman Catholicism is “universal” because it hands down the only non-discriminatory set of standards available from the only non-discriminatory being in existence: God. Each of us is free to gaze into our hearts and determine whether we wish to follow the Church’s teachings or not. Each of us can freely decide whether politics or Salvation is to be our guide. Each of us is given free rein by God to choose temporal convenience over the much more demanding structure of eternal harmony with the Blessed.

    In a culture where “American” has come to mean anyone who can sneak across the border without being caught, where “life” means any living species of value to the state’s agenda, and where personal responsibility is acquiesced to Washington on appeal, then I suspect  that being Roman Catholic does not mean very much.

    Fortunately, there are still a few of us devotees who remain. We carry on the spirit of those who were burned as ornamental torches within some ancient Roman governor’s courtyard. We still honor those who were fed alive to lions; hung, drawn, and quartered; or, if mercifully disposed by the emperor or king in question, simply beheaded for following the Church’s teachings. And folks, President Barack Hussein Obama isn’t even fit to loosen their sandals.

Relentless pursuit of destruction 2009

" I'll follow him around the Horn, and around the Norway maelstrom, and around perdition's flames before I give him up"

The above quote comes from Captain Ahab in the book Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

  For those of you who have never read the book or seen the movie, the quote may be familiar if you are a Star Trek fan:

"I'll chase him round the outer nebula and round the antares malstrom and round perditions flames before I give him up!" -- Noonien Singh Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

The Wrath of Kahn is about Khan's relentless pursuit of Captain James T. Kirk which ultimately results in his own death and the loss of his ship, while Ahab's relentless pursuit is of his nemesis the great white whale Moby Dick.

The story of Ahab and Kahn deal with the concepts of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God (or gods), personal beliefs, one's place or role in this world.  Which brings me to the United States of America in the year 2009.

Enter US President Barack Obama, who I believe has been on a relentless pursuit to change America;  a relentless pursuit to find the purpose of his own existence;  to find his god;  to discover his personal beliefs;  to find his place in this world. 

I believe that Obama has already discovered the role he is to play, the god he will worship, a purpose for his existence with the help of mentors like Rev.  Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, and on and on.  He was like a ship without a rudder, born of a father who didn't want him, a mother who left him with his white grandparents, influenced from a young age by a writer named Frank Davis.  He was taught that Blacks had been, and still are, being discriminated against, and by virtue of his half-black ancestry he had been mistreated.  He was taught the world, America, was not a fair nation and it was his job to grow up and change that.

Captain Ahab:  "The white whale tasks me; he heaps me."  Moby Dick

You could change that a bit to Obama saying "The white, Christian, conservative, capitalistic, private business owning America tasks me, and I shall change it."

Starbuck, Captain Ahab's first mate: [to Stubb and Flask]  "It is an evil voyage, I tell thee. If Ahab has his way, neither thee nor me, nor any member of this ship's company will ever see home again."   Moby Dick

It is an evil voyage that Obama is taking the USA on, and if he continues to have his way, no American citizen will ever see America as we have known her again.

Ishmael: Queequeg:    ...such behavior isn't Christian. In fact, it's downright pagan and heathenish."  Moby Dick

We've found that nothing Obama says is true, every statement, every promise, has an expiration date.  His word is not his bond, but his ultimate goal never changes.

"How do we know you'll keep your word?" -- Kirk

 "Oh, I've given you no word to keep, Admiral. In my estimation, you simply have no alternative." -- Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Obama gives his word that we will have transparency, yet all he and his administration does us under the table, working through groups like ACORN and their many branches.  All the czars that answer to no one but his majesty Obama.  When we complain, when we ask for honesty and fulfillment of his promises, what do we get?

Captain Ahab: "I don't give reasons. I give orders!"  Moby Dick

"Let them eat static." -- Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Where is Obama's nemesis, who is the brave soul like Kirk who will defeat Obama in the political arena?  I look out over the universe, over the great land and waters of this great nation, who will stand up to this evil?  How cold does it have to get here in the US before we see some Conservative revenge? 

"Revenge is a dish best served cold. ...." -- Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Obama seems to be saying:  " ... from hell's heart, I stab at thee...for hate's sake, I spit my last breath...at thee..." -- Khan, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan.  Yet as Americans against socialism, Marxism, communism, liberalism, and on and on, we do have recourse.

Starbuck, first mate:   "A captain who, from private motives, employs his vessel for another purpose from that intended by the owners, is answerable to the charge of usurpation, and his crew is morally and legally entitled to employ forceful means in wresting his command from him."  Moby Dick

Who out there will show relentless pursuit in the destruction of Obama's policies,  his administration, his position as President and the position of his minions in congress?  2010 and 2012 are just around the corner and Republicans are a ship without a captain lost at sea.

Liberation

There's something very liberating and frustrating at the same time about having a hard drive suddenly die, or having your computer croak completely.  Either way you start from scratch -- fresh, a clean slate, free of all the clutter you collected.  My new hard drive arrived via FedX yesterday, overnight service is really wonderful.  I spent most of the day yesterday installing my virus protection (Trend Micro Internet Security) and other programs I find necessary to daily computing -- Word, Micrografx Picture Publisher, Cannon camera software, Carbonite, iTunes, and a few other odds and ends. 

Outlook Express was empty, no folders, no contacts, and it looked good.  I've been having a great time with the "block message/sender" option today, getting rid of all those mailing lists I somehow got placed on without my knowledge.  Wooooo hooooo, checking email will be a breeze for a while.  I feel great!

I'm sure the Iranians would love to feel some liberation as well as many other people around the world.  Obama had time to visit Russia and Ghana to give another of his 'major speeches', saying "I do not see the countries and peoples of Africa as a world apart; I see Africa as a fundamental part of our interconnected world - as partners with America on behalf of the future that we want for all our children."  Too bad he couldn't have the same consideration for Iranian people, Georgians and the South Ossetians.

Obama has no problems meddling in Israeli affairs and completely destroying America, but sucking up to our enemies gives him a thrill.  Our foreign policy is a faux pas.  Abraham H. Miller writes:

The difference between radical Muslims and liberal American Jews is that the former seek to become martyrs, while the latter aspire to become victims. In an ironic twist of fate, radical Muslims and liberal American Jews were made for each other.

This ideological symbiosis is sufficient to give pause to the presence of intelligent design. But like all things that seem to emanate from a higher power, there is a paradoxical twist. It is not themselves that liberal American Jews want to sacrifice on the altar of victimhood; it is their Israeli brethren.

Barack Hussein Obama received nearly eighty percent of the Jewish vote and still garners strong approval among America’s Jews. In contrast, only six percent of Jewish Israelis support Obama.
Even before the election, Israeli Jews, unlike their sycophantic American brethren, saw through Obama.  Israelis were the least supportive population anywhere in the Western world of the inexperienced politician turned presidential candidate.  (continue at Pajamas Media)

I'm sure the Israelis would love to be liberated from their terrorist neighbors, able to live quiet peaceful lives.  Unlike my computer hard drive, wiped clean in an instant, liberation for suffering people around the world and here in the us is nowhere in sight.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to somehow with one keystroke call a special election, vote out Obama, the crazy Liberals, the RINOs in our own party and replace them with Conservatives.  I can dream can't I?

Cyber Attacks May Target Your Computer Next:

From The Gerard Group International and their blog Prometheus' Clarion:

Friday, July 10, 2009 - South Korea announced today that the cyber attacks that targeted scores of South Korean and U.S. Web sites was designed to morph into a more dangerous direction at 12:00 GMT today. Even as the announcement was made, the malicious codes broke into tens of thousands of local personal computers and started wiping hard drives.

The Korea Communications Commission said more than 350 computers were reported damaged as of Friday, but warned that the number could quickly rise, since up to 50,000 have been contaminated by the latest wave of cyber attacks.

South Korea's Intelligence agency, the NIS, told lawmakers on Friday that the hackers responsible for the attacks used 86 IP addresses in 16 countries. The countries include South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, Turkey, and Guatemala. But the spy agency cautioned it was too early to conclude that North Korea was responsible as the investigations were still under way. Some analysts have questioned the North's involvement, saying it may be the work of industrial spies or pranksters.

The breach of US government websites including those tasked with securing America's IT networks should be a cause of concern for security professionals. Our vulnerability to even the most unsophisticated of malicious codes should be a wake-up call.

Gerard Group recommends that network administrators take immediate measures to harden their security defenses. Firewalls should be re-set to the highest security levels. Counter-viral systems should be updated and set to scan all incoming and outgoing email utilizing heuristic algorithms at high security settings.

 Other Reading:

Obama Breaks His Promise on Presidential Signing Statements

Sarah 'Barracuda' Palin and the Piranhas of the Press

DARWIN DEBUNKED BY SHOCKING DISCOVERY

Another Elvis Sighting

Another Elvis Sighting

By: Paul A. Ibbetson
(Right Truth Exclusive)

    “I just saw Elvis!” Even decades after the death of the legendary singer, people still exclaim these same words with detailed accounts of their personal sighting of “The King.” I, along with most of the nation, mourned Presley’s death in 1977 but for me, like for most people, that day was the closing of the living story of Elvis, not the beginning of the secret life of the musician/actor.  When we look critically at the Elvis sighting phenomena of more than three decades, we can see a complex mental conditioning that allows certain people to come to a place where logic and reason are altered to a point where the next guy shuffling down the sidewalk in a pair of blue suede shoes could be “you know who”.

Whether or not people are driven to denounced the obvious death of Presley because they love his records or movies or any other variation thereof is moot; the point is that some people find themselves predisposed to deny factual evidence (e.g.: death certificate, accounts of people who handled the body, the funeral, the burying of the coffin). Instead, they cling to fantastic, non-realistic, evidence that Elvis still lives, which can be found in reported cryptic songs by Waylon Jennings, crazy theory books, movies, and, of course, the person on the street that swears that Elvis just pumped their gas and checked the oil on his or her car. On a more magnified level, for the Elvis seer of today, the direct evidence that the musician must be dead is replaced with the theoretical evidence that he could still be alive if a series of less probable possibilities were to fit together properly. Thus begins the mysterious stories of conspiracy theories and the other grand creations that tantalize many, but have no true factual substance. Don’t think for a moment that this is just an “Elvis thing.”

In the political sphere we see the same psychological reality building that created the immortal Elvis scenario being used by the modern liberal. Wrapped within radical leftist organizations, such as PETA, the man-made global warming crowd, or the tax-and-spend liberals that Barack Obama faithfully leads, we see the same framing of non-reality that has brought some Elvis admirers to seeing the equivalent of jumpsuits and capes that don’t really exist. The radicals at PETA ignore the fact that they exploit women to save chickens, and that their mission statement falls in diametric opposition to mainstream Christianity. The man-made global warming crowd disregards the direct evidence that their green initiatives will most certainly destroy the American economy and, of course, that the planet keeps getting cooler, in order to follow a socialistic game plan to “save the Earth.”

When it comes to Barack Obama and his tax-and-spend philosophy, it’s so expensive that even a scrap of logic left on the table causes major problems to the reality that is being spun. It’s true that many of these groups have cross-over affiliations but they are all searching for their own personal “Elvis” sighting. That is, they search for something that is unattainable, not real, and there are going to be a lot of disappointed people in the end.

As the curtain begins to close, we are faced with some facts that shake, rattle and roll many of us, but it is time we face the music. In reality, Elvis will always be the “The King” in the music industry, but on this Earth, he is as dead as dead can be. On the other hand, liberalism, in all its facets and faces, will always be a dead philosophy that we dare not allow to become “king.” I would say that the latter situation is painfully close to coming to fruition, and for that I have great concern for this country. Through years of mental conditioning, the liberal philosophy threatens to create a world where reality has truly left the building and our nation pre-destines itself for future anguish and woe far greater than the passing of the beloved Elvis Presley. 

Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society and Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World. Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008 and 2009 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 FM. For interviews or questions, please contact Ibbetson91.9@gmail.com or go to www.IbbetsonUSA.com.
 

Here are the links to Mr. Ibbetson's last couple radio shows:  Enjoy:

 
http://ibbetsonusa.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-07-01T00_12_15-07_00
 
http://ibbetsonusa.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-07-07T23_35_24-07_00

Punks Mauled By A Pitbull

An

From the Watcher of Weasels Council

(courtesy of Red Planet)

Interesting mix this week, and a boatload of fine entires from both the Council and their non-Council nominees.

Congratulations to winning Council member The Provacateur for his article How Bonds Work (and How Current Policy Will Wreck Them and the Economy With It) and non-Council entry Reclusive Leftist for Feminists and the mystery of Sarah Palin.

Please read and share these and the other fine pieces in this week’s contest…you’ll be glad you did.

Le Bon weekend..and again, congratulations not only to the winners but to the participants. Oh, and thanks for putting up with yours truly as substitute Watcher this week!

Rob Miller @ Joshuapundit

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! – The Provacateur - How Bonds Work (and How Current Policy Will Wreck Them and the Economy With It)
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – Bookworm Room - The Declaration of Independence . . . and chickens?
• Third place with 1 1/3 points – Mere Rhetoric - Prominent Jewish Democrats Double Down On Obama.Unpersuasively.
• Fourth place with 1 point – The Glittering Eye - Haeckel and the Development of Nations
• Fifth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Soccer Dad - Extra! Extra! get Your Paper
• Fifth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Right Truth - Pride Or Lack Thereof
• Sixth Place with 1/3 point – Rhymes With Right - In Re:Palin

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! – Reclusive Leftist - Feminists And The Mystery Of Sarah Palin
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – Rubin Reports - The Middle East is a place where wishful thinking gets people killed but makes careers for politicians, diplomats, academics, and journalists
• Third place with 1 1/3 point – (T*) – Michael Totten - The real Quaqmire in the Middle East
• Third place with 1 1/3 point – (T*) – Ralph Peters - The Moscow Giveaway
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – Diana West - Victors Don’t Declare Victory Over Each Other
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Star Parker - When Color Trumps Christianity
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Rick Richman / Commentary - The Coming US Peace Plan

Everyone involved with the Flight 93 Memorial knows that the Crescent of Embrace points to Mecca

Thanks to Error Theory:

In 2007, Flight 93 Advisory Commission member Tim Baird told Alec Rawls (the author of these blogburst posts) that everyone at the meetings he attended is fully aware that the giant crescent, originally named the Crescent of Embrace, really does point almost exactly at Mecca. Professor Baird says they all just assume (himself included) that the Mecca orientation must be an innocent coincidence.

Pretty crazy, when they have also been told the meaning of a crescent that Muslims face into to face Mecca. Every mosque is built around a Mecca-direction indicator called a mihrab, and the classic mihrab is crescent shaped. Geometrically, the Crescent of Embrace is the world’s largest mihrab.

However honestly Project Partners believe that the Mecca orientation of the crescent must be a coincidence, this is not what they tell the public. When reporters asked Memorial Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley about the Mecca orientation, she denied it:

"The only thing that orients the memorial is the crash site," she said.

Thinking that the Mecca orientation of the crescent must be a coincidence in no way justifies lying to the public about this explosive information. If Baird’s account is accurate—that the dozens of Memorial Project Partners all know that the giant crescent actually does point to Mecca—then the Memorial Project has a lot of explaining to do. Now an overlooked article from 2007 corroborates Professor Baird’s information.


Dr. Glenn Kashurba

It turns out that a Pennsylvania psychiatrist who has been intimately involved with the memorialization of Flight 93 (writing two books on the subject) argued to a reporter before the July 2007 Memorial Project meeting that the Mecca-orientation of the giant crescent (which he took as a given) should be seen as coincidental:

“When you calculate angles to Mecca - I'm going to be in Washington, D.C., this week, and I'm sure if I calculate angles of the monuments, at least one points to Mecca,” Kashurba said. “I don't know if it will be the White House or the Lincoln Memorial, but at least one will. People looking for a way to support their way of looking at things will look at this in this way for ever and ever.”

If Dr. Kashurba was getting his information from the Memorial Project’s public statements, he would have denied that the crescent points to Mecca. Here is what Memorial Project Partner Patrick White told the press 9 days before the Kashurba story:

Rawls, of Palo Alto, Calif., contends that the centerpiece of the design points toward Mecca.

Rawls’ claims are untrue and “preposterous,” according to Patrick White, Families of Flight 93 vice president. “We went through in detail all his original claims and came away with nothing.”

Kashurba knew better, as did Patrick White himself. The week after his public denial, a local woman asked White how he could be okay with the Mecca orientation of the giant crescent. This time White did not deny the Mecca orientation, but argued that it cannot be seen as honoring Islam because the inexactness of the Mecca orientation would be "disrespectful" to Islam. xs9adzwi2c

Kurds Defy Baghdad, Laying Claim to Land and Oil

BAGHDAD -- With little notice and almost no public debate, Iraq's Kurdish leaders are pushing ahead with a new constitution for their semiautonomous region, a step that has alarmed Iraqi and American officials who fear that the move poses a new threat to the country's unity.

The new constitution, approved by Kurdistan's parliament two weeks ago and scheduled for a referendum this year, underscores the level of mistrust and bad faith between the region and the central government in Baghdad. And it raises the question of whether a peaceful resolution of disputes between the two is possible, despite intensive cajoling by the United States.

The proposed constitution enshrines Kurdish claims to territories and the oil and gas beneath them. But these claims are disputed by both the federal government in Baghdad and ethnic groups on the ground, and were supposed to be resolved in talks begun quietly last month between the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, sponsored by the United Nations and backed by the United States. Instead, the Kurdish parliament pushed ahead and passed the constitution, partly as a message that it would resist pressure from the American and Iraqi governments to make concessions.

The disputed areas, in northern Iraq, are already volatile: There have been several tense confrontations between Kurdish and federal security forces, as well as frequent attacks aimed at inflaming sectarian and ethnic passions there.

The Obama administration, which is gradually withdrawing American troops from Iraq, was surprised and troubled by the Kurdish move. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., sent to Iraq on July 2 for three days, criticized it in diplomatic and indirect, though unmistakably strong, language as "not helpful" to the administration's goal of reconciling Iraq's Arabs and Kurds, in an interview with ABC News.

Mr. Biden said he wanted to discuss the proposed constitution with the Kurdish leadership in person but could not fly to Kurdistan because of sandstorms. Instead he spoke to Kurdish leaders by telephone on Tuesday, and Christopher R. Hill, the new ambassador in Baghdad, met with them in Kurdistan on Wednesday.

American diplomatic and military officials have said the potential for a confrontation with the Kurds has emerged as a threat as worrisome to Iraq's fate as the remnants of the insurgency.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is already not on speaking terms with the Kurdish region's president, Massoud Barzani. Iraqi political leaders have vociferously denounced the constitution as a step toward splintering Iraq.  (continue at AINA)

Friday reading:

My Baby's Back in Town, The Grouch

WND: 'Obama's birth letter: Is this thing for real?', Hyscience

Fuerzas Comando coming up, BlackFive

Atlas Vlogs Sarah Palin - Oorah!

Checking Out the Latest Imports, Obama and Sarkozy checking out women's butts

Aafia Siddiqui Goes To Court, Fore Left

The Trillion Dollar Mulligan, Gina Cobb

Imam Zaid Shakir: The Life of a Muslim “Rock Star”, HAHmed

"Stay at home and pray"

China bans prayer in Mosques, saying "Stay at home and pray".  That's what an unnamed government official told the Associated Press news agency that people in Xinjiang should "stay at home and pray", rather than gathering in mosques, according to the BBC.  I guess those Uighur's in Bermuda, formerly of Gitmo, are feeling pretty good right now.  Also, can you imagine what would happen if we banned prayer in any mosque here in the US?

The order comes after several days of ethnic violence between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese. At least 156 people have been killed so far.

Thousands of troops remain in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, to try to maintain order.

The Chinese authorities have vowed to administer "severe punishment" to those involved in the riots......

'Al-Qaeda links'

The violence began on Sunday when Uighurs rallied to protest against a deadly brawl between Uighurs and Han several weeks ago in a toy factory in southern Guangdong province.

Security has been high in the city since the recent unrest

Officials say 156 people - mostly Han - died in Sunday's violence.

Uighur groups say many more have died, claiming 90% of the dead were Uighurs.

More than 1,400 people are thought to have been detained.

On Thursday, China said it had "a great deal of evidence" that some of those involved in the violence had "training from foreign terrorist groups including Al-Qaeda".

Foreign ministry official Qin Gang did not say what the evidence was, but said the groups were "inextricably linked with three vicious forces from abroad".

Zogby Poll - computer chip in my brain

I took a Zogby poll today and thought some of the questions were pretty interesting.  The poll ranged from the type coffee maker I use, to what I think of Barack Obama (hee hee), to computer chips implanted in my brain.  How would you answer these:

1.  Would you agree to have a computer chip implanted in your brain if it would make you immune to disease?
    Yes
    No
    Not sure


2.  Would you agree to have a computer chip implanted in your brain if it would provide you a storehouse of knowledge?
    Yes
    No
    Not sure


3.  Would you agree to have a computer chip implanted in your brain which would provide you with entertainment?
    Yes
    No
    Not sure

As for me -- NO computer chip in my brain for any reason.

Iran Updates

From Gerard Group International:

"Bassij used a gas that burned our skins its still red and inflamed Confirmed" (source: twitter from Iran)

That tweet was just received from Iran regarding the use of unconventional weapons by the volunteer paramilitary organization (which includes Palestinians, Lebanese Hezabullah, and other who have been brutal against the demonstrators and are not answerable to anyone. The fires of dissent continue to burn in Iran on Thursday as thousands took to the streets to protest against the regime.

The governor of Tehran authorized a "crushing response" to the demonstration, sending paramilitary police, undercover units and Basij volunteers to put down the protests. Twitter messages from the scene cite many injuries and mass arrests at Engelhab Square, in front of Tehran University. Another "Tweet" claimed that the security services sprayed a gas at the crowds that "burned our skin".

Thanks to tools like Twitter and YouTube, this uprising continues, despite the harsh tactics of the government, which has executed at least 20 demonstrators (that we know of), beaten those in prison into falsely admitting foreign ties, filled hospitals with the wounded, and used the undisciplined Bassij to carry out street violence and brutal home invasions.

Cyper Attacks

From Prometheus' Clarion

North Korea Suspected of Cyber-Attacks on the USA and South Korea

DEVELOPING NEWS!

North Korea has been blamed for an attack on dozens of websites in South Korea, paralysing banks, government agencies and internet portals.

Read more here: Telegraph

Posted by Aukmuntr 

Massive Cyber-Attack Hits US Government Agencies and Others

DEVELOPING NEWS!

The United States and South Korea have been under a sustained Cyber-Attack since the 3rd of July.

As of 12:00 EST today the attacks continue unabated creating chaos in the halls of the U.S. Defense establishment and it's South Korean counterpart.

U.S. Targets have been identified as; The US Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department, the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post. Also targeted are the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange.

Amy Kudwa, spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, said the agency's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a notice to federal departments and other partner organizations about the problems and "advised them of steps to take to help mitigate against such attacks."

South Korean intelligence officials believe the attacks were carried out by North Korean or pro-Pyongyang forces. U.S. officials so far have refused to publicly discuss details of the attack or where it might have originated.

The unprecedented scope of the attack illustrates the fact that we as a nation remain under-protected and vulnerable to Cyber warfare. It also confirms the urgent need for new cyber-security measures to be adopted on the National, Municipal, and Corporate level.

Read more as this story develops at: BBC News

Posted by Aukmuntr

News you might have missed...

UK deports more terror threats!, Jihad Watch

All right. So they deported some Methodist eighth graders, but surely this time the British authorities are going after Anjem Chaudary, or Abu Qatada, or Abu Izzadeen, or any of the 4,000 other jihadists in Britain?

Nope. This time they're deporting a Coptic Christian family that faces persecution once back in Egypt. Please sign the petition.

Another Absurd Britannia Alert: "Appeal to save the Mansour family from deportation," from GoPetition, July 4 (thanks to Ibrahim):  (continue)

Welcome to the Police State: 20,000 uniformed troops inside U.S. by 2011, Jihad Watch

It's for our own good

And it will be an Orwellian Police State, too: Thoughtcrime is already subject to ostracism and vilification, and what with the UN ready to codify it, and Obama signaling that he wants to increase the importance and influence of the UN, how long will it stay out of the U.S.?

And why is this necessary? Primarily "to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack." Of course, to call the Muslim community in America to account and compel it to stop teaching Sharia supremacism and hatred of Jews and Christians -- that would be "bigoted." Of course, to halt Muslim immigration in light of the impossibility of distinguishing peaceful Muslims from actual and potential jihadists -- that would be racist. Of course, even to institute some kind of screening of Muslims who enter the country in order to determine their adherence to Sharia principles and to make agitation for Islamic law (stonings, amputations, no free speech, no freedom of conscience, etc.) in this country grounds for deportation -- that would be "Islamophobic."

So if we can't do all that or even anything close to those things, what is left? What can we do? Why, become a Police State, with armed troops roaming the streets. After all, the next terror threat could just as easily come from the local Methodist church as from the local mosque. Better have that Wesleyan Center adequately covered.

"Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security," by Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson for the Washington Post, December 1 (thanks to Anne Crockett):  (continue)

OSAMA BIN LADEN’S TRIP TO L.A. REVEALED, The Last Crusade

Al Qaeda Leader Spent Weeks in USA

By

Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.

thelastcrusade.org.

After years of speculation, the rumors finally have been confirmed.

Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were not the only top al Qaeda operatives to spend some time in the U.S.A.

Osama bin Laden made the trek from Saudi Arabia to the land of the free and the home of the brave in 1978 with his first wife Najwa and his son Omar.

The account of the trip is reported by Najwa bin Laden, Osama’s first wife, in Growing Up Bin Laden, soon to be published by St. Martin’s Press. (continue)

Video: Olbermann: We Have To 'Legally Stop' Glenn Beck,

On the June 30 editon of Beck's show, former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer said: "the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to detonate a major weapon in the United States." Apparently Scheuer thinks that's what it would take to shock the country and its leaders back to their senses. Olbermann was infuriated that Beck didn't "scream at him" or otherwise jump down Scheuer's throat, choosing instead to nod gravely while suggesting that would be the last thing OBL would do.

posted by : Nancy George on July 8, 2009, Family Security Matters

Amendments to the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, which has already been passed by the House, would empower the Attorney General Eric Holder to define gun owners, anti-abortion activists and tax protesters as domestic terrorists in light of recent federal reports that classify millions of Americans as “extremists”. (more at ATS)

Obama's AG Holder to decide who is a 'domestic terrorist' and who is not.....What?

An amendment to a bill swiftly moving through the US Congress will allow the Obama Administration’s Attorney General to classify Americans as domestic terrorists if they are pro-life, pro-gun and anti-big government.

Impeached Florida judge — now a Democrat Party member of the House of Representatives — Rep. Alcee Hastings introduced what some claim is a disturbing piece of legislation. Hasting’s amendment calls for the Attorney General to have discretion over who is called a terrorist and what groups will be treated as terrorist groups.

Hundreds of Troops Become Citizens

American Forces

Press Service Donna Miles

Vice President Joe Biden and Army Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of Multi-National Force - Iraq, presided over a July 4 naturalization ceremony in which 237 service members deployed to Iraq became American citizens.

Republicans gather to fight Obama health care... I'll believe it when I see it.

The weekly  Watcher’s Council Nominations represent some of the most scintilating stuff in the blogsophere.

Join us on Friday for the winning entries.

Council Submissions

• The Provocateur - How Bonds Work (and How Current Policy Will Wreck Them and the Economy With It)
• Right Truth - Pride Or Lack Thereof
• Rhymes With Right - In Re: Palin
• The Glittering Eye - Haeckel and the Development of Nations
• Mere Rhetoric - Prominent Jewish Democrats Double Down On Obama.Unpersuasively.
• Wolf Howling - The Pot Simmers
• Soccer Dad - Extra! Extra! get Your Paper
• Bookworm Room - The Declaration of Independence . . . and chickens?

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: Right Truth – Star Parker - When Color Trumps Christianity
• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Ralph Peters - The Moscow Giveaway
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Reclusive Leftist - Feminists and the mystery of Sarah Palin
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Diana West - Allies Don’t Declare Victory Over Each Other”
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Michael Totten - The Real Quagmire in the Middle East
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Rick Richman / Commentary - The Coming U.S. Peace Plan
• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Seraphic Secrets - The Great Obama Moscow Give-away
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Rubin Reports - The Middle East is a place where wishful
  thinking gets people killed but makes careers for politicians, diplomats,
  academics, and journalists
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – Investor’s Business Daily - Canada’s Single-Prayer Health Care

Satellite Marks the Spot, Uncovers Pirate Weapons Haul

From Wired.com, by Nathan Hodge:

Tanks parked at Kahawa Barracks, northeast of Nairobi (c) DigitalGlobe Inc.

Back in September, Somali pirates boosted the MV Faina, a Ukrainian cargo ship laden with rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns, and T-72 tanks. The pirates then scored a major ransom in return for the arms and the vessel.

But one mystery lingered: The true destination of the Faina’s cargo. Kenya’s government said the weapons and munitions were for its military, but observers speculated that they were intended for the breakaway government of South Sudan.

With the aid of some satellite analysis, Jane’s Defence Weekly has the answer: The weapons were part of a series of weapons shipments bound for South Sudan. JDW Middle East/Africa editor Lauren Gelfand and Jane’s imagery analyst Allison Puccioni drew on extensive satellite imagery to track the movement of the T-72s from the port of Mombasa, Kenya, to South Sudan; they also confirmed previous arms shipments from Ukraine.

It’s yet another example of how commercial imagery satellites are allowing private citizens to gather intelligence in ways that only government-funded spies could do before. George Mason University doctoral candidate Curtis Melvin uses such snapshots form space to plot out North Korea’s military bases.  The News of Pakistan found in a Google Earth cache pictures of U.S. drones parked on Pakistani runways.

Images captured by DigitalGlobe satellites in March 2009 showed 33 tanks parked at Kahawa Barracks northeast of Nairobi (pictured); in parallel, satellite imagery captured from southern Sudan showed tracked vehicles, parked under camouflage, at a Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) compound northeast of Juba, the capital of South Sudan. Jane’s observed that SPLA attempts to conceal the location “were deliberate and masterful, but dimensional analysis, tracked-vehicle scarring and the staging of three vehicles in a tactical perimeter established the concealed vehicles as tanks.” 

All told, Jane’sestimates that South Sudan has ordered around 100 main battle tanks. Observers have worried that an arms race is now under way between the Khartoum government and the government of South Sudan. A comprehensive peace deal was reached in 2005 after two decades of civil war, but that agreement has recently frayed; a referendum in 2011 opens the possibility that South Sudan may secede.

[PHOTO: DigitalGlobe Inc.]

Also see Somali Pirated Free Arms Ship

Love her or hate her -- you are talking about her

As has been stated before, the conventional wisdom in Washington is if you have bad news you bury it by announcing it late on Friday afternoon.   Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to Sarah Palin.  She announced that she was resigning her position as Governor of Alaska and media on both sides of the isle can't stop talking about her.  One must ask why?    Why is she so hated, feared, loved???  

During the last presidential elections, Sarah Palin said many things that most of us knew to be true, and many have since proven to be true, like Barack Obama paling around with terrorists.  Just being a private citizen, like that's a bad thing, Sarah Palin can truly speak her mind and share her beliefs, beliefs that so many American citizens also share.

According to a Gallup Poll,  Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal.  You can't say that about our present elected officials, but it is true of private citizens.

I do not believe that Sarah Palin is leaving politics forever [see my predictions below].  Just look at the words she used in her announcement ... "I WILL,  ...STAND FOR... FIGHT FOR...  CONTINUE TO...  SPEAK OUT..."  Also look at the reasons for resigning vs reasons to stay on, and it is obvious she has done the right thing for her family, her future, Alaska's future and the future of America.  She is putting Alaska first, leaving her position of Governor which brought with it endless frivolous lawsuits draining both Alaska and the Palin family financially.  Jay Valentine says:
 

The fight is between an out of control government led by media and government elites and common sense Americans, of both parties, who have had enough.  Sarah Palin is in the enviable, although personally painful position, of being the "anti elite" voice of common sense and shared American values. 

The vicious left put her there and now they may live to regret it. [snip]

What an irony if the only American President who can make a 3 point shot were taken out by a point guard who came up to his shoulder.  And if the guard was a chick -- who went to a no name school?

After reading J.R. Dunn's thoughts on Sarah Palin and the utterly retarded and useless Republican Party (see below), I predict that the country may be ripe for a third party -- a true Conservative party -- and Sarah Palin will be leading the charge.  Either that, or she will bust the old rank and file of the GOP wide open, shake that useless tree free of all the dead wood and set it back on the right direction.

She will be back. Not for 2012. The GOP has its plans already worked out. Very clever ones, too. The Republicans will do what they always do when they're up against it: grab an empty suit and run around shaking it in people's faces while shouting, "Here's the man!" By 2012, after his policies really hit home, as gas and home fuel prices triple and quadruple, as medical rationing begins, as the renewed Axis of Evil runs wild across Eurasia, Obama will be ready to drop. At that point he could be defeated by a ticket consisting of Charley Manson and Jojo the Dogface Boy. But the GOP will blow it all the same. Exactly as the party did in '96, following the same script to the letter. They will, to coin a phrase, Mitt it up.

That moment will mark the start of a new phase for Sarah Palin. The exquisite branch of conservatism will drift away, assuring each other that "It's still possible to live well in a dying civilization." The GOP operatives will, as always, be blaming the "legacy of Reagan" and looking for a RINO who can somehow fool the backwoods rubes. Obama will spend his entire second term racing back and forth trying to put out forest fires using buckets with holes in them. Palin's enemies will have destroyed themselves, and her moment will come at last.  (continue)

All the Palin bashing from the Left and even some from the RINOs in the Right, may be helping Palin rather than hurting her.  Conservatives are the true feminists, and Sarah Palin is the leader.  Sarah Palin doesn't need more than twenty attendants costing tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars like Michelle Obama has, she cooks her own meals, washes her own clothes, takes care of her own family, hunts, shoots, fishes, attends church regularly, she loves her husband and he loves her, she can lead a town as mayor, a state as governor, or a country as president ...  That is a feminist in the true Conservative sense.  That's a feminist that men love, women respect, and children can look up to.

I understand Palin will give an interview to Fox News today and I look forward to hearing what she has to say, just as I look forward to following her plans for the next several years.

Go Sarah Go!

Al Franken, Chickenhawk

Al Franken, Chickenhawk

By Anthony Gregory, The Independent Institute

I used to love Franken on Saturday Night Live. Although his Stuart Smally character got old very quickly, he did a wonderful Paul Tsongas impression. I’d link to an example on YouTube, but NBC takes its intellectual property very seriously and therefore hundreds of the most humorous bits ever to air on late night television have been tragically withheld from us.

I enjoyed his 2003 book Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Well, I enjoyed the first half, much of which was a trenchant critique of modern, Fox-style conservatism. Some of the worst distortions of the Bush-era right were properly put in their place. The second half was just left-liberal boilerplate.

But this is what has always stuck in my mind about Franken’s book. It includes an illustrated chapter called “Operation Chickenhawk: Episode One” in which he characterizes many modern war advocates as hypocrites for their effortless success in dodging “service” in Vietnam. The chapter discusses such prominent hawks as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill O’Reilly, and Bill Bennett. But one big problem with this humorous chapter is it includes Pat Buchanan, who, although we might all agree holds many bad positions, including on the Cold War, did not support the Iraq War. But do you know who did? Al Franken.

In chapter 41 of Liars, Franken discusses how he was among the many deceived about the war, convinced by Bush of its necessity because, after all, “the world changed” on 9/11, and the U.S. government needed to deal with Saddam’s infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction. Franken cites the uranium-from-Niger lie as the piece of evidence that clinched it for him. When it became politically correct to point out that Bush had lied the country into war, Franken felt so betrayed.

But actually, that uranium lie was discredited before the war even began. Given that he had so many researchers helping him with his book, he should have known that.

Besides, even if he did believe every single piece of propaganda about Saddam’s non-existent weapons program—and here, by the way, is my Independent Institute article from before the war, explaining why we could not trust the propaganda and why the case for war was so transparently without credibility—he should have still opposed the war. There was never any justifiable reason to support Bush’s plan to wage aggressive war on the people of Iraq, to murder many thousands of them, even if you believed Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is an act of aggression to start a war, even if the enemy has scary weapons. The U.S. has a weapons stockpile that makes all the Middle East countries combined—even including Israel—seem minor in comparison. But that sure didn’t justify 9/11, did it?

Al Franken is a warmonger who turned against Bush only after it became politically correct to do so, and only turned against the war to score partisan points. He is, in principle, no less committed to U.S. imperialism and mass killing than are the neocons, even if his rhetoric isn’t nearly as offensively bloodthirsty as theirs is. In fact, his book also reveres Lincoln, one of the greatest warmongers in U.S. history.

This is all you need to know about the Franken left: They aren’t quite as crazy as the neocon right when they discuss foreign policy, but they are every bit as devoted to U.S. empire and aggressive war. And Iraq, even given Bush’s propaganda, was still, by any measure, an aggressive war, and it still is an aggressive occupation.

Am I being too harsh? I’d be happy to see Franken prove me wrong. Next chance he gets, he can refuse to finance Obama’s bloody exploits in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He can stand by principle and resist the urge to vote with the hordes to continue to appropriate our tax dollars to slaughter abroad. If he turns out to be a consistent critic of the Obama administration on questions of war and peace, I will apologize and praise his principle to the skies. But if he does vote to continue sending Americans to die and kill, he is no better than the lying liars he has made a fortune criticizing. He is no better than the chickenhawks he lambastes, and certainly not nearly as good an opponent of jingoism and aggressive war as the much more thoughtful, if sometimes inconsistent, Pat Buchanan.

U.S.-Russian Nuclear Agreement: Good News and Bad News

U.S.-Russian Nuclear Agreement: Good News and Bad News

by Robert Higgs, The Independent Institute

According to an AP report, U.S. president Barack Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev have reached an understanding to reduce their countries’ nuclear arsenals. Under treaties currently in force, each side is permitted to have as many as 2,200 warheads and 1,600 launch vehicles. The understanding, which would serve as guidance for negotiators formulating a new arms-control treaty, pushes the totals down to as few as 1,500 warheads and 500-1,100 launch vehicles on each side.

The good news is that reducing the number of such weapons helps to reduce the risks associated with them—still the most critical threat to humanity, notwithstanding the end of the Cold War twenty years ago.

The bad news is that even if the totals should ultimately be reduced to the ranges stipulated in the agreement, both sides will still have an absurdly large number of such weapons. It is fair to say that a nuclear exchange between these two countries that involved only a hundred large warheads on each side would wreak almost unimaginable death and destruction and extend its consequent horrors throughout the entire world, owing to the spread of radiation and the calamitous effects on the world economy.

What possible benefit warrants the continuing retention of such horrifying potential for global harm by either government? International communism is defunct as a serious threat to mankind. Even if its containment justified the maintenance of the gigantic U.S. nuclear arsenal during the Cold War—a highly debatable proposition in itself—no such justification now exists.

Obama and Medvedev have undertaken to move their governments in the right direction, but they need to move them much, much farther. Nothing short of scrapping these horrible, intrinsically in discriminating weapons entirely will suffice to eliminate their terrible threat to mankind and other living creatures.

Other suggested reading, not necessarily related:

A Good Time To Remember Barack Obama's "Disarm America" Campaign Speech

Rick Warren: Faux-Pastor gets Dhimmi Award

On Obama's Watch

Hutington Post Blogger Apologizes For Attack On Sarah Palin

Muslim funeral for Michael Jackson???

In 2008 I shared reports that Michael Jackson had quietly converted to Islam.  Read the details here.  Now reports are surfacing that he will have a Muslim funeral.  I'm not sure if I buy any of the Muslim-Michael connection, but it makes for interesting reading if iyou are a rabid Michael Jackson fan.  From HAHmed:

Michael Jackson Will Have a Muslim Funeral!

Source: Ace Show Biz

A source close to the Jacksons has exclusively revealed to X17 Online that family will likely have a traditional Muslim burial for late Michael Jackson. “The family is considering following the Muslim burial traditions because they believe Michael would have wanted to be laid to rest in keeping with his new-found religious beliefs,” says the source.

“Michael’s brother Jermaine is educating the family as to the special rites because he feels it’s important to bury his brother according to the Muslim way,” adds the source. Despite earlier reports that both public and private memorial services for the late music performer have been set to be held this week, there has been no official confirmation just yet from Michael’s family on the location where his body will be laid to rest.

Michael Jackson was reported converting to Islam in late 2008, years after expressing his interest to join the faith. He later on changed his name into “Mikaeel”, which was meant as a reference to the name of one of Allah ’s angels.

In Muslim burial, per X17 Online, someone’s body “has to be cleaned, but ideally not embalmed, and wrapped in a white sheet, and it must be buried facing Mecca. The Koran also dictates that the body be buried as close to the place of death and as soon after death as possible. There should be no tombstone near the grave.”

I share, you decide.

We are what we do

The truth is, people notice what we actually do rather than what we say, "actions speak louder than words."  Star Parker writes "When color trumps Christianity", directed at Black Christians.  She points out that Obama equated the homosexual political movement to the black civil rights movement saying,  "Obama sees the black community as being a little slow on the uptake to grasp that homosexuality and same sex marriage are okay. There still are those, according to him, "who don't yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters..."

President Obama hosted a reception at the White House celebrating LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride month Black Christians should take note and learn a few things about our black President.

As they say, we are what we do.

It tells us something that Mr. Obama had no time to host an event for the National Day of Prayer.

Nor did he have time to accept the invitation to convey greetings and a few remarks to the couple hundred thousand who came to Washington, as they do every January, for the March for Life.  (continue reading)

Indeed we are watching United States President Barack Obama, watching what he says and what he does.  He seemed to have plenty time for Muslim events, yet no time for Christian events. 

He claims to be a strong Christian, yet can can't seem to find a church that he and Michelle can comfortably join.  He had no problem staying in Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church year after year.  Yes, you are what you do Obama, and your actions are loud and clear.

Obama and Michelle snubbed French President Nicolas Sarkozy and wife while in France, refusing a dinner invitation.  Obama had no problem bowing down to Saudi King Abdullah, yet he displayed the souls of his shoes (an insulting action) to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Obama has a record of being for live-birth abortions and all abortions -- heaven forbid anyone should be burdened with a baby -- Obama's words not mine.  But no concern for Iranian women and men being shot in the streets of Iran as they protest rigged elections and pray for freedom and democracy.  I guess it's no burden for Iranian women to be arrested, beaten, killed -- or for Israeli women and children to have missiles shot at their homes from Gaza.

Obama is buddies with dictators, but tells Americans he doesn't want to take over private business, as he does just that.  He's for free and open elections [yet ACORN seems to have helped get him elected and are now doing our census, which will affect upcoming elections].  Words and actions ...

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.  There was a time when our word was our bond, but that certainly does not go for politicians these days.  No we don't listen to their words any more,  we watch their actions.  Anyone planning to run for office in 2010 and 2012 needs to take need -- You are what you do and I've got my eye on you!

The Significance of Ayn Rand's Novel Atlas Shrugged

The Significance of Ayn Rand's Novel Atlas Shrugged
From The Ayn Rand Institute


"I refuse to apologize for my ability -- I refuse to apologize for my success -- I refuse to apologize for my money."

The U.S. economy is in shambles, with every nightly newscast bringing word of new government interventions. Americans are alarmed and desperate for answers: How did we get here? How will we recover? That might sound like a description of today's world, but in fact it's also a sketch of the world Ayn Rand created in her classic novel Atlas Shrugged.
 
The tea parties testify to the outrage that many Americans feel toward Washington's explosive growth in the past few decades -- especially under Presidents Bush and Obama. Atlas Shrugged not only gives voice to this outrage, it provides both a profound explanation of the cause of today's crisis -- and a positive, radical solution to it.
 
Why is it that every problem seems to call for increased government intervention at the expense of freedom? Why is it that businessmen inevitably take the blame for any crisis? Why are the most competent, most successful Americans smeared as greedy and selfish? To these questions and many others, Atlas Shrugged gives answers unlike anything you've ever heard.    

"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns -- or dollars. Take your choice -- there is no other -- and your time is running out."

* * * 

"If we who were the movers, the providers, the benefactors of mankind, were willing to let the brand of evil be stamped upon us, and silently to bear punishment for our virtues -- what sort of ‘good' did we expect to triumph in the world?"

* * *

'Yes, this is an age of moral crisis. You are bearing punishment for your evil. But it is not man who is now on trial and it is not human nature that will now take the blame. It is your moral code that's through, this time. Your moral code has reached its climax, the blind alley at the end of its course. And if you wish to go on living, what you now need is not to return to morality . . . but to discover it."

Learn the meaning of these quotes -- and the revolutionary ideas behind them -- by picking up Atlas Shrugged. Discover why Ayn Rand held that nothing less than a total separation between state and economics can save this country. Discover Ayn Rand's defense of the individual's moral right to pursue his own happiness -- the indispensable precondition of his political right to pursue his own happiness. Discover a gripping novel that challenges today's intellectual mainstream and provides an alternative to the anti-freedom ideas that are undermining American liberty.
 
Discover Atlas Shrugged.

©2009 The Ayn Rand Institute

Author Bio
The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Irvine, California, works to introduce young people to Ayn Rand’s novels, to support scholarship and research based on her ideas, and to promote the principles of reason, rational self-interest, individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism to the widest possible audience. The Institute is named for novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982), who is best known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. ARI has a distinguished Board of Directors and a staff of about 35 employees. 

For more information about ARI, please visit http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=index

Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936, followed by Anthem. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved a spectacular and enduring success. Rand's unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are set forth in such books as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and The Romantic Manifesto. Ayn Rand died in 1982.

I received the above via email.  I have friends and fellow bloggers who have varying opinions of Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged.  What say you?

No bi-partisan agreements on health care -- please!

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee on government health care says, "If we can reach a compromise, we can get this done by Aug. 8 or at least get it out of committee by Aug. 8. ...   We'll get this done because we're doing it in a bipartisan way."  NO NO NO!  Screw bipartisanship -- JUST SAY NO!

Republicans should not be looking for a way to work with the Democrats on this.  They should not be presenting their own version of government health care.  They should be standing up and shouting NO NO NO!!!!

Once government run health care is installed, we will be stuck with it forever.  Where are the rational voices in opposition to this???

Pride, or lack thereof...

On July 4, 2009, America's Independence Day, hubby and I were on our way to a big celebration where his band was the entertainment, when we heard the news that Steve McNair had been found shot in Nashville Tennessee in an apparent murders suicide.  We live in Tennessee and are Titans fans.  I always thought of McNair as a good man, a faithful husband to his wife of 12 years Mechelle and loving father to his four children.  Apparently McNair had a 4 month affair with 20 year old Iranian Sahel Kazemi, after meeting her at Dave & Busters in Nashville where she worked as a waitress.  Story and pictures here, here.  Kazemi's sister said McNair told her he would be divorced in two weeks and she thought they would move in together permanently.  This might be news to Mrs. McNair.

Do people no longer have pride in themselves, in their relationships, in agreements that they make?  When people get famous and rich, do they no longer think their word is their bond?  We seem to be living in a time when so many people thing they are entitled to get and do anything they want without taking responsibility.

People buy houses, sign loan contracts, with full knowledge that they do not have the income to actually repay the loan.  Then they expect the government, a/k/a you and me, to bail them out.  Businesses make bad loans, congress makes it possible for the bad loans to be made, no one takes responsibility, and the rest of us who do take pride in ourselves, who think our word is our bond, end up paying for their bad judgment.
Society pays for the bad judgment of individuals.

People don't have insurance, don't have jobs, don't have food, don't have shelter, don't provide for their families, but expect somebody else to take care of it for them.  Some think they can cheat, lie, steal, and it's OK, because it's them.

Yesterday was America's Independence Day and it may have been Mrs. McNair's independence day also.  We have no idea what McNair put her through during their marriage. The lesson here is that payday comes someday, you can't go on forever thinking you are special and can do whatever you want,  that no one will find out, that no one will be hurt -- because that's not true.

Our government has promised to be all things to all people, trust us they say, we know what's best for you -- government knows what vehicles you should drive, what kind of house you should live in, what kind of energy you can use, what you must do to your own house before you can sell it, what medical treatment you can and can't have ...

We as Conservative Americans, and even some on the Left, know this is wrong.  We know that personal pride in personal accomplishment, in taking care of our own, in creating, producing, inventing, giving our word and keeping it, are everything.  We want that back for our nation.  We want that back for our politicians, for our government, for our children.

 The enunciation of those core rights — “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” — was an almost staggering statement in 1776, when most of the world labored under the rule of despots.

...  Our representative democracy, coupled with the enormous freedoms of our daily lives, seem so natural, as if preordained.  The result of this unthinking acceptance of these rights is that many of us are not even grateful for the blessings they confer, viewing the rights more as burdens, than benefits.

Why do I say this last?  Because more and more people resent the fact that one has to work for the basic freedoms the Founders risked their lives to institute.  Sometimes one has to fight and die for them.  -- The Declaration of Independence and ... chickens! by Bookworm Room

I'm sick of people thinking they are special because they are politicians, or sports heroes, or just your run-of-the-mill person in America who thinks you are different, you are special, you don't have to abide by rules and morals, and that you deserve special treatment.  Take pride in who you are, in what you stand for, in what you promise whether it is to an institution or to your spouse.

July 4th: Depend on us day.

July 4th: Depend on us day.

By R.J. Godlewski
© July 2, 2009, All Rights Reserved.
(Right Truth Exclusive)

“Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

“I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” 

Gen. George S. Patton

    As a nation rapidly losing its heritage through ever enlarging federal entitlement programs, I have spawned mixed emotions regarding celebrating our Independence Day holiday this year. On the one hand, I am extremely proud of everything that my country has achieved over the past 233 years. Did ancient Egypt teach men to fly? Did ancient Rome land upon the moon? Did Muhammad invent rock and roll? Of course, there’s always the “other hand” to such arguments. Would our founding fathers have anticipated the size and intrusiveness of our present government? Would Patrick Henry accept a commander-in-chief who berates his own nation at every turn? Would the inventors of the Boston Tea Party have believed that over two hundred years into the future there would still be a need to address tax grievances in America?

    Make no mistake about it; our founding fathers did not imagine for a moment that their miniscule nation would survive two centuries into the future. They were realists, not idealists. What inspired them to throw caution into the wind and risk everything was not that their new country was the panacea for human rights, but that their concept of a free and responsible individual was. This was unheard of at the time. For thousands of years, civilization had been patterned on the concept that the few ruled the many.  There were kings and reagents, administrators and emperors, but few outside the social elite had a prayer of a chance to impart change. In England, even the lords could not address the crown without bowing their way backwards out of his or her presence.

    Our founders saw things differently. They were driven to extremes as evident by the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

    In our modern, politically correct environment, it is considered sacrilege to use the term founding “fathers” but it is obvious that they possessed balls nevertheless. These tiny thirteen countries willingly signed their own death warrant. They told the most powerful and, arguably, most unstable monarch in the world that people were the foundation that any government rested upon and to add salt to an opening wound, any one person was equal to that very same monarch and possessed the very same rights, freedoms, and opportunities. Think about it. I doubt very much that you can.

    In 2009, we are afraid to say that while singer Michael Jackson may have had extraordinary musical talent, he was by no means a “king” (of pop or otherwise) and was probably just as disturbed (if not more so) than George III. Nearing the conclusion of the first decade of the 21st century, our media – ascribed to uphold our best interests by way of journalistic tradition – is afraid to acknowledge that President Barack Obama is by no means either a king or a messiah. That he is simply a man deriving his “powers from the consent of the governed”.

    This is precisely why my soul remains heavy and sad during this particular period within our history. I feel that we have come to celebrate “Independence Day” less than we celebrate the “Fourth of July”. We have diluted the day as much as we have collectively diluted Christmas into mere “Holidays”. By doing so, we gravely misjudge the reasoning and purpose behind both. Men are to be free and governed, not ruled and subjugated. Our national leadership is supposed to listen to our voices, not act upon their preferences within secretive sessions, late night votes, and subliminal agendas.

    Our “coordinator in chief”, as C4ISR Journal refers to the president, is but a man – an employee of “We the People” – and his fundamental responsibility is to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Not even a year into office and he has already trash talked his nation, commandeered the auto, banking, and student loan industries, and is on the verge of enforcing national healthcare. King George had less control over the colonists. King Philip of Spain conquered an entire hemisphere merely by controlling the mercury used to refine gold – the rest of New World exploration was left to opportunists, explorers, merchants, and malcontents, the kind of people that felt quite at home developing a new nation of individuals.

    Sovereignty has been sucked from our populace. We are no longer a people reared on the responsibilities and opportunities of the individual. We have simply become incapable of effort. I remember my own father praising the merits of Franklin Roosevelt’s Social Security program: “He made it so that I would no longer have to work!” I knew what my father meant; after working his life away in hot, filthy, automotive forging plants, when both emphysema and a mangled foot made it difficult to continue on, he was able to “retire”. I seriously doubt, however, that President Roosevelt expected my father to be retired for decades. Then again, what could you expect from someone who thought that he deserved to be president for at least sixteen years?

    Our culture ceased being independent when those amongst us considered Social Security to be “their money”, when new college graduates mandated that the federal government do something to “guarantee” them employment, and when those who have made piss-poor decisions demanded that the rest of us absolve them of all responsibilities for their indiscretions. Things became terminal when our elected officials made it a crime to challenge the unrepentant, to seek out individuality, and, most of all, to consider that inalienable rights came as a gift from God and not legislated as privileges by those currently in power.

    Therefore, I wish to extend to all, a very happy and enjoyable Fourth of July. Have fun at your weekend barbecues, your sporting events, and watching your multitude of fireworks displays. Remember, always, to do precisely what your government tells you to do. Listen obediently to your president, your Congress, and your Senate. Do exactly as they tell you to do. Normally, I would extend congratulations on experiencing another Independence Day but, frankly, I do not think that you possess the necessary balls to be an American…

.Ray Charles, America...

.

Patton Speech, 2009... .

.

You can't take a stand, sitting on your butt.

Sarah Palin: Crazy like a fox!

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has resigned her position and most of the immediate comments are very negative.  I have a very different take -- I believe this is a stroke of genius on Palin's part.  She is saving Alaska from the constant trashing from the Left, from the continuous frivolous lawsuits and the cost of defending them.  Her comments were from the heart, not scripted and certainly not from a teleprompter.  Palin can use this time to travel, educate herself and improve her shortcomings, write a book, spend time with her family, travel across this great nation and re-introduce herself to Americans.

I could always be wrong and her enemies could be right.  Some suggest there may be illness in the family; or trouble with Sarah and Todd; or some deep dark secret yet uncovered... Anything is possible but remember, Sarah Palin is a candidate like we have never seen before.  She is real.

She emphasized today what she believes in:  Conservatism; capitalism; freedom; security; military; small government; low taxes; ...

Mitt Romney and the other rejects from 2008 elections -- LOOK OUT!

Across the nation Democrats are shaking in their boots!

Go Sarah!  Here's her press conference, thanks to FireDogLake:

.

.

The Watcher of Weasels wishes all of you a safe and enjoyable Independence Day celebration!  Check out the winning articles (Right Truth came in second)

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 points! – The Razor - Settlement
• Second place with 1 1/3 points – (T*) – Right Truth - LIFE
• Second place with 1 1/3 points – (T*) – The Glittering Eye - Affording Everything
• Third place with 2/3 point – (T*) – The Provocateur - The Libertarians Downfall: Conspiracy Theories
• Third place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Joshuapundit - Masquerade In iran
• Third place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Mere Rhetoric - Shh… Massachusetts Proves Mandate-Based Health Reform Will Be A Disaster
• Fourth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Wolf Howling - Politicized Science
• Fourth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Soccer Dad - Diehl me out

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! – Fausta’s Blog - Responses to “Coup in Honduras – Correction: This is NOT a coup”
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – Christina Hoff Sommers - Persistent Myths in Feminist Scholarship
• Third place with 1 point – (T*) – The League of Ordinary Gentlemen - Iraq June 30th
• Third place with 1 point – (T*) – EU Referendum - Rigging The Debate
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Delaware Liberal - Should Sanford Resign?
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (T*) – Diana West - “Role of Women in Iran Protest Kindles Hope”…OF WHAT?
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – American Daughter - Religion and Politics Don’t Mix
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (T*) – Financial Times - Obama is Choosing to be Weak

Of Flies and Men: The Bizarre World of PETA

Of Flies and Men: The Bizarre World of PETA

By: Paul A. Ibbetson

“Save the whales, save the snails!” Comedian George Carlin had it right when he talked about the audacity and craziness of some to misplace priorities on where to put a helping hand when it comes to people and the planet. When it comes to organizations that ‘break from the norm’ the most, when balancing the value between people and animals, PETA has to be near the top of the list.

PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was founded in 1980. On the periphery, the organization seems somewhat benign, if not wholesome, in their stated mission of working to decrease the abuse of animals. If you dig a little deeper, you would find that the organization believes that animals should not only be saved from cruel experiments, but also from being used by man for clothing, or even to be eaten. It doesn’t take very long for a grounded individual to begin looking askew at this radical leftist organization, and why not? In reality, to endorse PETA, one has to take oneself several steps down the food chain.

We can see that humans are not so welcome in PETA’s view of things, with their continuous onslaught on free market organizations, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken. Despite the organization’s charges of cruelty to chickens by the KFC restaurant chain, their own organization statement that animals should not be consumed by humans brings thinking people to the simple fact that KFC will never be able to throw PETA ‘a bone’ they will accept. Despite this fact, PETA members go straight to the gutter to attempt to save potential chickens in distress. Like a deranged cult group, the young and impressionable (almost exclusively female) are recruited, stripped, and sent all but naked into the streets to decry the fate of a chicken, bird, rabbit, you name it. In what should enrage the feminist groups around the globe, PETA objectifies partially nude women in bondage-like ‘cage’ depictions that reduce women to nothing more than cheap sex objects. In other words, PETA attempts to swap one form of ‘meat’ with another form of the same. This activity is, in a word, shameful.

The depths that this organization will go to are potentially limitless. PETA recently admonished President Barack Obama for killing an annoying fly during a television interview. While this may be the toughest foe that President Obama actually takes on, PETA made it clear that the fly ranks as high as any creature under their protection from the abuse of man. To top off the lunacy, PETA sent the president a “capture and release” device for future fly encounters.

Groups such as PETA warrant more than the simple ‘eye-roll’ we often give radical leftist organizations. In my opinion, PETA’s bizarre equating of human and animal as being equal reflects not so much a love for the creatures of the planet, but an underlying hatred of humans. The fact that they actively denigrate their followers is only further proof of a twisted philosophy in action. Any group or organization that diminishes the worth and value of mankind, be it to certain religions, social groups, race-baiting groups, or even those cute little animals, should be a concern to everyone.

 
Paul A. Ibbetson is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State University, and is currently completing his PhD. in sociology at Kansas State University. Paul is the author of the books Living Under The Patriot Act: Educating A Society and Feeding Lions: Sharing The Conservative Philosophy In A Politically Hostile World. Paul is also the radio host of the Kansas Broadcasting Association’s 2008 and 2009 Entertainment Program of the Year, Conscience of Kansas airing on KSDB Manhattan 91.9 FM. For interviews or questions, please contact Ibbetson91.9@gmail.com or go to www.IbbetsonUSA.com.

Hamas Military Academy

Called the Abdullah Azzam Academy and located in Nusseirat in the central Gaza Strip, the Hamas military academy began in 2006 and according to a Hamas DVD found during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip such subjects as bomb-making, self-defense, wireless communications, camouflage and Islamic indoctrination are taught.    (World Tribune)

Hamas Political Bureau Head Khaled Mash'al said:  "We must combine resistance with diplomacy"

In a June 25, 2009 speech, Hamas political bureau head Khaled Mash'al focused mainly on the recent speeches by U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, and on the intra-Palestinian reconciliation talks. About Obama, Mash'al said that the U.S. had changed its tone vis-à-vis the Middle East, but that the change must be expressed in deeds, not words. Responding to Netanyahu's speech, Mash'al rejected the conditions set by the Israeli prime minister, adding that the Palestinians must be wary of the danger of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. He clarified that his movement had agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the June 4, 1967 borders, but that it insisted on the right of return, and rejected alternatives such as naturalizing Palestinian refugees in their countries of residence or regarding Jordan as the Palestinian homeland. Mash'al also rejected the notion of a demilitarized Palestinian state, and said that resistance was a strategy for liberating the homeland and restoring the Palestinians' rights.  (continue at MEMRI)

Yep, mix in a little fake diplomacy with the bomb-making, self-defense, wireless communications, camouflage and Islamic indoctrination ...  Look out Israel.