Judge Bates Not Consistent? You Be The Judge

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates recently ruled the Bush administration officials must report to Congress and testify regarding the fired 9 Federal Judges. While Democrats are applauding him for his work, it wasn't long ago that they were seething, castigating this same Judge for siding with Bush on wiretapping and other national security issues.

Judge Bates sits on the national security court. At that time he refused to allow releasing of the documents he was convinced would reveal closely guarded secrets that enemies could used to evade detection or disrupt intelligence activities. Apparently, there were no national securities involved in his latest ruling that the Bush's White House advisors must testify in Congress. In the prior case, the judge was more concerned with sources that could destroyed, targets tipped off and diplomatic relations damaged.

At that time the Democrats were ready to lynch this judge. "All these possible harms are real and significant and, quite frankly, beyond debate," Bates wrote.

Of further interest, Bates was the sole judge on FISA who signed the opinion, which means that he alone may have made the decision.

Before we proceed further, should we note that Bates writes in his own official court biography, "Judge Bates was on detail as Deputy Independent Counsel for the Whitewater investigation from 1995 to mid-1997."

"Fancy that," said angry Democrats. "If ever there was an indication of Omerta to the right wing, it was serving as a Federalist Club attorney with the Ken Starr jihad.

But let's move on to the last few years.

When the General Accounting Office legally sought to compel Cheney to release the members of his secret energy task force, Judge Bates ruled on behalf of Cheney and against the GAO, an agency of Congress. Bates claimed that the GAO did not have "standing" to file suit against Cheney (echoes of unitary authority thinking here).

And remember that civil suit brought by Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson against various rogues in the Bush Administration? Guess who dismissed it? Judge John D. Bates. Bates claimed that the administration had the right to rebut Joe Wilson's "criticisms."

In 2002, Bates ruled that 32 members of Congress had no "standing" to sue the Bush Administration for unilaterally withdrawing from an ABM treaty.

I would have to say here is a judge who is in no one's pocket. That is a good sign, for the judiciary must be independent even of the president who appointed and the Congress who approved his appointment. That's the American way, so let's not be harsh on him on the current ruling about the firing of lower judges by the Attorney General

Bush Loses Court Battle

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Bush's contention that senior White House advisers are immune from subpoenas. Congress is as excited and on a high, something akin to a soaring sugar spike in a kid in a candy store. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House panel, said let the hearings begin. The sooner the better, because if it comes before the elections Democrats can make political hay.

But they should get off their political high quickly. This ruling will surely be appealed and that could take months. The Hearings would concern the controversy that the Associated Press said "scandalized the Justice Department" and led to the resignation of a longtime presidential confidant, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It sided with Congress' alleged power to investigate the executive branch via demanding Presidential assistants come in and tell all. If you call it a scandal it is because the liberals waved their magic wand over the media and said, "Let's call it a scandal and get those ^^&&***&*** Republicans."

But the ruling hands a temporary victory to Democrats probing the dismissal of nine federal prosecutors and highlights a power struggle that goes on between the president and Congress no matter who's the chief executive.

The unprecedented ruling undercut three presidential confidants who have defied congressional subpoenas for information that Bush says is protected by executive privilege. The reason my Democrats want hearings in September is all political--it coincides with the height of election season.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House could soon vote on a contempt citation against one of the three officials, Karl Rove, formerly Bush's top adviser.

"It certainly strengthens our hand," she said of the ruling. "This decision should send a clear signal to the Bush administration that it must cooperate fully with Congress and that former administration officials Harriet Miers and Karl Rove must testify before Congress."

The administration will likely appeal. They also could seek a stay that would suspend any further congressional proceedings.

"We disagree with the district court's decision," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. With only a few months left in Bush's presidency, there appears to be no sense of urgency to make the next move.

"I have not yet talked with anyone at the White House ... and don't expect that this matter will be finally resolved in the very near future," Rove attorney Robert Luskin said in an e-mail.

The case marked the first time Congress ever has gone to court to demand the testimony of White House aides. These things are usually worked out by compromise, not in the courts. What has become of our government that that Congress is so "sue happy."

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge John Bates said there's no legal basis for Bush's argument that his former legal counsel, Miers, must appear before Congress. If she wants to refuse to testify, he said, she must do so in person. That should be easy. Just go over there and refuse to testify because the matter is in dispute and being appealed. Let you attorney do it. The committee also has sought to force White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten to release documents on any role the White House may have played in the prosecutor firings.

"Harriet Miers is not immune from compelled congressional process; she is legally required to testify pursuant to a duly issued congressional subpoena," Bates wrote. He said that both Bolten and Miers must give Congress all nonprivileged documents related to the firings.

Unfortunately, Bates was President Bush's choice to be appointed to the bench. What's wrong with him. He's too liberal, by far. And he is verbose. He could have given his opinion in one page. He used 93-page to give his opinion rejecting administration's legal arguments. No one said he isn't independent.

He said the executive branch could not point to a single case in which courts held that White House aides were immune from congressional subpoenas.
I'll bet if I looked long and hard I could find at lest one case. It has to do with Hillary and Bill Clinton and the death of Vince Foster...Hillary was asked to produce the file and Congress and the court gave her a pass when she said simply, "I misplaced or lost it." Sure, you did!

"That simple yet critical fact bears repeating: The asserted absolute immunity claim here is entirely unsupported by existing case law," Bates wrote. Not entirely, Judge. Look again and you'll find you are wrong.

"Unfortunately, today's victory may be short-lived," said Rep. Lamar Smith, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee. "If the administration appeals the ruling, our congressional prerogatives will once again be put at risk."

Like a greedy vulture, ultra liberal Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said, "I look forward to working with the White House and the Justice Department to coordinate the long overdue appearances."

Between now and September, Congress will recess for five weeks of summer vacation. Bates scheduled a conference between the litigants on Aug. 23 to take stock of whether negotiations had moved forward, as he urged in his ruling. Congress then returns to a brief, three-week session before scattering to the campaign trail. All 435 House seats and a third of the Senate are up for grabs, as well as the presidency.

Republicans said there was little reason to rush to an accommodation, noting that subpoenas will expire at the end of the 110th Congress in January.

"I'm sure it will be appealed and it will go on into next year, and it will become a moot issue," said House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio.

Several Democratic officials said they expected the subpoenas to be reissued in January if their party retains control of Congress in the November elections. What are they doing wasting tax payer money on something as stupid as this. It is purely political, and part of the reason I write the Political Disconnect blog. There is a deep disconnect in Washington today, and it has to do with ultra liberals like Messers Pelosi, Reid, Leahy, and Conyers who love it when something like this comes up to turn them away from doing the people's business. They would rather work on something as innane as this rather than finding solutions to the energy and Social Security problems.

What this battle does is drive the bloody stake of division even deeper, making it harder to do business in a civilized way between party leaders and their minions. Thus, the Political Disconnect connotation. It's one unholy mess in Washington.

Here's the latest from the McCain Campaign

New TV ad: Celeb

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 5:07 PM

From:

"Rick Davis, McCain Campaign Manager"

Add sender to Contacts

To:

dusanotes@yahoo.com

McCain Team - The campaign has just released a new TV ad and we wanted you to be the first to watch it. Please take a minute to view the ad, "Celeb" by following this link. We agree that Senator Barack Obama may be the "biggest celebrity in the world." But as you and I know, simply attracting large crowds of fans with empty rhetoric doesn't prepare a person to lead a country. The more we get to know the real Barack Obama, the more he shows that he is not ready to lead our country. Gas prices are at an all-time high, and Senator Obama has become the "Dr. No" of energy. He says no to off-shore drilling, resulting in an increase in our dependence on foreign oil. In fact, his solution to our energy challenge is to raise taxes on electricity. Hard-working Americans can't afford Senator Obama's energy policies in the White House. You and I know that our country is faced with great challenges and Americans need to elect a true leader as our next president, a leader who puts country first. That leader is John McCain. Throughout his entire life, John McCain has put his country first. Often called a "maverick" because he believes in solving problems with real solutions, he's prepared to lead our country in a new direction and he needs our help to get elected this fall. We need your help and we need it now. There are only 97 days left until the election. Please follow this link to watch our latest TV ad and after watching, I'm asking that you make a donation of whatever you can give to help us air this ad for millions to see. As always, I thank you for your time and your continued support.

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Obama's Overseas Lead Buildup Evaporating

According to recent political polsters, Barak Obama may not be able to hold his lead built up over John McCain over the past two weeks while abroad.

Obama's excellent adventure in Europe may have backfired: "The Friday-Sunday poll, mostly conducted as Obama was returning from his much-publicized overseas trip and released just this hour, shows McCain now ahead 49%-45% among voters that Gallup believes are most likely to go to the polls in November.

In late June, he was behind among likely voters, 50%-44%." Gallup daily had shown Obama widening his lead over McCain during his European trip. However: Obama gained ground over McCain in each of the last three tracking updates, but today's average shows no further gains and a slight drop of Obama's percent of the vote from 49% to 48% [to McCain's 40%].

His Own Worst Enemy
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/07/29/

Obama may be his-own-worst-enemy. It's almost as if the two nominees will spend these last three months not trying to collect new support, but desperately trying to keep folks from drifting off into ennui. Look at Obama's just-ended world tour. The foreign media sure loved him, but Obama actually dropped in the American polls, McCain gaining on Obama by not doing or saying much at all. It's as if America wants both of these guys to sit down and shut up, and they are willing to reward the one who actually does it

Read More and read even more

How The Liberal Bureaucrats Control America

Do you have any idea how subversive the American Civil Liberties Union is? It is a nationwide army of more than 275,000 ultra-leftist members armed with a $35 million budget whose number one goal is to attack and weaken the Ten Commandments. It would like to strip the mention of God from our schools and our public buildings--and it is succeeding--and silence the Pledge of Allegiance and
our National Motto "God Bless America."

Watch out, Major League Baseball. You could be their next target.

You laugh, but these people are relentless in how they want to destroy America as we know it. The ACLU has attacked the Boy Scouts of America and is trying to redefine marriage, while their network of more than 300 chapters is working to defend the rights of pornographers, terrorists, advocates for homosexual adoption, and even child molesters.

They use the threat of lawsuit to bully their way around, like they attempted to do to the Boy Scouts who refused to include Gays as Cub masters, scoutmasters, officers or leaders in their organization. And who was their lead counsel? You guessed it, Ruth Bader Ginsburg who is now a Supreme Court Justice.

Why is she there? Because so-called "moderate" Republicans like Bob Dole (R-K) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) failed to vote against her. Because conservative Republicans like Utah's Orin Hatch were almost alone in their opposition of her.

"Federal courts and judges in America today are more feared than al-Qaida. They are unelected, unaccountable radicals who have twisted our laws to advance their own extremist agenda. They compromise our borders, language, and culture as they melt Lady Liberty down into a golden calf of their own making." Those are the words of Michael Savage, prominent conservative talk show host and author of books such as The Enemy Within which I highly recommend.


With all due respect to women, next the ACLU will find something wrong with baseball. Mark my words, before long it will be illegal to field a Major League Baseball team without an equal compliment of female athletes playing on the same team, using the same showers, and dressing in the same locker rooms. I predict it's coming, jocks, so be prepared to share your sport with a bunch of--pardon the expression--large, bossy women. You won't get the pretty, petite ones. Only the pushy babes who will threaten a manager with an ACLU-supported lawsuit and scrutinize his/her every move.

Yes, I said her (managers). The ACLU will insist that half of baseball manager be women.

Here's a question for you bloggers. Why aren't there many good women baseball teams or leagues? Has women's softball destroyed their desire to compete on a baseball diamond?

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The "Racism" and "Bigotry" Defense

Muslim FBI Agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz was fired and reinstated by the FBI under pressure or threat of suit.
With its deep pockets the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a major source of funding for the Terror-Supported Syndicate in America. When its leaders get in trouble, the Saudis are ready to provide legal aid and public relations assistance.

They also have a powerful friend in the Saudi Ambassador stationed in Washington. Some people believe he is so powerful that at times he can make investigations go away with one phone call.

What he has to work with is the gullibility of the American people and it's
deference shown to two aspects of Islamists. Most Islamists are not just a religious minority, but a racial minority, and they know how to work it to their advantage. Jamal Barzinji, a key leader of the Safa group, has threatened to sue the U.S. government for unsealing an affidavit supporting a federal warrant to search his home. The Safa group of companies is also known as SAAR, the "golden chain to supporting terrorism and the CSID founding board member was Jamal Barzinji.

The SAAR Foundation is incorporated in Herndon, Virginia, just outside Washington. It is an umbrella organization for a cluster of over 100 charities, think tanks, and businesses known as the SAAR network. In 2002, the US government raided the SAAR network looking for ties to the Al Taqwa Bank and the notorious Muslim Brotherhood.

In 1995, investigators raided two groups in Tampa, Florida, associated with Sami al-Arian, a university professor who some claimed had been a supporter of terrorist groups. These raids alerted investigators to a group of Muslim charities in Herndon, Virginia, known as the SAAR network mentioned above (see July 29, 1983). An investigation into that network’s alleged terrorism financing began. In 1998, National Security Council aides in the Clinton White House pushed the FBI to intensify the SAAR investigation. However, the FBI declined, claiming that an aggressive probe would be seen as ethnic profiling.

Barzinji had called the investigation "racist." FBI agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz, who had unauthorized contacts with Muslim targets of investigation, threatened to sue the FBI for discrimination after he was fired. The bureau reinstated him, despite lingering questions about his loyalties.

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Let's Question Muslim Tax Exempt Status

Saudi-backed Islamists are in America masquerading as philanthropists. Religious charities provide the perfect cover for their terror-supporting activities.

These Muslim groups not only enjoy tax-exempt status, but their reputations as charities and foundations often allow them to escape scrutiny, making it easier to hide and move their funds to other groups and individuals who threaten national security.

This tax-free support for the machinery of terrorism was planned long ago by Islamists. A document seized last decade in a raid of al-Arian's home bears that out. Translated from Arabic, "The Charter," as it is called, provides for an "Organization/Law Studies Section" whose job it would be to study the legal aspect of establishing charitable organizations in America that would front for Jhadi operations, investigators say.

Al-Arian founded Muslim charities that co-mingled funds with the Saudi-backed Safa group of charities in Virginia. Investigators say the charities have availed themselves of exemption from federal tax while abusing the requirements for tax-exempt status to avoid scrutiny of terror-tied financial transactions and associations.

True Believers of Islam Not Materialistic

Those presumably in the know say that Islam's true believers are not materialistic. In fact, just the opposite in most cases. But these two women photographed in a modern shopping center appear as well dressed as most Muslim women we've seen and we suspect they are every bit as materialistic as other Americans.

But will they take bribes? Now, that's an entirely different question.
The FBI for several years has dangled record amounts of reward money in the Muslim world for information leading to the capture of top al-Quida figures, and it still has no takers.

Unlike the Reds and mobsters, the jahadists are "spiritually driven." I use that phrase "spiritually driven" advisedly because what they do ends up hurting American people and violating American law.

Muslims really don't care about money, except to finance jihad. So you can't get into most terrorist organizations that way--by appealing to their greed.
So called "good Muslims" will break American law to keep Sharia law sacred. Take the example of the Texas Muslim this past week who shot both of his beautiful teenage daughters to keep them from dating American boys. He felt they would become corupted in American life if he allowed it so he committed what is more and more being called "honor" killings.

This wasn't the first time a Muslim has killed his family members for religious reasons, and as long as they are living in the U.S. they will be bent upon changing U.S. law to accomadate their beliefs. To Islamists, these killings are justified and proper. To Christian-Judeau Americans that kind of activity is atrocious and terribly cruel and unlawful, contrary to Biblical teachings as well as all moral beliefs held by Americans. The perpetrators should be tried for murder not honored as they are in Muslim mosques.

Militant Islamics Abuse First Amendment Rights

Washington prides itself on hands-off religious policy. The Pentagon relies on religious organizations to endorse its Muslim chaplains, so it stays out of the business of approving them in deference to the constitutional separation of church and state. But a number of those organizations are run by militant Islamists bent on undermining the military and the U.S. system of government.

They know they can advance their cause safely under the First Amendment which, ironically, allows their faith the freedom to flourish even though they deny that freedom to other faiths in other countries. For example, proselytizing faiths in the U.S. such as the Mormons and Baptists are not allowed to do overt missionary work in Saudi Arabia or Iran but they have their people busy working on Americans. Somehow, the next president must work on this inequality. What's allowed in America for the Muslims should be the rule in Muslim countries.

They know they can raise funds--tax free--at local mosques under the protections of religious freedom. Making it easier for them, America is a welcoming nation, and Americans are respectful of all faiths and want to think the best of Muslims.

"Ich bin ein Hypocrite"

By Don White

"Ich bin ein Hypocrite," the Republican party chided in a statement, criticizing Obama for what it called a lack of leadership on Afghanistan in a congressional committee he chairs. "Ich bin" means "I am" in German.

Barak Obama proves in his speech below that he's the least patriotic jerk who has ever run for the American presidency, bar none. (Opinion by Don White)

Here is his speech, in part, with bracketed comments:
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen - a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
[And all along I thought he was running for president]

I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
[Imagine that--from goat herder to president. Actually those jobs have much in common]

At the height of the Cold War, my father decided, like so many others in the forgotten corners of the world, that his yearning - his dream - required the freedom and opportunity promised by the West. And so he wrote letter after letter to universities all across America until somebody, somewhere answered his prayer for a better life. [Ah, and he didn't even need affirmative action to get in. It didn't come until the mid-60s].

That is why I'm here. And you are here because you too know that yearning. This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life. [Wrong! The only reason Obama stood there that night was to pump up his popularity back home with this Berlin photo-op]

Ours is a partnership that truly began sixty years ago this summer, on the day when the first American plane touched down at Templehof.
[No Barak, you need a lesson in American history. It started 232 years ago, and even before. It was then that a man named Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben came to the rescue of the Continental Army. He was a German-Prussian army officer who served as inspector general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He is credited with teaching the Continental Army the essentials of military drill and discipline, helping to guide it to victory. He wrote the book that became the standard United States drill manual until the War of 1812, and essentially served as General George Washington's chief of staff in the final years of the war. But, of course, your speech wasn't meant to be accurate, only to massage the Germans enough to exclaim: "By Friedrich, there goes another Kennedy even if I never heard one."]

On that day, much of this continent still lay in ruin. The rubble of this city had yet to be built into a wall. The Soviet shadow had swept across Eastern Europe, while in the West, America, Britain, and France took stock of their losses, and pondered how the world might be remade. [Why didn't he just say it: "Had it not been for the many brave American soldiers who fought and died here, none of my relatives included of course, you'd be speaking Ruski right now."]

This is where the two sides met. And on the twenty-fourth of June, 1948, the Communists chose to blockade the western part of the city. They cut off food and supplies to more than two million Germans in an effort to extinguish the last flame of freedom in Berlin. [What else do you expect from Communists?]

The size of our forces was no match for the much larger Soviet Army. And yet retreat would have allowed Communism to march across Europe. Where the last war had ended, another World War could have easily begun. All that stood in the way was Berlin. [All that stood in Russia's way was the brave fighting men of the United States military and it had little to do with Berlin and the German will to resist the Soviets and everything to do with America.]

And that's when the airlift began - when the largest and most unlikely rescue in history brought food and hope to the people of this city. [You haven't been around long enough, Barak, to understand the mindset of our American airmen, navy, and army and what was likely and what was "unlikely." Perhaps if you would start giving them some credit, America would be much better for it.]

The odds were stacked against success. In the winter, a heavy fog filled the sky above, and many planes were forced to turn back without dropping off the needed supplies. The streets where we stand were filled with hungry families who had no comfort from the cold. [That is very well true. But soon airlifts were continued and food, clothing, medicine, and other material did arrive from the United States. "God Bless America" would have been a good thing to have said about now.]

The Year The Youth Vote Arrives

According to an article by E. J. Dionne Jr. in the Washington Post, look for the 2008 presidential elections to be the year the young vote makes a huge difference.

Throw out old conventional wisdom. That is that the kids are too busy listening to music and dating to think about who to vote for and to actually turn out and vote. Millions came out during the primaries and voted for Obama, for example. Will the same hold for a presidential election in which Barak Obama is the putative favorite to win by a landslide?

No one knows. But know this: whenever a candidate looks like a sure winner the electorate gets complacent--and it doesn't matter which age group--and often doesn't turn out to vote. "Oh, what does it matter?" they could say. He's going to win anyway, with or without my ballot and I have other pressing business that night."

"That's so bogus in this case," say the Democrats. The kids are tuned into our young 46-year-old outsider candidate (Obama) and they'll be there to support him in large numbers." Maybe so, maybe no.

Remember the 1948 elections? Most people are too young to remember this election in which Republican Thomas Dewey was supposed to have had it all wrapped up and would defeat incumbent President Harry S. Truman by a landslide. Well, folks, it didn't happen and Truman won that election. Am I suggesting that underdog John McCain will also pull one out at the last minute? I don't know, but it's certainly possible.

Do the Young Care?
Since the late 1960s, the same chorus has been heard from election to election: The young don't care. They're disengaged. They're too wrapped up in their music, their favorite sports and their parties to take an interest in politics. Predicting that the young will vote in large numbers is like saying the Cubs will finally win the World Series.

As it happens, the Cubs are doing well this season, and the evidence is overwhelming that this year the young really will vote in large numbers -- and they just might tip the election.

The trend started four years ago, According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or Circle. The electoral participation among 18- to 24-year-olds increased from 36 percent in 2000 to 47 percent in 2004. For the larger 18-to-29 group, participation rose from 40 to 49 percent.

The 2006 midterm elections brought a greater increase in off-year voting among the under-30s than in any other age group.

Then came this year's primaries: According to Circle, the turnout rate for under-30s nearly doubled between 2000 and 2008, from 9 to 17 percent.
Read more

Natan Sharansky

Here is a man America admires. But if he were an American he would have trouble getting elected president--just as a former prisoner of war for five years and war hero is having--due to many of America's liberal Democrats who actually hate anything patriotic, military, American, praiseworthy, lovely, and of good report. Who do the liberals think they are, American dissidents?

Israel's Natan Sharansky is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center, a man with deep convictions and inner strength. He is chairman of its Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies.

How do you get to be a distinguished fellow? Democrats would like to know. Maybe you become a Russian dissident as he did. Born in Ukraine in 1948, Sharansky studied mathematics in Moscow. He worked as an English interpreter for the great Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, and himself became a champion of Soviet Jewry and a worker for human rights.

Convicted in 1978 on trumped-up charges of treason and spying for the United States, Sharansky was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After years in the Siberian gulag, he was released in a U.S.-Soviet prisoner exchange in 1986 and moved to Israel, where he founded a political party promoting the acculturation of Soviet immigrants.

From March 2003 until May 2005, he was a Minister without portfolio, responsible for Jerusalem, social and Jewish diaspora affairs. Previously he served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Housing and Construction since March 2001, Interior Minister of Israel (July 1999 - resigned in July 2000), Minister of Industry and Trade (1996-1999).

He resigned from the cabinet in April 2005 to protest plans to withdraw Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip. He was re-elected to the Knesset in March 2006 as a member of the Likud Party. In October 2006, it was announced that he planned to retire from politics. He resigned from the Knesset on November 20, 2006.

As of June 18, 2007, Sharansky has been the Chairman of the Board of Beit Hatefutsot, the Jewish diaspora museum. Of Obama he felt dubious. He expressed those feelings the day Barack Obama was visiting Israel.

“He is definitely a big concern for me,” he said. “It is very alarming for me the way Senator Obama voted, the way he spoke about his desire to negotiate with Ahmadinejad, and the way some of his advisers think.

“I was at AIPAC. He made a very strong speech, speaking about a Jewish state, defensible borders, a united Jerusalem, then the next day he started correcting himself.”

Still, Sharansky feels having Obama as president is not as dangerous as having a weak Israeli government. Excuse the slang, but "No Duh!" That direct qote can't be construed as a positive statement for Obama.

Sharansky thinks Obama has “a little record or almost no record, while the one who he is competing with is McCain, and we know for sure his principles.”

Sharansky has written at least two important books: Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy and Fear No Evil. Both of them express his deeply-held convictions and realistic view of the world, that attacking evil in a hard line manner is the best and the only way to defeat those forces which seek the overthrow of Israel and the United States. Viva La Bush!

Do You Know Your Neighbor?

by Don White
While every other network and blog in the world concentrates on the fact that a vile man has been captured and will face a death sentence from an international tribunal in the Hague, I will concentrate this short story on how this inhumane monster disguised himself so well that he was not apprehended for more than ten years.

DUSAN STOJANOVIC is a fine Associated Press Writer who posted about one of the most important stories of the year, the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in Belgrade, Serbia.

Karadzic will be tried for war crimes he allegedly committed as leader of the Bosnian Serbs. A judge has ordered his transfer to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands to face genocide charges.

That's the top of story. But the real mystery is how he hid from justice all these years, growing a long, white beard to conceal his identify and openly practicing alternative medicine while in hiding.

Radovan Karadzic was almost as clever as Sherlock Holmes who, fictionally, became known as the master of disguise. Holmes disguised himself in different stories as a seaman ("The Sign of Four"); a groom and a clergyman ("A Scandal in Bohemia"); An opium addict ("The Man with the Twisted Lip");a common loafer ("The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet"); an old Italian priest ("The Adventure of the Final Problem"); a bookseller ("The Adventure of the Empty House"); a plumber ("The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"; a dying man ("The Adventure of the Dying Detective"); an old sporting man ("The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone");and a woman "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone").

Karadzic—-a psychiatrist accused of masterminding the deadly wartime siege of Sarajevo and the executions of up to 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, Europe's worst massacre since World War II--had topped the tribunal's most-wanted list for years.

Government official Rasim Ljajic said Karadzic, once known for his distinctively coifed hairdo, was unrecognizable. His false identity was very convincing. Even his landlords were unaware of his identity.

Karadzic used a false name, Dragan Dabic, Ljajic said.

The editor in chief of Belgrade's "Healthy Life" magazine, Goran Kojic, said he was shocked when he saw the photo of Karadzic on TV, recognizing him as a regular contributor to the publication. "It never even occurred to me that this man with a long white beard and hair was Karadzic," Kojic said.

Karadzic's whereabouts had been a mystery since he went on the run in 1998, with his hideouts reportedly including monasteries and mountain caves in remote eastern Bosnia.

Serbian security services found Karadzic, 63, on Monday while looking for another top war crimes suspect facing genocide charges, Bosnian Serb wartime commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, Ljajic said. Karadzic "was arrested Monday evening near Belgrade while changing locations," he said. "International pressure was to arrest Mladic, and a few had expected that Karadzic would be captured."

"Karadzic is the second most important defendant that we have had. It will not be a quick trial, but I believe it can be held as soon as possible-— possibly within a few years," tribunal judge Frederik Harhoff of Denmark told Danish TV2 News.

Can you Americans believe what you just heard: about the trial being "a quick trial...held "possibly within a few years?" That totally astounds me, but then I do not know the complexity of the evidence gathering process in Eruope. But one would think authorities have all the evidence they need at the current time or they wouldn't have arrested him and the judge wouldn't have allowed his extradition on 11 counts of genocide.

Ljajic refused to reveal more details about his arrest, saying Karadzic's movements are being analyzed and will be kept secret until Mladic's capture. "We are absolutely determined to finish this job," he said.

Karadzic — disguised by the bushy beard and glasses — managed to move freely while living in a new part of Belgrade and working at a private clinic, Ljajic said, holding up a photo of a much thinner-looking Karadzic.

Governments worldwide hailed the arrest of the man described by the tribunal as the mastermind of "scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called it a "historic moment."

"The victims need to know: Massive human rights violations do not go unpunished," she said in Berlin.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels said the arrest sets Serbia firmly on the path toward EU membership.

"We have waited for this for 13 years. Finally. Finally," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Brussels. "This is a very good thing for the rapprochement of Serbia with the European Union."

In Sarajevo, Bosnian Muslims rushed into the streets Monday night to celebrate the news of Karadzic's arrest.

"This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade," said the tribunal's head prosecutor, Serge Brammertz. "It clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law and that sooner or later all fugitives will be brought to justice."

During the siege of Sarajevo that began in 1992, Bosnian Serb troops starved, sniped and bombarded the city center, operating from strongholds in Pale and Vraca high above the city and controlling nearly all roads in and out.

Inhabitants were kept alive by a thin lifeline of food aid and supplies provided by U.N. donors and peacekeepers. Walking down the street to shop for groceries or driving down a main road that became known as "Sniper Alley" was a risk to their lives.

The siege was not officially over until February 1996. An estimated 10,000 people died.

By war's end in late 1995, an estimated 250,000 people were dead and another 1.8 million driven from their homes.

Under the U.N. indictment, Karadzic faces 11 counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities committed between 1992 to 1996.

He would be the 44th Serb suspect sent to the tribunal in The Hague. The others include former President Slobodan Milosevic, who died there in 2006 while on trial.

___

"Filling The Tree" in The Senate

The following are the words of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) on the floor of the Senate regarding a very bad precedent called ..."filling the tree." When resorted to, as both Republicans and Democrats have done and as Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) has done extensively this year [11 times] it effectively cuts off any chance of the opposition to offer amendments or change a bill.

"Filling the Tree" is one of the prime reasons for political disconnect in America today.

Listen to Specter, who is a wise old owl in many ways. Unfortunately, this fine man is treating for cancer, yet he still takes care of his Senate duties.

Recently the Democrats presented a package of bills which would cost the American taxpayer some $25 billion if passed. But if there is no chance of changing the bill, it surely will pass, though the president could veto.

Specter: "...filling the tree has been practiced by both parties. The Congressional Research Service did a study that showed that going back to Senator Dole in the 1985-1986 Congress, every majority leader has used this procedure--Senator Dole, Senator Byrd, Senator Mitchell, Senator Lott, Senator Daschle, Senator Frist, and now Senator Reid, twice in 1 week. In the fifth week of the new session, it has twice already been used. Democrats and Republicans are equally at fault. If people want to know whom to blame in Washington, it is a pretty good conclusion it is equally divided, that the bickering is the responsibility of both parties--a plague on both houses.

"But when we Republicans controlled the Senate and we had the PATRIOT Act, Senator Reid had this to say on February 28 of last year. He was speaking in defense of a fellow Democrat's ability to offer amendments to the PATRIOT Act reauthorization. This is what Senator Reid said:

"Of course, even a good bill can be improved. That is why we have an amendment process in the Senate ..... I am disappointed that he has been denied that opportunity by a procedural maneuver known as ``filling the amendment tree.''

"This is a very bad practice. It runs against the basic nature of the Senate. The hallmark of the Senate is free speech and open debate. Rule XXII establishes a process for cutting off debate and amendments, but Rule XXII should rarely be invoked before any amendments have been offered.

"That is what Senator Reid said less than a year ago. I couldn't say it better. In fact, I couldn't say it as well.

"Then, a few days later on March 2, Senator Reid said this:
"Don't fill the tree. This is a bad way, in my opinion, to run the Senate."

"Then Senator Durbin spoke on May 11 of 2006 on the tax increase prevention and reconciliation act. Speaking about that conference report, this is what Senator Durbin had to say:

"The Republican majority brings a bill to the Senate, fills the tree so no amendments can be offered, and then files cloture, which stops debate. So we cannot have this conversation. We cannot offer amendments."

"Well, that is exactly the plan for the Iraq issue, and that is what is being done now on the continuing resolution which has been filed.

"Senator Dole had this to say, speaking about health care legislation:
"I want to point out to our colleagues why I am terribly disappointed with the procedures we have been confronted with this evening dealing with this legislation ..... This is the Senate. This Chamber historically is the place where debate occurs. To have a process here this evening ..... to basically lock out any amendments that might be offered to this proposal runs contrary to the very essence of this body ..... If you believe the Senate ought to be heard on a variety of issues relating to the subject matter--when the amendment tree has been entirely filled, then obviously we are dealing with a process that ought not to be ..... the Senate ought to be a place where we can offer amendments, have healthy debate over a reasonable time, and then come to closure on the subject matter."

"Well, ARLEN SPECTER doesn't have to say anything more on the subject because Senator Reid, Senator Durbin, and Senator Dodd are much more eloquent than I. So I offer this resolution to correct this problem for the future. It is very hard to change a Senate rule, but nobody has proposed it in the past, to my knowledge, and today we will start on it.

"Beyond the procedure used by the majority leader, the leader of the Democrats, to shut off debate and consideration of alternative proposals on the Iraq policy, the majority leader has utilized the procedure again on the continuing resolution.

"Now the continuing resolution characteristically is a brief document, usually about a page, which says the Government will continue to operate under existing appropriations, since there has not been time to consider a new appropriations package. But what we have in H.J. Res. 20 is an omnibus bill running 137 pages. I want to have an opportunity to amend it. Other Senators want to have an opportunity to amend it. Some have spoken on the floor of the Senate here today. But we are foreclosed from doing so.

"When the announcement was made that we were going to go to this kind of a procedure, in my capacity as chairman last year, now ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, I wrote a letter to Senator Reid asking that we follow regular order and consider the appropriation bills sequentially. I sent identical letters to Speaker Pelosi, the Republican leader, BOEHNER, in the House, Senator McConnell, Senator Byrd, Representative Obey, Representative Lewis, and Senator Cochran, the leaders of both bodies and the chairmen and ranking members of both Appropriations Committees. Because if we had the will; we had the time; we had the way, to get it all done. But the leadership has chosen not to follow that path, and now we have a continuing resolution which does not allow for any amendments. That is not in the public interest.

"After having been in the Senate for 26 years and being on the Appropriations Committee for 26 years, I have turned into a rubberstamp. That is what the Senators are here, those who did not have a say in the preparation of this continuing resolution. We are all rubberstamps: Take it or leave it. Now we would employ the procedure used on the Iraqi issue to avoid cutting off debate, but the Treasury will run out of money at midnight on February 15--that is Thursday night--so we have the option of closing down the Government if we don't approve this rubberstamp procedure, and we are not going to do that. We had experience with the closing down of the Government back in December of 1995, and it was a very bitter experience; great political peril in closing down the Government.

"Here we have a very important measure. For a few minutes I want to point out what has happened to the subcommittee which funds health care, which is our No. 1 capital asset; you can't do anything if you don't have good health, and I can testify to that personally from my own experience in the last 2 years. Secondly, education. If you are not trained, you can't do anything, even with good health. The Department of Labor on job training and worker safety. The level of the budget for fiscal year 2005 was $143.4 billion. The President has proposed a budget for fiscal year 2008 of $141.5 billion. If you take a look at the cuts in the budget for Health, Education and Labor and you add in the inflationary factors, the committee is being asked to operate at a level of $14.7 billion less than the fiscal year 2005 budget. That simply is inadequate to take care of the National Institutes of Health, offering the greatest chance through medical research to find cures for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and cancer and heart disease; funding for Head Start, funding for Title I, funding for education programs, funding for job training. It simply is totally insufficient.

"Those are the kinds of matters we ought to address on this continuing resolution. That is what we ought to be talking about, instead of having our last vote before noon on a Thursday as part of our 5-day workweek. We have yet to see that; we have yet to take the time we need to consider these matters. Had we taken up these appropriations bills in regular order, as I asked the leadership back on January 10, we would have had adequate time to do so.

"It is my hope that one day, and hopefully sooner rather than later, the Senate will change its rules so the majority leader will not be able to create a procedural morass to stop Senators from introducing amendments. It is my hope Senator Reid's admonitions when the shoe was on the other foot back last year, that filling the tree is a bad practice, it runs against the basic nature of the Senate, the hallmark of the Senate is free speech and open debate, and similar comments by Senator Durbin and Senator Dodd, that we will be able to have a process so when an issue such as Iraq comes before the Senate, we can function as a deliberative body and we can have debate; we can consider alternative matters, and we can decide what U.S. policy should be. Because the President is not the sole decider. It is a shared responsibility; that when we have a budget and a resolution to fund the U.S. Government, we are not shut out from offering amendments."

You can read the entire resolution and more.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

S. Res. __X

Resolved, That (a) rule XV of the Standing Rules of the Senate is amended by adding at the end the following:

``6. Notwithstanding action on a first degree amendment, it shall not be in order for a Senator to offer a second degree amendment to his or her own first degree amendment.''.

(b) The amendment made by subsection (a) shall take effect at the beginning of the 111th Congress.

The Day I Met PPP And Martha Raddatz

By Don White
It was a great day. It was the day my son clued me in on PayPerPost and the day I met Martha Raddatz on my web site. PayPerPost has a large coterie of bloggers convinced that they can make a difference in the world while making money.

Veteran ABC war correspondent Martha Raddatz became my friend that day. She has put her life on the line many times and I admire her courage. An email came around that had the potential of smearing this wonderful reporter and I fell for it initially but quickly retracted. She said she had not interviewed 60 soldiers with 55 favoring John McCain. Major General Buckman did not originate this unfortunate email. Had I not “had fun” that day checking sources, I would have been gravely in error. I got the nicest email I have ever received. Martha Raddatz thanked me for setting the record straight and for "diving in front of the bullet meant for her," stifling the unfortunate character assassination attempt. She complimented me graciously for my efforts and it’s all documented on Political Disconnect.

Meanwhile, that day I learned how much fun one can have working with PayPerPost, people who are also dedicated to honor and truth in their work. Sometimes much good can come from errors if we’re willing to admit we were wrong.

drive traffic

Obama Entering A Dangerous Mine Field

Obama trip full of opportunity and risk

Obama supporters hope his foray to the Middle East and Europe improve his image on foreign policy. But it could all backfire, validating GOP-fostered doubts.

When someone not well versed in International Affairs ventures out among the Philistines there are many a mis-step possible, especially as Obama talks foreign policy about which he knows little.

Barack Obama hopes to reassure Americans that he has the foreign-policy expertise to keep the nation safe. If he has it, where on earth did he get it? And why has he been hiding such expertise? Any political neophyte American can detect weakness in this area in Barak.

Will we see more New Yorker Magazine style satire as he steps on mine field after mine field? The GOP hope that will be the case, and it very welll could be if he lets his tongue get in the way of his mind.

Images beamed back from Jerusalem, Berlin and other cities next week will show him meeting heads of state with all the formal trappings of summitry.
Many Americans are still asking how did he get to mingle among heads of state. He's not a head of state, just a visiting junior senator from the U.S. The effrantry of all of this, eh what?

Obama's handlers believe that if the nominee avoids mistakes, the intense news coverage -- three network anchors will accompany him -- could ease voter doubts.

Republican rival John McCain will be trying to reinforce those doubts as Obama makes his way from Jordan and Israel to Germany, France and Britain. Obama has already visited Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama's itinerary will require deft navigation of foreign conflicts, a skill that at times has eluded the 46-year-old senator from Illinois. And the slightest stumble could solidify McCain's standing as the candidate voters see as more seasoned in world affairs

Homeland Security Cheif On Edge

European Terrorists Are Trying to Enter U.S.


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff

WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff believes this country's safety is being being breached by European terrorists who are trying to enter the United States. Yes, they look official. All have European Union passports, so there is no guarantee officials will catch them.

Where and when would be the most likely events for terrorists to stike? It's obvious, each four years we have our most prominent political people in two places--either attending the Democratic or the Republican national conventions and that starts in August.

Folks, we will be most vulnerable during the convention confusion. And to benefit the terrorists, what takes place will be beamed around the world to showcase--not America's wonderful political system--the power of terrorism and the weakness of America.If they don't do something bombastic and devastating at the conventions, there's plenty of time to set off bombs during the elections or during the World Series, so the thinking goes.

In his last scheduled appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Chertoff said that the more time and space al-Qaida and its allies have to recruit, train, experiment and plan, the more problems the U.S. and Europe will face down the road.

"The terrorists are deliberately focusing on people who have legitimate Western European passports, who don't appear to have records as terrorists," Chertoff told lawmakers. "I have a good degree of confidence we can catch people coming in. But I have to tell you ... there's no guarantee. And they are working very hard to slip by us."

Chertoff said terrorists could sneak radiological material into the country on small boats or private aircraft. This material could be used to create an explosive device known as a "dirty bomb."

The Homeland Security Department has a strategy to protect against this small boat vulnerability and is testing radiation detection equipment in Seattle and San Diego ports.

Comments Please: What Do You Think--Good Or Bad Idea For U.S. To Open Dialog With Iran?

By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer

ANKARA, Turkey - Iran's Foreign Minister said Friday that forthcoming nuclear talks in Geneva and the participation of a U.S. diplomat for the first time look positive and he expects progress.


U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns right and Undersecretary Jeffries,left.

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns was expected to attend the talks in Geneva on Saturday — the first time the U.S. has had such a presence — and join colleagues from other world powers to meet with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.

"The new negotiation process (and) the participation of a U.S. diplomat look positive from the outset, but we hope that is reflected in the talks," Mottaki told a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

He said the presence of U.S. representative "is a new positive approach."

Meanwhile, Burns met Friday for about 20 minutes with International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed Elbaradei to discuss Iran's contentious atomic program. He did not speak to reporters before leaving.

The U.S. has shifted from its confrontational policy of isolating Iran in favor of a diplomatic approach.

The U.S. administration is also floating a proposal to open a de facto U.S. Embassy in Tehran. U.S. diplomats would go to Iran for the first time in almost 30 years, since the countries broke relations after the 1979 Islamic revolution

"I think there might be an agreement both on the issue of opening a U.S. interest protection bureau in Iran and on the issue of direct flights to Iran," Mottaki said.
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Are We Being Duped By The Muslims?

Don White
America has been compromised by radical Muslims—many of them trained, supported and inserted into their positions by the so-called “moderate “ Muslim establishment in America.

This is the alarming thesis of a book by Paul Sperry,
Infiltration. It’s frightening, not because it’s something that “could happen,” not because these people are crossing our borders and moving into mainstream America, but because they are already here.

Sperry is a Washington-based investigative reporter and the book is called Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington. Sperry wrote it following exhaustive interviews with FBI agents, Customs officers, and military intelligence officials.

Muslims masquerading as "moderates" are infiltrating our government, our military, our prisons, our schools -- and even the Department of Homeland Security. Cleverly exploiting "diversity," "religious freedom," and tax-exemption laws, these subversives have gained firm footholds in key American institutions, including public schools and universities, the federal and state prison system, law enforcement, the military, nuclear weapons laboratories, the Department of Homeland Security -- even the White House.

The ultimate goal of these subversives, according to Sperry -- quoting verbatim from some of the most respected and "mainstream" Muslim leaders in America -- is to replace the U.S. Constitution with Sharia (Islamic) law and turn America into an Islamic state. And, as Sperry details point-by-point, they have been aided and abetted in their sinister aims by tireless champions of spiritual and cultural relativism in the media and academia, who have mitigated the threat in the public's mind by "mainstreaming" Islam.

Mormon revelation tells of a dark time in America when the U.S. Constitution will hang by thread and it will take the combined efforts of many to save it. Someone of Mormon persuasion may be called upon to lead patriots everywhere in restoring Constitutional Law in America.

Who that person may be and from which states the saviors of the Constitution will come from no one knows, except that the authority of God in some way will be highly involved. That doesn’t mean that the division of church and state will be breached, but merely that people who believe in the Constitution as it stands most likely will be Christians and, more particularly, Mormons. They will have to stand up and be counted upon to help prevent that catastrophe.

Played For Fools:
Will The U.S. Constitution “Hang By A Thread?”

If the Muslims have their way they will replace Constitutional Law with subversive Muslim law known as Sharia (Islamic) law, with the goal of turning America into an Islamic state. And, as author Paul Sperry details point-by-point in his book Infiltration, Muslims have been aided and abetted in their sinister aims by tireless champions of spiritual and cultural relativism in the media and academia, who have mitigated the threat in the public's mind by "mainstreaming" Islam.

At the bottom of it is a story of mass deception -- a disturbing tale of how the American people have been played for fools, victims of an elaborate fraud orchestrated by the "mainstream" Muslim establishment to protect a faith from due scrutiny, while concealing an underworld that secretly plots to infiltrate and overturn the American system of government.

Muslims are already openly calling for the downfall of the British government. How long will it be before they will picket and riot here in America for our downfall?

A small sampling of Paul Sperry's disturbing revelations, all found in his new book, Infiltration:
· "One Nation Under Allah": how some of the most respected American Muslim leaders -- the so-called "moderates" who have broken bread in the White House, prayed in Congress, advised the Pentagon, and even lectured cadets at the FBI academy -- are harboring a secret dream about the future of American culture
· The influential American Muslim leader who has repeatedly told Muslim audiences that their goal is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state, even if it takes "a hundred years"
· How an Islamic activist obtained a sensitive intelligence post at the Department of Homeland Security even though he failed to disclose his past association with a confessed terrorist -- an omission overlooked by a federal personnel agency he happened to previously advise as one of its top internal lawyers
· The senior White House official who once lobbied Congress and federal agencies to make it harder for federal law enforcement to deport Middle Eastern immigrants with suspected terror links
· The FBI's translator program: a den of deceit and dual loyalties, where mistranslation of al Qaeda intercepts by Muslim and Arab linguists is commonplace, say agents and translators who have worked there
· How the FBI is putting its agents through "Muslim sensitivity training," which includes inviting Muslim clerics and leaders to preach about the allegedly peaceful attributes of Islam
· The growing threat posed by the more than 20,000 Muslims in America's armed forces -- and by the estimated 200,000 Muslim prison inmates in America, many of whom have been converted by radical chaplains sympathetic to al Qaeda
· The Arabic translator in the Minneapolis field office of the FBI who had a relationship with an al Qaeda suspect for seven years -- and was quietly let go only recently
· How, in their rush to recruit Arabic translators after 9/11, both the FBI and Pentagon cut corners on background checks and hired Muslim translators in spite of their ties to military and intelligence agencies in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey
· How laptops with classified intelligence about al Qaeda investigations have gone missing from the translation unit in the Washington field office of the FBI
· The Muslim FBI agent who refused to wear a wire to secretly record a Muslim target of a counterterrorism investigation -- and his friendship with the bookkeeper of the target
· How Arabic instructors at the Defense Language Institute, where U.S. Army translators are trained, gloss over Arab terrorism and focus instead on Arab arts and culture
· The deal the White House struck with Muslim-rights groups to avoid describing terrorism as "Islamic"
· How a Republican-tied Islamic institute has been running influence operations against the federal government
· The "moderate" Muslim advocacy group that, according to IRS financial records, has donated money to terrorist front groups, while also employing three officials recently arrested for terrorist-related activities
· How the same group has received substantial foreign support for its operations, despite public denials by its officials
· The Saudi-bankrolled American social studies teacher who is educating public-school children about Islam through sugarcoated textbooks and role-playing exercises in which kids "become Muslims" for weeks
· The Saudi-funded Washington-area mosque that ministered to at least two of the 9/11 terrorists. How at least four leaders of the mosque have come under federal investigation or scrutiny for terrorist ties
· How the tenants of a Pentagon-area apartment building popular with diplomats working for the Saudi Embassy in Washington cheered the 9/11 attacks, according to a leasing agent and former residents
· Why one former top FBI agent says the Bureau's knowledge about the growing threat of Muslim fanatics in America still ranks about 20 on a scale of 1 to 100
· How, according to the former head of the FBI's Washington field office, that office is home to a number of Muslim moles
· How the "moderate" Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is backed by a radical Middle Eastern foundation that supports Palestinian terrorists, according to tax and land records
· The "Wahhabi Corridor": how an area in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., that is heavily populated by Muslims is serving as a base of operations for Islamic terrorists
· The Muslim art of telling "white lies" to defend the faith and further the cause of Allah, as instructed in the hadiths, the sacred supplements to the Quran
· The deceptive methods used by Muslim leaders to conceal the dark underbelly of Islam in an effort to gain wider acceptance in Washington -- and how Washington's politicians and pundits, even after 9/11, buy into Muslim leaders' hype about the peaceful, non-threatening nature of Islam.

The Muslim Threat

Christoph Peters, a German Author, wrote a successful OP-ED piece concerning Barak Obama at the Brandenburg Gate. O' will make that appearance next week, accompanied by anchors of all of America's top news networks--a total of 200 American newsmen to be correct. It will be a wonderful photo-op for Barak, and it should be understood that's all it is. He wants his picture there alongside Kennedy's. These photos will show up in his advertising.

"First the United States, then the world!" must be his dream.

Peter's article drew a lot of comments, the mark of a great OP-ED article, because if you get a lot of readers commenting, that means a lot of people read or saw the article. So much more revenue for the Times. And I'm not at all critical of that. I hope the NY Times is in business for the next thousand years, despite the fact they did not print my comments.

They fear they can't, because it pointed out that if you read Islam's law book, the Sharia, something even moderate Muslims live by, you will see why Americans Muslims should be looked upon as enemies of the state. At least enemies of the U.S. Constitution because as sure as I sit here tapping away they want to replace the Constitution with the Sharia, and they're serious.

I made that argument, stating that there are ten million Muslim Germans who someday will rule Germany's elite. "Get ready for your second, third, and fourth wife," Herr Peters."

That's their goal. They want Germany to become a Muslim state. One more down, a hundred more to go to world domination, which was the goal of Mohammad and is the goal of his followers today.

Don White, Orlando, Florida

The Fourth Estate

Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, a Republican conservative, punctured the White House alarums with a blunt warning: “The only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press.” The Senate should show the same good sense and the same veto-proof resolve.

I rarely agree with the New York Times, but this is one of those cases. No administration should be allowed to take away the strength of the Fourth Estate, which is the protection granted to the Press to shield its sources.

The Press is a safeguard against an overly aggressive Executive Branch. It has proven effective in the past, and it will again.
Read the excellent Times story.

Obama At Brandenburg Gate

Op-Ed Contributor
Obama at the Gate
By CHRISTOPH PETERS
Published: July 17, 2008

ANGELA MERKEL, Germany’s chancellor, has made known her displeasure at the possibility that Barack Obama might use an appearance before the Brandenburg Gate here to present himself to the world as a politician of balance and integrity. Such an event would doubtless be heavy with symbolism as well as heavily attended, and one should always be wary meddling in another nation’s elections.

Yet Chancellor Merkel’s reaction seems quite odd when you consider that in 2003 she herself, as the new and internationally all-but-unknown leader of the German opposition, sought to take her place on the world stage — and scored a public relations coup — by writing an article for The Washington Post in which she assured George W. Bush of her support for the Iraq war.

As a result of that article, she was sharply criticized in Germany, where she was seen to have violated political etiquette. We can only speculate about her reasoning, both in 2003 and now. However, her current position can have nothing to do with a desire to remain neutral in the American presidential campaign. Quite the contrary: Apart from the fact that conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have closer ties with one another than with the liberal forces in their respective countries, the chancellor seems to feel an instinctive sympathy, perhaps rooted in her having grown up in East Germany, for such staunchly right-wing and rather gruff figures of American politics as George W. Bush and John McCain.
Read More including Don White's comments on the NY Times OP-ED Page.

Circus Clowns, Trapeze Artists, and The Big Top

Undercurrents:
Say What You Don’t Mean! Huh?

Don White
Everyone is so dishonest and devious today! I read this article by Lisa Riley Roche in the Deseret News. If this had been published in any paper besides that one I wouldn't have believed it. See how biased we have become.

But I had just read part of a book by Andy Borowitz, humorist for the New Yorker, called Who Moved My Soap? which is straight satire about locked up CEOs. It starts by saying his 84-page book is fiction and satire.

I was in the mood for a laugh, then I read the Roche article which suggests that Karl Rove wants to help Mitt Romney get the VP nod from McCain but is going about it “bass-akwards” to throw people off. Oh, yeah! The indirect approach works every time.

When we were kids we used to ask for something we didn’t want just to turn our parents onto giving us the opposite. For example, one time I would have given my two front teeth for the chance to go to the circus with my dad. I went around all day saying, “I really don’t like the circus. Other boys like to go to the circus with their dads; but me? I hate the circus. I don’t want to go to the circus with my Dad. No, there’ll be no circus for me. I hate circus peanuts, coke, hotdogs, carmel apples, popcorn, and ice cream.

"No, watching the trapeze artists fly through the air with the greatest of east is too scary. I hate seeing the lions and tigers. They poop all over and it smells. I don’t like the clowns with their sad, painted faces, or the beautiful girls dressed in almost nothing. Or the muscle men, flame eater, the magicians, and the guy who gets shot through the air by a real cannon. Nope, no fun for me. I’m a sedate child. I’d have a fit if I saw all that worldly stuff. Nope, you won’t find me asking for my Dad to take me places.

"You can just lock me up in a windowless room with nothing but a table, a chair, a bed, a couch, a toilet and 10 cases of bottled water. I would not leave that room until everyone else who was having fun had returned from the circus. That way my parents can save enough money to afford to feed me for a week."

Of course, after that elaborate charade I ended up going to the circus with my pop and I enjoyed it a lot.

But what about all the lying in the world? This former White House strategist Karl Rove, for example? They say he may be trying some new political tricks to help fellow Republican Mitt Romney secure the party's vice presidential nomination.

Remember, Rove’s the smart guy who left his post as a top adviser to President Bush last year and now does color on Fox News. Like I know what “color” is, except it must be like a baseball color man who doesn’t call the action, he just gives the inside opinions and cute little stories. That’s color.

Rove must have had a dreary childhood like mine. He mustuve learned the same lessons I learned—you ask for exactly what you don’t want and you end up getting what you want. Sounds crazy, right? But it works every time.

Here’s why I know about Rove. Lately, he has been blurting out that Romney turned in an "uneven performance" in his own failed presidential bid, saying the former leader of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City made mistakes because of his limited political experience and that Romney criticized Bush.

Good, huh? This way he makes him look like an outsider. That’s what the election is all about this time. Both sides want to look like outsiders so they can make changes they think people want. Insiders can’t do that.

I know what’s going on. You talk tough about Romney's flaws and you boost his chances of being chosen vice president by distancing him from an unpopular Bush administration.

But he’s got to be careful criticizing Romney, saying he made the mistake of being critical of Bush, you actually link him to President Bush. You don’t want to do that to someone you actually want" to promote as vice president. Most importantly, you’ve got to make sure Romney is not portrayed by others as the candidate handpicked for McCain by Karl Rove.

Mild criticism of Romney by Rove is intended to separate Romney from the administration. You don't want to hug him too closely. If you hug him too closely, you suffocate him.

Rove is being careful not to actually endorse Romney for just that reason.
He is first to realize his endorsement could carry unwanted baggage. A positive political analysis from Rove is very helpful while an endorsement might be the kiss of death.

Romney should feel a sense of encouragement from Bush and his closest advisers, including Rove. Bush waited until the GOP nomination was settled before endorsing McCain.

Who knows what Karl Rove is up to? He usually is thinking a few chess moves ahead with every comment. No one has been more outspoken that Mitt Romney is the best possible vice presidential candidate for McCain.

Professor Matthew Wilson of Southern Methodist University in Dallas said Romney should avoid too close a tie to Rove. "Mitt Romney certainly doesn't want to be seen as Karl Rove's creature," said Wilson, who specializes in religion and politics.

Wilson suggested Rove may be coming across as critical of Romney because he is concerned that McCain isn't listening to him.

Rove told the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills on Monday that while Romney probably had the best campaign organization of any Republican candidate, he failed to connect with voters.

And last month, Rove made it a point on "Fox News Sunday" to offer a list of Romney's flaws even as he praised him for his executive experience in business and as a former governor of Massachusetts, as well as with the Olympics.

"This is the guy who talked about environments and marching with Martin Luther King and so forth. And there's also the Mormon problem, which was really sort of astonishing to me," said Rove, who grew up in Utah.

The Mormon "problem" that Rove described was the negative reaction some voters had to Romney's membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the idea of a Mormon president.

Wilson said Romney's faith is only a "minor factor" in considering whether he should be the vice presidential nominee. "It is not irrelevant, but it's not as important as the person at the top of the ticket," the Texas professor said.

The Dangers of Group Decisions

By Don White
Group Decisions Are Losers:
Groups usually make poor decisions. Recently, I read a story of the millionaires who are the group that advises Barak Obama. He’s starting to turn to them again. He usually flies almost alone, with only his family or staff, from one campaign destination to another, listening to music, reading, and writing his next speech.

But this last time he had a plane-load of old friends whom he considers his inner advisory group and he roved up and down the isles soaking in their spirit. Almost without exception, they are Chicagoans or Illinois people of high standing and influence in the country,old friends and supporters.

Admirable, right? But when you examine Barak Obama you find that he lacks the experience to make good decisions himself. As president, if he has to rely on others, which he will, he’s going to make a poor president. He has never served in the military and will make a poor commander in chief and a poor president, based on the fact that he has never done anything or run anything, never sponsored significant legislation either as a state representative or a Senator for two years.

I’m not spouting gloom for America and Obama just to be negative. This is not strictly my opinion either,this is the record. If you want further backup on that, I suggest you read Ronald Kessler’s excellent article about Obama’s public and private record recorded in NewsMax entitled "Obama's Inexperience Tough To Ignore."

President Kennedy had this same deficit. He was young and inexperienced, so he brought into the White House this huge think tank advisory group. All of us were unduly impressed by the names of Kennedy’s advisors. They included Theodore C. Sorensen, speech writer; Dean Rusk, Secretary of State; C. Douglas Dillon; Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara; Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Postmaster General J. Edward Day; John A. Gronouski; Stewart L. Udall, Interior; Orville L. Freeman, Agriculture; Luther H. Hodges, Commerce; Arthur J. Goldberg, Labor; W. Willard Wirtz, and Abraham Ribicoff, Health, Education and Welfare; Anthony J. Celebrezze; and Adlai Stevenson, UN.

That was a high-powered think tank, each in every way as smart as they get. Obama, no doubt, will have a just as highly educated think tank; and so will McCain. But what kinds of decisions do they come up with when they act as a group, making decisions?

Usually, not so good. The Bay of Pigs could be used as an example. Committee decisions are usually poor. And early in an inexperienced president’s tenure, that’s the kinds of decision-making that takes place because he must lean on others heavily.

Stephen Leeb, in his book The Coming Economic Collapse, quotes social psychologist Irving Janis who wrote a book, Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes.
Janis recounts how many of Kennedy’s advisers had misgivings about supporting the invasion of Cuba that turned out so badly. They realized that errors were likely being made, but the pressure to maintain group solidarity prevented those concerns from being raised and properly addressed. Leeb said that some group members, Robert Kennedy for one, actually tried to keep information from the president that might have alerted him of the danger.

“Janis concludes that the closed-mindedness, overconfidence, and pressure within the group to conform can lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment, which he calls groupthink.

A recent parallel to the Bay of Pigs incident was the U.S. government’s belief in the early 2000s that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Leeb said that claim was “laid to rest by America’s chief weapons inspector, David kay, in 2004.”

The Economist, in a special report on the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the intelligence failure, notes: “It diagonosed a severe case of ‘groupthink’: that is, that the spies were failing to test the general assumption that Iraq had a growing WMD program. To have done so would have been considered heresy, which may be why Hans Blix, chief UN weapons inspector, accuses America of positing ‘faith-based intelligence.’ “

In the next installment we shall discuss “Overcoming Psychological Barriers” that each of us have. We shall determine why civilizations go into decline and fail and what separates those, such as the Japanese and British, which face extinction but which find ways to solve their energy or other crises. We will talk more about the crisis of energy facing the U.S. today and why Democrats, in particular, seem reluctant to buy onto the idea that this crisis poses an immediate threat to America; why it has the capability of ending our nation as we know it in a short period of time, and why they believe, just as in the technology bubble of the late 1990s, this crisis will just go away; and why they would rather buy onto the idea that if global warming is not properly addressed, over a much longer period the world’s population could become extinct.

For my money, if you give me just one to five years and fail to drill for new energy and compare that to the hundred or so years that you have with the global warming threat, I take saving our nation first, then worrying about fixing global warming later with new technology, perhaps.
Part Two will follow in a few days.

Infiltration: A Book Review by Don White

Infiltration
Author of the book is Paul Sperry

Review by Don White
The most dangerous Muslim radicals won't be sneaking through our borders from the Middle East -- they're already here. That's the alarming message of Washington-based investigative reporter Paul Sperry's new book, Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.

Using access to classified documents as well as exclusive interviews with FBI agents, Customs officers, and military intelligence officials, Sperry reveals how the top levels of our government, armed forces and intelligence agencies have been compromised by radical Muslims -- many of them trained, supported, and inserted into their positions by the so-called "moderate" Muslim establishment in America.

Cleverly exploiting "diversity," "religious freedom," and tax-exemption laws, these subversives have gained firm footholds in key American institutions, including public schools and universities, the federal and state prison system, law enforcement, the military, nuclear weapons laboratories, the Department of Homeland Security -- even the White House.

The ultimate goal of these Muslim subversives, according to Sperry -- quoting verbatim from some of the most respected and "mainstream" Muslim leaders in America -- is to replace the U.S. Constitution with Sharia (Islamic) law and turn America into an Islamic state. And, as Sperry details point-by-point, they have been aided and abetted in their sinister aims by tireless champions of spiritual and cultural relativism in the media and academia, who have mitigated the threat in the public's mind by "mainstreaming" Islam.

Infiltraton, in even the best scenario for America, is a story of mass deception -- a disturbing tale of how the American people have been played for fools, victims of an elaborate fraud orchestrated by the "mainstream" Muslim establishment to protect a faith from due scrutiny, while concealing an underworld that secretly plots to infiltrate and overturn the American system of government.
A small sampling of Paul Sperry's disturbing revelations:

· "One Nation Under Allah": how some of the most respected American Muslim leaders -- the so-called "moderates" who have broken bread in the White House, prayed in Congress, advised the Pentagon, and even lectured cadets at the FBI academy -- are harboring a secret dream about the future of American culture

· The influential American Muslim leader who has repeatedly told Muslim audiences that their goal is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state, even if it takes "a hundred years"

· How an Islamic activist obtained a sensitive intelligence post at the Department of Homeland Security even though he failed to disclose his past association with a confessed terrorist -- an omission overlooked by a federal personnel agency he happened to previously advise as one of its top internal lawyers

· The senior White House official who once lobbied Congress and federal agencies to make it harder for federal law enforcement to deport Middle Eastern immigrants with suspected terror links

· The FBI's translator program: a den of deceit and dual loyalties, where mistranslation of al Qaeda intercepts by Muslim and Arab linguists is commonplace, say agents and translators who have worked there

· How the FBI is putting its agents through "Muslim sensitivity training," which includes inviting Muslim clerics and leaders to preach about the allegedly peaceful attributes of Islam

· The growing threat posed by the more than 20,000 Muslims in America's armed forces -- and by the estimated 200,000 Muslim prison inmates in America, many of whom have been converted by radical chaplains sympathetic to al Qaeda

· The Arabic translator in the Minneapolis field office of the FBI who had a relationship with an al Qaeda suspect for seven years -- and was quietly let go only recently

· How, in their rush to recruit Arabic translators after 9/11, both the FBI and Pentagon cut corners on background checks and hired Muslim translators in spite of their ties to military and intelligence agencies in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey

· How laptops with classified intelligence about al Qaeda investigations have gone missing from the translation unit in the Washington field office of the FBI

· The Muslim FBI agent who refused to wear a wire to secretly record a Muslim target of a counter-terrorism investigation -- and his friendship with the bookkeeper of the target

· How Arabic instructors at the Defense Language Institute, where U.S. Army translators are trained, gloss over Arab terrorism and focus instead on Arab arts and culture

· The deal the White House struck with Muslim-rights groups to avoid describing terrorism as "Islamic"

· How a Republican-tied Islamic institute has been running influence operations against the federal government
· The "moderate" Muslim advocacy group that, according to IRS financial records, has donated money to terrorist front groups, while also employing three officials recently arrested for terrorist-related activities

· How the same group has received substantial foreign support for its operations, despite public denials by its officials

· The Saudi-bankrolled American social studies teacher who is educating public-school children about Islam through sugarcoated textbooks and role-playing exercises in which kids "become Muslims" for weeks

· The Saudi-funded Washington-area mosque that ministered to at least two of the 9/11 terrorists. How at least four leaders of the mosque have come under federal investigation or scrutiny for terrorist ties

· How the tenants of a Pentagon-area apartment building popular with diplomats working for the Saudi Embassy in Washington cheered the 9/11 attacks, according to a leasing agent and former residents

· Why one former top FBI agent says the Bureau's knowledge about the growing threat of Muslim fanatics in America still ranks about 20 on a scale of 1 to 100

· How, according to the former head of the FBI's Washington field office, that office is home to a number of Muslim moles

· How the "moderate" Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is backed by a radical Middle Eastern foundation that supports Palestinian terrorists, according to tax and land records

· The "Wahhabi Corridor": how an area in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., that is heavily populated by Muslims is serving as a base of operations for Islamic terrorists

· The Muslim art of telling "white lies" to defend the faith and further the cause of Allah, as instructed in the hadiths, the sacred supplements to the Quran

· The deceptive methods used by Muslim leaders to conceal the dark underbelly of Islam in an effort to gain wider acceptance in Washington -- and how Washington's politicians and pundits, even after 9/11, buy into Muslim leaders' hype about the peaceful, non-threatening nature of Islam.

I Have To Laugh

I have to laugh. President Bush lifts the ban on offshore drilling and the Democrats poo-poo it. The move may be “ineffectual,” as Nancy Pelosi says, if you’re one of the “I want my candy now people.” But it’s a first step. Now the ball is in the court of the Democratic do-nothing Congress.

“Now is your time to shine, boys and girls,” I say to the Dems. “Your time to prove to the American people that they ought to keep you in office. It's why Bush is president and you aren’t, Nancy.”

“Is that your only solution to the high oil prices? Come on, Nancy, come up with a real solution. Why weren’t you working on this problem before? Why are you so late to the table with your foolish proposal?

You’re like the little daughter of a poor immigrant farmer who came to America in the nineteenth century. He had six coveted grape roots and a thousand dollars with which he planned to create a huge grape farm. A man came to him offering several thousand dollars for those roots, enough money to buy a small house and make their family comfortable. Amid cries of anguish from the mother and daughter, he held fast to his dream. He planted the six roots and it took 15 years. But in that time he had a multi-acre farm producing thousands of pounds of grape juice a year from which he began a highly successful winery and created a famous empire in California.”

People like Pelosi make me sick. Thank goodness for conservatives who believe in the future of this nation. Who are willing to sacrifice for the future and give up immediate pleasures and compensation for the ultimate dream.

Sadly, Nancy Pelosi and her entire cadre of Congretional liberals are not made of that kind of stuff—the stuff that made America strong. They are too prone to cry as did Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California (quoted in the end of the New York Times story). She was heard saying:
““Even if new offshore drilling were allowed off the coast of California and along the outer continental shelf, which I wholly and resolutely oppose, it won’t produce oil in time to solve the gas price emergency American consumers are facing right now.”

No duh!

You point the finger at conservatives, but you wanta know what? They’ve got a plan and you don’t. Their plan is to start now. Yes, it will take ten years to make a dent in our energy production. But they’ve got a plan, and you don’t. You can’t even get enough Congressmen together to discuss the matter. You can’t get a consensus on oil. The American people are clamoring for action, yet a do-nothing Congress will slide into November 5 without doing anything on two of the nation’s biggest problems, Energy and Social Security. And many of you who are up for re-election will be slid right out of Washington on your hind sides before you know it, repelled by an angry American electorate.

Energy is the most immediate problem. Bush got it right. It was reported in the Times. “For years, my administration has been calling on Congress to expand domestic oil production,” said Mr. Bush in a brief Rose Garden appearance in which he saddled Democrats with responsibility for gasoline prices exceeding $4 per gallon. “Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal, and now Americans are paying at the pump.”

What will it take, Nancy, for you to act? $200 a barrel oil?

You're so ridiculous, I have to laugh!

Nation's Governors Arise and Act!

Quote of the Day:

“Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah, an energy state with Shale deposits that don't quit, says he'd like the Western Governors Association to take the lead in drawing up a national energy policy. Why not! No one else is getting the job done.” It's true, our national Congress has really failed us.


I think Gov. Huntsman's idea is a good one. It would be great to see an elected leadership LEAD!!!

Governors and Fed Together Needed

Report Comment by Jamie D. @ 3:34pm - Mon Jul 14th, 2008
Bush's lifting the ban on offshore drilling shows that he isn't a lame duck as the Editorial maintains. I have no problem with the Governor's drafting an energy policy but, that would be trumped by what the federal government does. Instead of acting independent of the feds, then, wouldn't it make more sense for the Governors to act in concert with the feds to solve it? Of course, it would!
-- KSL Radio/TV editorial by Duane Cardall

Martha Radditz and the Major General Buckman Myth

Through investigating the Web, and through blogs made today, I have found that there is no truth to the myth perpetrated by an email. It basically accused ABC Reporter Martha Radditz of fabricating a story about who the troops favored for president and used the name of a respected retired general, MG Buckman, as its author which is not true.

Here's what I found:
1. Major General Cass Buckman does not have a niece named Katelyn. If he does, she was not involved and nothing said in the article about her hearing Marcha Radditz interview several troops is true.
2. Reporter Radditz did not interview 60 military personnel, with 54 saying they would vote for McCain, and then turn around and put only 5 of them (Democrats all) on her TV report with, reportedly, none of them intending to vote for John McCain. That just did not happen, contrary to the story sent to this blog and published previously. That story has earlier been repudiated and removed from this blog. Radditz told me, Don White, that she covered the trip of Vice President Dick Cheney, not that of John McCain, which was an inaccuracy in the previous story sent around to people in email format.

We have not interviewed General Buckman--and I won't--but Lewis Perdue received a recorded message from him disavowing any connection to the story. Perdue is a former instructor for 20 years at Cornell University and maintained a blog called "There Will Be Truth,"
http://therewillbetruth.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-on-major-general-buckman.html

As pointed out by reporter Martha Radditz, so many people have called General Buckman to verify he did not author that story that it is not only superfluous but impolite to do it again. I will but quote a reliable source in Mr. Perdue as follows:

3 comments:

OGLiberal said...

Intellius search comes up with a Louis Cass Buckman in Austin, TX, age 75. He's probably your guy given the birth date and middle initial in his bio. Yahoo! People search provides an address and phone:

Louis Buckman
10605 SPICEWOOD PKWY
AUSTIN, TX 78750
(512) 250-5018

Public records...give him a call.
July 10, 2008 12:50 PM

(that was the recorded message. I hope no one will call that number and bother the good man again on this embarrassment).
Martha Radditz told me, Don White, that Buckman lived in Austin, TX., but would not or could not give me the phone number.

Lewis Perdue said...

I called and left a message on his answering machine about an hour ago.
July 11, 2008 11:20 AM
Lewis Perdue said...

Since I can't write new posts on this blog, I've posted the new info about General Buckman here:

www.therewillbetruth.com

NEW TODAY

Major General Buckman: “Did Not Author That Email”
July 14th, 2008

On July 7, I wrote a post, Major General Buckman, Urban Legend describing an email bearing his name that concerned Iraq news coverage by ABC News Correspondent Martha Raddatz.

As I stated in that earlier post, I felt the email in question had the signs of an urban legend.

I called Maj. General Louis C. Buckman on July 11 and left a message on his home answering machine.

He returned my call today when I was on another line. His message was short and to the point: “I did not author that email … absolutely not.”

The email is, in essence, a forgery, disinformation designed to discredit Martha Raddatz.

The truth is now clear.

I hope the record on this unfortunate story is closed.

Martha Raddatz Repudiates Previous Story: It's Time For America To Speak Up

This is a rebuttal to the article we posted earlier today about an alleged "poll" taken by ABC News. The reporter completely repudiates the story and brands it a smear tactic by those who gave us the information. If that is the case, and we intend to investigate further, we sincerely apologize to Ms. Raddatz.

[Political Disconnect] New comment on It's Time For America To Speak Up.
Monday, July 14, 2008 1:24 PM
From:"Martha"

To:dusanotes@yahoo.com
Martha has left a new comment on your post "It's Time For America To Speak Up":

From Martha Raddatz......Dear all....You are passing on rumors that are not true. Your "trained" journalist should certainly know better than to believe something that comes via a mass email ...and she should certainly know that you should check your facts before you forward them and sully someones reputation. This is an internet smear that has been going around for a month.. I will attach my original email in response to the smear. Also...since I wrote the response, MG Buckman (Air Force retired) has told a mutual acquaintance he is embarrassed his name was attached (he just forwarded the email like others...he does NOT have a niece Katelyn) Here is my original response

Dear all,

I just received your email chain from a friend and I must say I am so saddened by it…..saddened because such a group was so quick to pass on false internet rumors at the expense of my reputation. As I write this, I am on my 17th trip to Iraq with our US forces. I have spent countless hours reporting on the troops during this conflict, and also spend a good deal of my personal time with the wounded and US military families when I am back home. I wrote a book last year, "The Long Road Home" about the battle of Sadr City which was praised as non-political and a tribute to our forces. And yet this internet rumor has gone viral precisely because people in your group and others pass this rumor onto others. The story that was supposedly told by "Katelyn" is simply not true. First…she must have a hundred aunts and uncles because whoever is forwarding it usually claims to be a close friend of one of them. I never went on a trip with John McCain…and I certainly didn't interview 60 soldiers about who they are voting for. These attacks on me started because of a story that aired after a visit I took in March to Balad air base with Vice President Cheney. I followed him down a rope line and was surprised to see how many of the military personnel (largely Air Force) said they supported Barack Obama. I did not talk to many more than a dozen service members.I was with the VP and had no time! There were, of course McCain supporters and Clinton supporters, as well…which I mentioned in the story. But this was not a poll. It was simply surprising that that so many came forward to voice support for a candidate who is advocating withdrawal, just moments after cheering for the vice president. So if there is in fact a "Katelyn" she is making this up. Not only that, she could not possibly have heard me in the noisy crowd. If you would like to check my integrity with some high ranking active duty officers please feel free to do so. And, please, if any of you actually knows retired MG Buckman , please pass on his email address and this email so I can let him know what he has started. I assume he would not want this to continue or have any role in it.

Please feel free to share this email. Thanks so much for understanding how important my bond with the troops is and how important I feel it is to cover the amazing job they do on a daily basis.
Martha Raddatz

Posted by Martha to Political Disconnect at July 14, 2008 10:24 AM

A Real Hero

James Stockdale Biography
Congressional Medal of Honor

James Stockdale Date of birth: December 23, 1923
Date of death: July 5, 2005

James Bond Stockdale was born and raised in Abingdon, Illinois. He lettered in football, basketball and track, won a regional piano competition, and graduated second in his high school class. He was appointed to the Naval Academy in the middle of World War II. Soon after graduating in 1946, Stockdale reported to Pensacola for flight training.

Stockdale flew almost every propeller-driven aircraft in the Navy's inventory, but he yearned for greater challenges. In 1954, Stockdale applied for Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland. Along with 17 others -- including future astronaut John Glenn -- he made the cut.


At Patuxent, Stockdale was a standout. He amassed more than a thousand hours in the F-8U Crusader, then the Navy's hottest fighter. Promotions followed, and by the mid-1960s, Stockdale was at the very pinnacle of his career and profession, commanding a fighter squadron.

In August 1964, Stockdale's squadron played a role in the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which involved North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. naval vessels. The Johnson Administration invoked these occurrences to justify a massive American military response. Interestingly, Stockdale always maintained that during the Incident's key "engagement," he saw no enemy vessels. In his words, "I flew so low there was salt spray on the windshield, and I still didn't see a thing!" But the die was cast. The next morning, he was ordered to lead a raid on North Vietnamese oil refineries. America -- and Jim Stockdale -- were at war.

On September 9, 1965, Stockdale catapulted his A-4 Skyraider off the flight deck of the U.S.S. Oriskany on what turned out to be his final mission over North Vietnam. Approaching his target, his plane was riddled with anti-aircraft fire. Within seconds, his engine was aflame and all hydraulic control was gone. He "punched out," watching his plane slam into a rice paddy and explode in a fireball. Stockdale himself best describes what happened next:

"As I ejected from the plane I broke a bone in my back, but that was only the beginning. I landed in the streets of a small village. A thundering herd was coming down on me. They were going to defend the honor of their town. It was the quarterback sack of the century." They tore off his clothes and beat him mercilessly. Stockdale suffered a broken leg and paralyzed arm before a military policeman took him into custody. He was now a prisoner of war, the highest ranking naval officer to be held as a POW in Vietnam.

Stockdale wound up in Hoa Lo Prison - the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" -- where he spent the next seven years under unimaginably brutal conditions. He was physically tortured no fewer than 15 times. Techniques included beatings, whippings, and near-asphyxiation with ropes. Mental torture was incessant. He was kept in solitary confinement, in total darkness, for four years, chained in heavy, abrasive leg irons for two years, malnourished due to a starvation diet, denied medical care, and deprived of letters from home in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Through it all, Stockdale's captors held out the promise of better treatment if he would only admit that the United States was engaging in criminal behavior against the Vietnamese people, but Stockdale refused. Drawing strength from principles of stoic philosophy, Stockdale heroically resisted. His courage was an inspiration to his fellow POWs, with whom he communicated in an ingenious code, maintiang unit cohesion and morale. His jailers increased the level of torture, so Stockdale determined to fight back in the only way he could.

Told that he was to be taken "downtown" and paraded in front of foreign journalists, Stockdale slashed his scalp with a razor and beat himself in the face with a wooden stool. He reasoned that his captors would not dare display a prisoner who appeared to have been beaten. When he learned that his fellow prisoners prisoners were dying under torture, he slashed his wrists to show their captors that he preferred death to submission. Stockdale literally gambled with his life, and won.

Convinced of Stockdale's determination to die rather than cooperate, the Communists ceased trying to extract bogus "confessions" from him. The torture of American prisoners ended, and treatment of all American POWs improved. Upon his release in 1973, Stockdale's extraordinary heroism became widely known, and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor in the nation's bicentennial year. He was one of the most highly decorated officers in the history of the Navy, with 26 personal combat decorations, including four Silver Star medals in addition to the Medal of Honor.

Throughout Stockdale's captivity, his wife Sybil campaigned for respectful treatment for the families of all POWs by founding the League of Families. Sybil Stockdale was presented with the U.S. Navy Department's Distinguished Public Service Award by the Chief of Naval Operations. She is the only wife of an active-duty officer ever to be so honored.

What Became of The Heroes of The Hanoi Hilton?

Here's a brief history of the 47 men in captivity in the Hanoi Hilton when John McCain was there. James Stockdale (left) went on to become an Admiral, along with four others mentioned below.

5 Made Admiral rank (Stockdale O-9, Lawrence O-9, Shumaker O-8, Denton O-8, Fuller O-8).

1 Made General rank (Risner O-7)

40 Others stayed in the military and attained the following ranks: (USMC 1 Col--Dunn; Navy 1 Cdr--Coker; AF 1 LCol--Daughtrey; AF 19 Colonels--Craner, Crow, Crumpler, Day, Dramesi, Finlay, Guarino, Gutterson, Hughes, Kasler, Johnson, Kirk, Lamar, Larson, Ligon, McKnight, Pollard, Stockman, & Webb; Navy 18 Captains--Brady, Coskey, Crayton, Daniels, Doremus, Fellowes, Franke, Gillespie, James, Jenkins, McCain, Moore, Mulligan, Rivers, Rutledge, Schoeffel, Stratton, & Tanner.

1 Became U.S. Congressmen ( Johnson , Texas ; McCain , Arizona ).

2 Became U.S. Senators ( Denton , Alabama ; McCain , Arizona ).

1 Was a Vice Presidential candidate (Stockdale).

1 Was a Presidential candidate (McCain).

2 Received the Medal of Honor (Stockdale, Day). Day resumed his career as a lawyer.

3 Received the Navy Cross ( Denton , Coker, Fuller). (3 of the 4 POWs to receive this award were from this room. Red McDaniel was the 4th POW to receive the award).

4 Made escapes. All were recaptured, all were tortured. (Dramesi, Coker, McKnight, Day).

2 Were jet aces from the Korea War (Risner: 9 kills in F-86; Kasler: 6 kills in F-86).

1 First pilot to fly over Russia in U-2 spy aircraft (Stockman).

1 Was shot down 4-15-1944 in Germany . POW until April 1945. 26th mission in P-47 (Ligon)

1 Shot down 3 German planes during WW II. Flying British aircraft (Guarino). Flew 156 missions in Sicily, India , China and Indo-China.

1 Flew 62 missions in Korea War. Got credit for 1 kill, 1 damaged, 1 probable kill against Mig 15s (Johnson).

7 Received the Air Force Cross (Kasler--3 awards; Risner--2 awards; Dramesi: 2 awards, Day, Kirk, Guarino and McKnight each received one award).

4 Were Navy Test Pilots (Stockdale, Lawrence, Gillespie, & Franke).

1 Flew with the Thunderbirds (Johnson).

11 Were USNA graduates (Brady '51, Denton '47, Fellowes '56, Fuller '51, Gillespie '51, Lawrence '51,
McCain '58, Rivers '52, Schoeffel '54, Shumaker '56, & Stockdale '47).

2 Were Landing Signal Officers (LSOs); (Stockdale, Tanner).

1 Escaped the B-52 community and got into combat flying the F-105G (Larson).

1 Has a daughter who is an astronaut, gone into space three times (789 hours). She is presently in training as a crewmember of the International Space Station. ( Lawrence ).

1 Was a Navy Air Wing Commander (CAG): (Stockdale, (COMAIRGRU 16).

1 commanded a Navy Carrier, USS America. Later became Battle Group Commander ñCARGRU 4 Commander (Fuller).

10 Were Squadron Commanders (Coskey (VA-85), Day (TBD), Denton (VA-75), Franke, Fuller (VA-76), Gillespie, Jenkins VA-163), Lawrence (VF-143), Ligon (11th TRS) and Larson (469th TFS) when shot down), Schoeffel (VA-83).

5 Were Squadron Executive Officers (Daniels, Moore, Mulligan, Rutledge, & Brady). They were shot down before they could make Squadron Commander.

10 Authored books:

a. Day: Return With Honor.

b. Denton : When Hell Was In Session.

c. Dramesi: Code of Honor.

d. Guarino: A POW's Story: 2801 Days in Hanoi .

e. Johnson: Captive Warriors: A Vietnam POW's Story.

f. McCain: Faith of My Fathers.

g. Mulligan: The Hanoi Commitment.

h. Risner: The Passing of the Night.

i. Rutledge: In the Presence of Mine Enemies.

j. Stockdale: Courage Under Fire; In Love and War; A Vietnam Experience; Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot.


4 Became Presidents/Commandants/Superintendents of institutions of higher learning: (Stockdale:President of the Citidel and President of the Naval War College ; Lawrence: Superintendent of the USNA; Shumaker: Superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School ; and (TBD); Denton : Commandant of Armed Forces Staff College).

2 Built their own airplanes: (Jenkins: Long EZ; Shumaker: Glassair). Pollard is currently flying sail planes.

1 Was the first active duty Naval Aviator to fly Mach II (Lawrence).

1 Was first Naval Aviator to land on an aircraft carrier in 0/0 fog with a newly developed Aircraft Carrier Landing System (Gillespie). Yes, it was an emergency low fuel state!

2 Naval Aviators were in the final selection groups (before shootdown) for the Mercury Astronaut Program (Lawrence, Shumaker).

Many of the members of Room 7 either served during wars prior to Vietnam , or who saw combat in theatres other than Vietnam

WW II:

Vern Ligon: USA Air Corps, 25 missions, P-47 pilot, POW in Stalag Luft 1, 1944-45, escaped once, recaptured.

Larry Guarino: USA Air Corps, 156 missions in Sicily , India , China and Indo-China. Spitfires.

Hervey Stockman: USA Air Corps. 68 missions, P-51.

Jim Kasler: USA Air Corps, 7 missions as tail gunner, B-29.

Harry Jenkins and Gordon Larson were Navy V5 cadets and Fred Crow was an Army Air Corps aviation cadet when WW II ended.

Bud Day: Corporal, USMC, 30 months in south and central Pacific, April 1942-Nov 1945.

By Fuller and Carl Crumpler: Enlisted in US Navy summer of 1945. Saw boot camp by the end of WW II.

Fred Crow and Al Brady: were Navy dependents at Pearl Harbor , December 7, 1941.

Korea :

Robby Risner: USAF, 108 missions, F-86. Mig Ace with 9 kills.

Jim Kasler: USAF, 100 missions, F-86, Mig Ace with 6 kills.

Howie Rutledge: USN, 200 missions, F9F-2 as a Flying Midshipman.

Harry Jenkins: Served aboard USS Fred T. Berry (DD-141) off coast of Korea . Flying Midshipman.

Tom Kirk: Flew missions in Korea (we need more information from Tom).

Larry Guarino: USAF, Air Defense Alert missions.

Jim Lamar: USAF, 100 missions in F-80 and P-51.

Wendy Rivers: Served on a destroyer off the coast of Korea .

Laird Gutterson: USAF, flew 60 missions, P-51.

Verlyne Daniels: Flew AD-4 missions, March-August 1953.

Sam Johnson: USAF, flew 62 missions, F-86, 1 kill, 1 probable, 1 damaged against Mig 15s.

Bud Day: USAF, air defense missions, F-84s.

Bill Lawrence: (F2H-3) and By Fuller (F9F-5) arrived off the coast of Korea in October 1953. They were flying off the USS Oriskany. Too late the war was over!

Fred Crow: Had various commands stateside during the Korean War.

Carl Crumpler: Flew F-86s at George AFB. War was over too soon for him to participate.

Magnificent men, whether in acockpit, in a cell, or at a desk.Provided to show that, regardless of thecircumstances, some are never defeated, only temporarily delayed.


"All of this and some SOB says, "getting shot down and captured does not qualify someone to be president" - but supposedly another with 143 days in congress does qualify? What a country - but how long will we stand at this rate?"

Even Moderate Muslims Want To Replace The Constitution With Islamic Sharia Law

Are We Being Duped By The Muslims?

America has been compromised by radical Muslims—many of them trained, supported and inserted into their positions by the so-called “moderate “ Muslim establishment in America.

This is the alarming thesis of a book by Paul Sperry, Infiltration. It’s frightening, not because it’s something that “could happen,” not because these people are crossing our borders and moving into mainstream America, but because they are already here.

Sperry is a Washington-based investigative reporter and the book is called Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington. Sperry wrote it following exhaustive interviews with FBI agents, Customs officers, and military intelligence officials.

Muslims masquerading as "moderates" are infiltrating our government, our military, our prisons, our schools -- and even the Department of Homeland Security. Cleverly exploiting "diversity," "religious freedom," and tax-exemption laws, these subversives have gained firm footholds in key American institutions, including public schools and universities, the federal and state prison system, law enforcement, the military, nuclear weapons laboratories, the Department of Homeland Security -- even the White House.

The ultimate goal of these subversives, according to Sperry -- quoting verbatim from some of the most respected and "mainstream" Muslim leaders in America -- is to replace the U.S. Constitution with Sharia (Islamic) law and turn America into an Islamic state. And, as Sperry details point-by-point, they have been aided and abetted in their sinister aims by tireless champions of spiritual and cultural relativism in the media and academia, who have mitigated the threat in the public's mind by "mainstreaming" Islam.

Mormon revelation tells of a dark time in America when the U.S. Constitution will hang by thread and it will take the combined efforts of many to save it. Someone of Mormon persuasion may be called upon to lead patriots everywhere in restoring Constitutional Law in America.

Who that person may be and from which states the saviors of the Constitution will come from no one knows, except that the authority of God in some way will be highly involved. That doesn’t mean that the division of church and state will be breached, but merely that people who believe in the Constitution as it stands most likely will be Christians and, more particularly, Mormons. They will have to stand up and be counted upon to help prevent that catastrophe.

We encourage similar or opposite views by bloggers, presumably the latter will be Muslims.

Are American Muslims Working For the Collapse of The U.S. Constitution?

Played For Fools:
Will The U.S. Constitution “Hang By A Thread?”

If the Muslims have their way they will replace Constitutional Law with subversive Muslim law known as Sharia (Islamic) law, with the goal of turning America into an Islamic state. And, as author Paul Sperry details point-by-point in his book Infiltration, Muslims have been aided and abetted in their sinister aims by tireless champions of spiritual and cultural relativism in the media and academia, who have mitigated the threat in the public's mind by "mainstreaming" Islam
At the bottom of it is a story of mass deception -- a disturbing tale of how the American people have been played for fools, victims of an elaborate fraud orchestrated by the "mainstream" Muslim establishment to protect a faith from due scrutiny, while concealing an underworld that secretly plots to infiltrate and overturn the American system of government.
Muslims are already openly calling for the downfall of the British government. How long will it be before they will picket and riot here in America for our downfall?
A small sampling of Paul Sperry's disturbing revelations, all found in his new book, Infiltration:
· "One Nation Under Allah": how some of the most respected American Muslim leaders -- the so-called "moderates" who have broken bread in the White House, prayed in Congress, advised the Pentagon, and even lectured cadets at the FBI academy -- are harboring a secret dream about the future of American culture
· The influential American Muslim leader who has repeatedly told Muslim audiences that their goal is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state, even if it takes "a hundred years"
· How an Islamic activist obtained a sensitive intelligence post at the Department of Homeland Security even though he failed to disclose his past association with a confessed terrorist -- an omission overlooked by a federal personnel agency he happened to previously advise as one of its top internal lawyers
· The senior White House official who once lobbied Congress and federal agencies to make it harder for federal law enforcement to deport Middle Eastern immigrants with suspected terror links
· The FBI's translator program: a den of deceit and dual loyalties, where mistranslation of al Qaeda intercepts by Muslim and Arab linguists is commonplace, say agents and translators who have worked there
· How the FBI is putting its agents through "Muslim sensitivity training," which includes inviting Muslim clerics and leaders to preach about the allegedly peaceful attributes of Islam
· The growing threat posed by the more than 20,000 Muslims in America's armed forces -- and by the estimated 200,000 Muslim prison inmates in America, many of whom have been converted by radical chaplains sympathetic to al Qaeda
· The Arabic translator in the Minneapolis field office of the FBI who had a relationship with an al Qaeda suspect for seven years -- and was quietly let go only recently
· How, in their rush to recruit Arabic translators after 9/11, both the FBI and Pentagon cut corners on background checks and hired Muslim translators in spite of their ties to military and intelligence agencies in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey
· How laptops with classified intelligence about al Qaeda investigations have gone missing from the translation unit in the Washington field office of the FBI
· The Muslim FBI agent who refused to wear a wire to secretly record a Muslim target of a counterterrorism investigation -- and his friendship with the bookkeeper of the target
· How Arabic instructors at the Defense Language Institute, where U.S. Army translators are trained, gloss over Arab terrorism and focus instead on Arab arts and culture
· The deal the White House struck with Muslim-rights groups to avoid describing terrorism as "Islamic"
· How a Republican-tied Islamic institute has been running influence operations against the federal government
· The "moderate" Muslim advocacy group that, according to IRS financial records, has donated money to terrorist front groups, while also employing three officials recently arrested for terrorist-related activities
· How the same group has received substantial foreign support for its operations, despite public denials by its officials
· The Saudi-bankrolled American social studies teacher who is educating public-school children about Islam through sugarcoated textbooks and role-playing exercises in which kids "become Muslims" for weeks
· The Saudi-funded Washington-area mosque that ministered to at least two of the 9/11 terrorists. How at least four leaders of the mosque have come under federal investigation or scrutiny for terrorist ties
· How the tenants of a Pentagon-area apartment building popular with diplomats working for the Saudi Embassy in Washington cheered the 9/11 attacks, according to a leasing agent and former residents
· Why one former top FBI agent says the Bureau's knowledge about the growing threat of Muslim fanatics in America still ranks about 20 on a scale of 1 to 100
· How, according to the former head of the FBI's Washington field office, that office is home to a number of Muslim moles
· How the "moderate" Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is backed by a radical Middle Eastern foundation that supports Palestinian terrorists, according to tax and land records
· The "Wahhabi Corridor": how an area in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., that is heavily populated by Muslims is serving as a base of operations for Islamic terrorists
· The Muslim art of telling "white lies" to defend the faith and further the cause of Allah, as instructed in the hadiths, the sacred supplements to the Quran
· The deceptive methods used by Muslim leaders to conceal the dark underbelly of Islam in an effort to gain wider acceptance in Washington -- and how Washington's politicians and pundits, even after 9/11, buy into Muslim leaders' hype about the peaceful, non-threatening nature of Islam.

We'll Miss Tony Snow

WASHINGTON - Tony Snow, a conservative writer and commentator who cheerfully sparred with reporters in the White House briefing room during a stint as President Bush's press secretary, died early Saturday of colon cancer. Snow was 53 years old. Read More

Could This Happen In America?

By Don White, July 11, 2008

Over the past decade, a former terrorist group has basically hijacked and changed Lebanon forever. The news today reports that a very divided Lebanon has given this militia-driven group veto power, outmaneuvering Israel and the West.
Become somewhat of an expert, reading the book Hezbollah: A Short History by Augustus Richard Norton, Professor of International Relations and Anthropology at Boston University. Norton was a military observer for the United Nations in southern Lebanon when Hezbollah and rival Shi'i parties were taking form there in the early 1980s.

A former U.S. Army officer and West Point professor, he has conducted research in Lebanon for close to three decades, and his book Amal and the Shi'a is widely considered to be a classic account of the political mobilization of Lebanon's Shi'i Muslims.

Beginning as a terrorist cat's-paw of Iran, Hezbollah has since transformed itself into an impressive political party with an admiring Lebanese constituency, but it has also insisted on maintaining the potent militia that forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000 after almost two decades of occupation.

Hezbollah evolved from a one-dimensional terrorist group into a "janus-faced" organization, two-faced, with great power and persuasion. No one knows what its outcome will be, as it is in the middle of an incomplete metamorphosis from extremism to mundane politics where it finds itself today.

Could This Happen In America? Better Question: Is This Happening in America?
If we could not stop Hezbollah in its infancy, how can we avoid having a militant group take over our government? There are signs of militancy on both the left and the right and from without today. The September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington were the most destructive ever on U.S. soil. But law-enforcement officials have also long struggled with a range of U.S.-based terrorist groups.

Domestic extremists include hate groups motivated by ultra-conservative ideals that are often anti-Semitic and racially motivated; ecoterrorists who use violence to campaign for greater environmental responsibility; and socialist groups who oppose the World Trade Organization.

While homegrown Muslim extremists have proven more lethal in Europe than in the United States, U.S. authorities continue to worry about the prospect of attacks by militant Muslims who are American citizens.

Why Congress Doesn't Get It, But Cartoonists and Writers Do?

Is $10 Per Gallon Gas Coming?

The Democrats in Congress may not be realistic enough to spare us from the world's worst energy crisis, leading to the decline of civilization as we know it today.

Most of them believe fervently in global warming--that if we continue to pollute the atmosphere with biocarbons we will melt the solar ice cap enough to flood American coastal areas like Florida and New York.

Over 70% of our globe is covered by water. Ninety-seven percent of all water on earth is in our oceans. Life on earth began in the oceans 3.1 - 3.4 billion years ago and then evolved from the ocean to the land millions of years ago.

Today, the ocean remains a necessity to maintain life as we know it. The oceans provide necessities such as:

* most of the oxygen we need to breathe
* a reservoir for soaking up almost half of the globe's gaseous carbon pollutants (more than 2 billion tons)
* a food source that can be managed to help feed the world
* the ingredients for many of today' s and tomorrow' s medicines
* making our weather, and
* is an essential part of the global economy.

FOR EVERY HUMAN, ANIMAL AND PLANT ON EARTH, A HEALTHY OCEAN IS A MUST!!
That's the mantra and hope of all good environmentalists. If what they say is true, anything we do to pollute the oceans and air has catastropic consequences. However, I happen to believe that the world has a long way to go before anything close to that occurs.

Did you know?

* Three-quarters of all marine pollution comes from land. A recent National Academy of Sciences study estimates that the oil running off our streets and driveways and ultimately flowing into the oceans is equal to an Exxon Valdez oil spill - 10.9 million gallons - every eight months (Committee on Oil in the Sea, National Research Council, 2002).
* Many countries still allow untreated sewage to continually flow into the sea.
* Some fishing techniques result in billions of pounds of fish and other marine life being killed and discarded each year. Worldwide, it is estimated that fishermen discarded about 25% of the total catch during the 1980's and in the early 1990's. This adds up to about 60 billion pounds each year!! (Alverson et al., 1994; Alverson, 1998).
* Dynamite and cyanide are still used for fishing.
* Over half of the world's original coastal marshes and mangrove forests are now developed as industrial parks, residential areas and farms.

Taking all of that into account, the fact remains that we face an even more imminent danger than global warming. It is the breakdown of our civilization from a crisis in energy which is already upon us. Of all the oil producing nations that we depend on including Saudi Arabia, America has no friends. That does not include Great Britain which has North Sea production, but they use their own oil and we purchase very little of it. The same is true for Canadian oil. The current Democratic congress is ill-equipped to respond to the energy crisis. They have been in power for going on two years and have done nothing to solve the problem.

We need to allow drilling in Alaska's ANWR region, develop more wind and solar power, begin building nuclear energy plants, authorize removal of Utah's and Colorado's shale oil deposits where we have three times the oil of Saudi Arabia, and start drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off other coastal areas around Florida. China and Canada are already drilling just 60 miles from U.S. territory, so why not us?

America can't solve the world's global warming problem by allowing ourselves to become weak economically.

In his book The Coming Economic Collapse Stephen Leeb cites geologist M. King Hubbert who observed that once you extract half the oil from a given field (which is the case in Saudi Arabia), production begins to decline. Applying this law to the United States as a whole, Hubbert concluded that oil production in the U.S. would peak in the early 1970s. It has just been since then that our oil production has dropped from over 9 million barrels a day to roughly 5.5 million barrels a day. This era marked the first time that the United States began consuming more imported oil than domestically produced oil. Foreign oil has comprised an ever larger percentage of the oil we have used ever since, yet we do very little to develop alternative sources of energy. Or what we have done is too little, too late.

Leeb wrote in his book The Oil
Factor: :"Any way you slice it, oil seems headed for triple-digit levels by the end of the decade. Oil at $100 will be a minimum. Just to put this in perspective, this could mean gas prices at the pump approaching $10 a gallon."

The Master Flip-Flopper At Work

Obama Voters Protest His Switch on Telecom Immunity

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama’s has done it again. He has become a master at this--he has done another flip-flop, deciding to to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants. But this time he was stopped in his tracks with an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters.

Doesn't Obama ever listen (or think) before he leaps?

Thousands of his supporters are now using the same grass-roots organizing tools previously mastered by the Obama campaign to organize a protest against his decision. In recent days, more than 7,000 Obama supporters have organized on a social networking site on Mr. Obama’s own campaign Web site. They are calling on Mr. Obama to reverse his decision to endorse legislation supported by President Bush to expand the government’s domestic spying powers while also providing legal protection to the telecommunication companies that worked with the National Security Agency’s domestic wiretapping program after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Let’s see if Obama “flips” backward on this when confronted with an army of his own supporters against his idea.

The Screams Aliens Hear From The Earth

onehitwonder writes "Astronomers have discovered that the Earth emits awful, ear-piercing chirps and whistles that could be heard by any aliens who might be listening, according to an article up at Space.com. The sounds are created by charged particles from the solar wind colliding with Earth's magnetic field. This article explains more about the sounds and links to an audio recording of it." Read about it at Slashdot http://slashdot.org/

The United States of Mexico

The United States of Mexico
By Don White
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could let in upwards of a hundred million illegal immigrants to become part of a guest worker/amnesty program over the next 20 years.

It’s the most unimaginative, irresponsible thing the Senate could do. The problem is that President Bush seems to support weak borders and loose immigration. Naturally, so does Florida Senator Mel Martinez, a Latino himself. A lot of Latinos voted for Bush, remember? And his brother, Jeb, is married to a beautiful Latino.

Don’t get me wrong. Latino’s have a great deal to offer America. By and large, they are an honest, hardworking, upstanding people, but we as Americans can’t afford the luxury of adding a hundred million bodies to our welfare roles.

This program will start even before we have secured our borders

Insiders estimate the number of Latin immigrants over the next 20 years to be between 60 and 90 million. These folks, all of them illegal today, will become part of the guest worker/amnesty program.

Here are the names of the Republican Senators who generally approve all “Shamnesty” bils offered: Bennett, Burr, Chambliss, Coleman, Collins, Cornyn, Craig, Domenici, Ensign, Graham, Gregg, Hagel, Hutchison, Isakson, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Martinez, McCain, Murkowski, Smith, Snowe, Specter, Stevens, Voinovich, and Warner.

Surprisingly, none of these great orators, leaders, politicians, fast-talkers, and protectors of private enterprise and the American economy show any math competency.

For example, if any of them had an HP or even a simple calculator they could stand up and shout this bill down on simple math logic if nothing else.

Simple math proves we are in deep trouble with this bill:
We, plain and simple, can’t support all these new laborers? Get out your calculator. For example, we have more than 300 million people in America. The US Department of Labor - Bureau of labor statistics said there are about 147 million employed people in America, not including illegal immigrants. Those numbers are “hard and fast.” How are 147 million Americans going to support 90 million more workers?

And here’s another negative: These Latinos come to work for far lower wages than Americans—even teenagers—currently demand.

Still got your economic, left-side brain working? Simple economics says wages will be drastically reduced for the average American. That means fewer jobs for Americans. North Carolina used to be the world center of furniture creation. But that was before American companies discovered they could make furniture a whole lot cheaper in China and other Third World countries. Now China factories build more furniture than anywhere in the world while our factories set idle, rusting away, and the workers scramble to get something else like janitorial or lawn mowing jobs. The birth of NAFTA, you know, the free trade zone we have with Latin America, coincided with loss of thousands of average-paying jobs in America.

Big business countered, arguing what we lose will be made up. But not by those who lost the jobs—unless they retrain, which in many cases was impossible because they were good with lathes, drill presses, and fabrics, not with numbers, computer code, and economics required by Apple, Microsoft, and chip makers.

'Outsourcing' seems to be a hot topic today. Most Americans dislike the idea of being displaced from their job because someone in a foreign country is willing to work for far less money. The one silver lining in the debate is that it appeared that at least some jobs were safe. In other words, it is physically impossible to outsource some jobs because they must be performed in the United States. But with this new Guest Worker bill, even these jobs are not safe.

By creating a guest worker program on such a massive scale, our own government is importing the very cheap labor that has already moved millions of American jobs overseas.

Less-skilled laborers face an imminent decrease in wages (and job opportunities) that can be directly attributed to the Guest Worker program just implemented by Congress.

Even Republican business leaders now in Congress don’t realize this fact:
Wage equalization is the end extreme of complete integration of international trade. In other words, in a completely integrated world economy, the same type of job pays the exact same salary regardless of where it is performed. The net effect for Americans who lost their furniture industry jobs, for example, and had to take the lawn cutting and janitorial jobs is lower wages.

By contrast, foreign workers who took over the jobs of US workers have seen their pay increase. Given enough time, the downward pressure on US workers' wages and the upward pressure on foreign workers' wages will meet so that the job pays the same regardless of the country in which it is performed.

Obviously, this effect hurts millions of American workers, because of the tremendous downward pressure it puts on their wages. Unskilled labor has been forced to shoulder a disproportionate amount of wage deflation, as unskilled jobs have (so far) been easier to outsource. Up until Congress enacted the guest worker program, unskilled labor had only one protection standing in the way of a rapid decrease in wages: some jobs simply could not be outsourced because they could only be performed in the United States.

However, with the new Guest Worker program, this requirement is now gone. Poof. Ninety MILLION guest workers, the vast majority of whom are unskilled labor, will enter this country clamoring for higher paying jobs. Which jobs do you think will be their first target? You’ve got it - unskilled labor.

Conclusion
Who will pay for the vast educational, welfare, retirement, and medical benefits that these new workers will demand? Who will pay for the infrastructure improvements necessary to hold almost 100 million new workers in the next 20 years?

Immigrants are a vital part of our country and our history. We are all immigrants, or their sons and daughters. However, the immigration program passed by Congress is reckless and poorly thought out. It disregards the value of American life. I urge you to write your elected representatives and ask them to propose a better immigration bill—one that takes a world view.

For example, there are a lot of Finns, Danes, Swedes, Africans, Russians, English, and people from 200 other nations that would like to live in America. Why not do what Canada does? Take the cream of the crop. Write into the law preferences for people skilled in math, science, and other areas in which we are weak—those like the ones who came a hundred years ago and helped make America great. If not, if we keep up this nonsense, we’ll soon be known as the United States of Mexico.

New York Times Policy

July 1, 2008, 10:00 am
Orlando, FL--"Guns and Democrats" is a pretty benign subject for the New York Times Op-Ed page and Dan Schnur is fairly harmless, as a Republican, because of his liberal nature.

Dan wrote an article backgrounding Obama's terra firma, if you can call it that, on the recent Supreme Court 5-4 decision to interpret the Second Amendment--that most of us gun owners assumed allowed guns in homes anyway--to mean that it was not a right merely granted to us when we're acting for the government but to individuals who can keep guns in their home for protection, hunting, or whatever.

Beware of anything Schnur says. While he was the national communications director for John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000, he cozies up to the NY Times elitists and writes in such a way that it is never unacceptable to the liberals (Full biography). http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/contributor-dan-schnur/

Listen to Schnur for a moment:
"The Obama campaign Web site’s 'In the News' section, which chronicles Barack Obama’s recent statements on the 36th anniversary of the passage of Title IX and the June tenth holiday celebration, does not include his reaction to the United States Supreme Court decision last week to strike down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns. Though I couldn’t find it on the Web site, the campaign did issue a statement — albeit a fairly tepid one — on the Court ruling."

“I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms,” Mr. Obama is quoted as saying. “But I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures.”

Schnur says that if Charlton Heston were still living, he could have comfortably uttered the same sentences. Maybe the words, but his sentiments wouldn't be clouded with undertones of duplicity, a trademark of Democrat Obama. Heston was a "straight shooter."

"Partisans on both sides will argue about whether Mr. Obama’s equivocation represents a clarification or a reversal of his previous statements on the subject. But the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Far more important is that the gradual disintegration of the gun control movement that once drove Democratic politics is now pretty much complete. For decades, the true meaning of the Second Amendment has been the subject of wrenching public debate. But last Thursday, when the Court expressly and historically extended the right of gun ownership to private citizens, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president merely shrugged.

"Certainly, there were others who spoke out forcefully against the decision: some big city mayors (most notably Richard Daley of Chicago), a few dedicated congressional voices (like Senator Dianne Feinstein of California) and the long-time voices of the professional advocate community rushed to battle stations. But Mr. Obama, the preferred candidate of the nation’s most committed gun control proponents, did not offer a syllable of protest. If his judicial nominees will be sympathetic to more stringent gun control measures than judges appointed by George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan or John McCain, there was no evidence of that sentiment last week.

"Some of the reasons for Mr. Obama’s reticence have been a result of his own unique political circumstances. His campaign is targeting western states like Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, where questions of gun ownership resonate differently than on traditional urban Democratic turf. And his well-chronicled statement this spring about gun owners and their bitterness is indicative of the struggle he has had in attracting working-class and rural voters. As a result, both demographic and geographic political realities demand that Mr. Obama tread especially lightly on the gun issue.

"But his muted response is also the culmination of a long-developing trend in the national Democratic Party: to tiptoe away from a policy discussion that they believe has caused them great political damage...

"Most of the Democratic Party base is made up of fierce gun-control advocates. But after eight long years in the political wilderness, they want to win, badly. So it’s easy to understand why they’re willing to tolerate a little bit of strategic silence from their standard-bearer, even on an issue so close..."

That's what Schnur said, but I wrote three graphs and submitted it to the Times as a comment, which they refuse to print, knowing I'm a conservative, mainly taking issue with his comment: "it doesn't matter." See if you agree.


By Don White: In the larger view "it does matter" if politicians flip flop. Dan Schnur said, "Partisans on both sides will argue about whether Mr. Obama’s equivocation represents a clarification or a reversal of his previous statements on the subject. But the truth is that it doesn’t matter." WRONG!

It matters a whole lot to gun owners. A flip-flop is a flip-flop. It represents the fragile nature of one's convictions. Congressmen and other elitists can change their positions every day if they want but they won't get my vote. How can you trust them? If they say, or indicate by their actions, that they are not against the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision and go ahead and load up the court with anti-gun jurists, then it becomes obvious that "it does matter" that they flip flopped to get elected. And that's precisely what Obama plans to do.

Basic Harry Truman-style conviction you can count on is what the rank and file American is looking for, despite what the elitists do or say. We can detect insincerity and there is much of it in the camp of the donkey party today. They'll do and say anything to get elected, even if it's a flip-flop of major proportions as this one is for Obama.
I would encourage you to read the entire Schnur Op-Ed piece.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/guns-and-democrats/index.html?th&emc=th