Urgent message from Dick Morris
Dear fellow American:
Al Franken is trying every trick in the book to get into the U.S. Senate.
Recently Franken was "certified" of the recent recount, but as the liberal Sec. of State of Minnesota admitted, this does not mean he is the election winner.
In fact, the result is now open for legal challenge.
I believe a fair court ruling will negate Franken's phony victory and declare Norm Coleman the winner — who was ahead by hundred of votes on election night.
This week the Wall Street Journal came out with guns blazing for the the out-and-out vote theft going on in Minnesota.
The Journal noted that shockingly almost every controversial dispute during the vote recount went in the favor of Al Franken.
The Journal said: "We can't recall a similar recount ... in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate (Franken). If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be appointing a tainted and undeserving senator."
Well, you and I can help stop Al Franken.
The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) is leading the fight for a fair Senate election and vote.
They urgently need your help to continue their battle — Go Here Now
Exposing Al Franken's vote fraud won't be easy. Franken has gotten millions from George Soros and his liberal Hollywood friends.
But already the RNLA has made major strides.
Even Sen. Harry Reid relented and said he won't seat Al Franken yet.
We must demand an honest vote in Minnesota.
You can help the RNLA do that — Go Here Now.
The Republican National Lawyers Association is the number one group in the country fighting vote fraud.
The Wall Street Journal said that if it was not for the RNLA, John Kerry could well have won the 2004 election.
Now they are fighting for a key Senate seat. If the Democrats get Franken in the Senate they are just one vote shy of a filibuster proof Senate.
That means Obama, Pelosi and Reid can push through a radical liberal agenda including higher taxes, abolishing free talk radio, and giving amnesty to millions of illegals.
You can stop them. We can stop them. Help the RNLA today — Go Here Now.
Thank you.
Dick Morris
P.S. The Republican National Lawyers Association is leading Republican efforts to expose vote fraud. They have a distinquished advisory board including former Reagan attorney general Edwin Meese. Their work is crucial now and in the years to come. But it's critically important we help the RNLA today in the Minnesota race. Please act today — Go Here Now.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
W's Biggest Hits
W's Biggest Hits
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, January 09, 2009 4:20 PM PT
War On Terror: Two more top al-Qaida operatives collected their virgins on New Year's Day. Justice may be delayed, but not denied. Look up in the sky: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a . . . Predator drone!
U.S. officials have confirmed that a Jan. 1 missile strike killed two top al-Qaida members long sought for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
Cross Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheikh Ahmed Salem Swedan off the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" list.
Msalam, also known as Usama al-Kini, and Sedan both from Kenya. Both are believed to have been involved in last September's bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, that killed 53 people. The two were killed by an unmanned aircraft operated by the CIA while they were in a not-so-safe house used for explosives-training near the town of Karikot in South Waziristan.
Kini trained terrorists in Africa in the 1990s. After 9/11, he became al-Qaida's emir of Afghanistan's Zabul province and later rotated among Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Africa, planning suicide missions, training operatives and raising money.
Transferred to the home office two years ago, he became al-Qaida's operations director for Pakistan and was responsible for at least seven suicide attacks. These included an assassination try aimed at former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who would be murdered in December 2007.
South Waziristan has become a prime hunting ground for Predator drones in recent months as part of a campaign to destabilize al-Qaida by decimating its leadership and killing key operatives. The attacks, occurring once every three days, have resulted in the deaths of at least eight top al-Qaida leaders since July.
Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal has compiled a list of some of those who have received final justice recently. They include Abu Laith al Libi, a senior military commander in Afghanistan, who was killed in a strike in North Waziristan last January. Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al-Qaida's external operations chief, was killed in a strike in Bajaur in March.
Abu Khabab al Masri, al-Qaida's weapons of mass destruction chief, and several senior members of his staff were killed in a strike in South Waziristan in July. Khalid Habib, leader of al-Qaida's paramilitary forces in the tribal areas, was killed in North Waziristan in October. Abu Jihad al Masri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and member of al-Qaida's top council, last October was also killed in North Waziristan.
The next month, Rashid Rauf, mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, was killed when a 100-pound Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone struck a tribesmen's house in the village of Ali Khel in North Waziristan. Rauf was the architect of the liquid bomb plot that forces travelers to limit fluids to 3.5 ounces in carry-on baggies.
The idea that the U.S. hasn't taken the battle to the enemy sanctuaries in Syria and Pakistan, or that we are losing control of Afghanistan, isn't exactly accurate. The terrorists we fight are scurrying about as we lift the remaining rocks they hide under. But there's no place for them to hide.
Waziristan used to be called al-Qaida's hideout. Now it's what American pilots call a target-rich environment. If this campaign continues, maybe we'll soon find and send to his just reward al-Qaida's tape-of-the-month club director, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or maybe even his cave-dwelling boss.
We're running out of targets.
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, January 09, 2009 4:20 PM PT
War On Terror: Two more top al-Qaida operatives collected their virgins on New Year's Day. Justice may be delayed, but not denied. Look up in the sky: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a . . . Predator drone!
U.S. officials have confirmed that a Jan. 1 missile strike killed two top al-Qaida members long sought for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
Cross Fahid Mohammed Ali Msalam and Sheikh Ahmed Salem Swedan off the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" list.
Msalam, also known as Usama al-Kini, and Sedan both from Kenya. Both are believed to have been involved in last September's bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, that killed 53 people. The two were killed by an unmanned aircraft operated by the CIA while they were in a not-so-safe house used for explosives-training near the town of Karikot in South Waziristan.
Kini trained terrorists in Africa in the 1990s. After 9/11, he became al-Qaida's emir of Afghanistan's Zabul province and later rotated among Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Africa, planning suicide missions, training operatives and raising money.
Transferred to the home office two years ago, he became al-Qaida's operations director for Pakistan and was responsible for at least seven suicide attacks. These included an assassination try aimed at former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who would be murdered in December 2007.
South Waziristan has become a prime hunting ground for Predator drones in recent months as part of a campaign to destabilize al-Qaida by decimating its leadership and killing key operatives. The attacks, occurring once every three days, have resulted in the deaths of at least eight top al-Qaida leaders since July.
Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal has compiled a list of some of those who have received final justice recently. They include Abu Laith al Libi, a senior military commander in Afghanistan, who was killed in a strike in North Waziristan last January. Abu Sulayman Jazairi, al-Qaida's external operations chief, was killed in a strike in Bajaur in March.
Abu Khabab al Masri, al-Qaida's weapons of mass destruction chief, and several senior members of his staff were killed in a strike in South Waziristan in July. Khalid Habib, leader of al-Qaida's paramilitary forces in the tribal areas, was killed in North Waziristan in October. Abu Jihad al Masri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and member of al-Qaida's top council, last October was also killed in North Waziristan.
The next month, Rashid Rauf, mastermind of the 2006 trans-Atlantic airline bomb plot, was killed when a 100-pound Hellfire missile launched from a Predator drone struck a tribesmen's house in the village of Ali Khel in North Waziristan. Rauf was the architect of the liquid bomb plot that forces travelers to limit fluids to 3.5 ounces in carry-on baggies.
The idea that the U.S. hasn't taken the battle to the enemy sanctuaries in Syria and Pakistan, or that we are losing control of Afghanistan, isn't exactly accurate. The terrorists we fight are scurrying about as we lift the remaining rocks they hide under. But there's no place for them to hide.
Waziristan used to be called al-Qaida's hideout. Now it's what American pilots call a target-rich environment. If this campaign continues, maybe we'll soon find and send to his just reward al-Qaida's tape-of-the-month club director, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or maybe even his cave-dwelling boss.
We're running out of targets.
SPIN AT WORK HARRY REID
dAVE, YOU WILL ENJOY THIS ONE............................................WHAT A HOOT!
I absolutely love this one! And we all keep re-electing these spin artists to the Senate, the House, the state Legislature, etc., etc.,
ad nauseum.....(doesn't matter which party!)
Jane
Some History on Senator Harry Reid (Ind/Dem)of Nevada :
(True or Not it seems to fall in with he and his three sons agenda)
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher here in southern California, was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that Harry Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Both Judy and Harry Reid share this common ancestor.
Harry Reid
.jpg)
The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows in Montana territory.
On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this inscription: 'Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.
So Judy recently e-mailed Congressman Harry Reid for information about their great-great uncle.
Believe it or not, Harry Reid's staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research:
'Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory . His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.'
NOW THAT is how it's done folks! That's real SPIN.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I absolutely love this one! And we all keep re-electing these spin artists to the Senate, the House, the state Legislature, etc., etc.,
ad nauseum.....(doesn't matter which party!)
Jane
Some History on Senator Harry Reid (Ind/Dem)of Nevada :
(True or Not it seems to fall in with he and his three sons agenda)
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogy researcher here in southern California, was doing some personal work on her own family tree. She discovered that Harry Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Both Judy and Harry Reid share this common ancestor.
Harry Reid
.jpg)
The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows in Montana territory.
On the back of the picture Judy obtained during her research is this inscription: 'Remus Reid, horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.
So Judy recently e-mailed Congressman Harry Reid for information about their great-great uncle.
Believe it or not, Harry Reid's staff sent back the following biographical sketch for her genealogy research:
'Remus Reid was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory . His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to government service, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.'
NOW THAT is how it's done folks! That's real SPIN.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Military Opposes Obama’s Pro-Gay Stance
Military Opposes Obama’s Pro-Gay Stance
Thursday, January 8, 2009 6:22 PM
By: Dave Eberhart Article Font Size
When Bill Clinton came to power in 1993, among his first agenda items: Allow gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
The plan sparked a firestorm of controversy, with Clinton ultimately acquiescing to what became known as the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, a position military brass found acceptable.
Now, a new commander in chief is facing the same hot-button issue and critics from both the left and the right are already taking shots at President-elect Barack Obama’s plans to deal with the matter. Most expect Obama, who pledged during the Democratic primaries to end “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” to dispense with the rule and allow gays serving in the military to profess their homosexuality openly.
A new poll by the Military Times, however, found that a majority of active-duty service members want to keep the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in place.
Little surprise, then, that Obama appears increasingly reluctant to repeat Clinton’s disastrous decision to tackle — right out of the starting blocks — the controversial issue of how to handle openly gay men and women serving in the military. That political wariness hasn’t stopped some on the left from insisting that the new administration will give the demise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” top priority.
In a few weeks, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., will reopen the issue by re-introducing legislation to repeal the 1993 law stating that homosexuals are not eligible to be in the military.
Elaine Donnelly, the founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness, which favors the ban on gays, says Clinton’s effort to lift the ban was one of the most controversial agenda items of his administration — crippling his rapport with the military and contributing to the Democrats losing control of Congress in 1994.
“This time, the move to repeal the law is coming from Congress,” she says. “Anybody who thinks that Obama’s administration won’t push for it is mistaken.”
Perceptions purveyed in the media are less important than reality, and the meetings of high-level transition team members with representatives of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered left are a clear indication that Obama’s administration is fully engaged in this issue, Donnelly tells Newsmax.
“The only difference is that the meetings are taking place behind closed doors, instead of in the Oval Office with an official photograph taken and published in the Washington Post, as Clinton did in 1993,” she adds.
But not all maneuvering is behind those closed doors.
The nation’s largest gay-rights lobbying group has demanded that Obama eliminate the policy banning openly gays from the armed forces.
Last month, The Human Rights Campaign, asked the president-elect to adopt the group’s “Blueprint for Positive Change,” which includes the banishment of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
According to a Human Rights Campaign official, the specific demand is to “develop a plan within the first 100 days to eliminate the military’s … policy regarding the sexual orientation of its members.”
But Donnelly is having none of it, noting that the only change that can come about is negative and crippling rather than positive.
“The advocates of gays in the military at the Military Times spun their poll story by focusing on the 71 percent who said they would stay if the law is repealed, instead of the almost one in 10 who said they would definitely leave, plus an additional 14 percent who said they would consider leaving,” she tells Newsmax. “Losses anywhere close to these numbers would virtually destroy the volunteer force.”
Donnelly did the math:
A rough estimate using Defense Department numbers for all service branches and components, totaling more than 2 million, indicates that a loss of one in ten (almost 10 percent) would cost the military approximately 228,600 people — more than the active duty Marine Corps (200,000).
If an additional 14 percent decided to leave, the voluntary exodus would translate into a loss of almost 527,000 — a figure approaching the size of today’s active duty Army (more than 545,000).
“Estimates of losses in active duty forces alone would range between 141,000 (10 percent) and 323,000 (23 percent),” warns Donnelly.
The poll’s findings are not an exact prediction, but they are significant and ought to be of concern to President Obama and members of Congress who are considering a vote to repeal the 1993 law, says Donnelly.
“This potential decimation of the volunteer force eclipses the small number of discharges that occurred over a period of nine years [under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’],” concludes Donnelly.
Meanwhile as the controversy brews, the Obama transition camp may be leaving the new chief executive some wiggle room.
According to the Washington Blade, a newspaper serving the gay community, a member of the team is downplaying media reports that the president-elect has decided to delay efforts to repeal the law popularly called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” until 2010.
The anonymous representative said the decision on how to deal with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would be tackled only after more experts have joined the Obama administration. “These decisions will not be made before the full national security team is in place,” the spokesperson said.
Also weighing in on the timing of the fate of the law, the Washington Times recently reported that two people who have advised Obama’s transition team said the president-elect “will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is gay, said repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may be further off and told the Blade that “once Iraq is over,” Congress can wipe the law off the books.
But Donnelly is not buying into Barney Frank’s delayed-decision scenario.
She tells Newsmax, “The gay activists, including Barney Frank, keep telling conservative media that nothing will happen anytime soon. But a reporter for a liberal major media organization who had been surveying the same people was told that this is the number three item on their agenda. I believe that the liberal reporter is correct.”
Donnelly concludes, “Keep in mind that Frank has threatened to cut the defense budget by 25 percent. All the pressure will be on the Joint Chiefs to go along with him in the ‘best interests of the military.’”
Rep. Tauscher doesn’t believe the wait will be long either, telling CNN recently that, in her opinion, the administration would approve of such a bill in 2009.
Charged Issue
But whether sooner or later, the issue is one of the most charged the new president will have to confront.
Adding to the rising temperature in the pressure cooker is the recent 2008 annual Military Times poll of active duty personnel that reveals most active-duty service members continue to oppose Obama’s campaign pledge to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to allow gays to serve openly in the military.
According to that poll, approximately 58 percent of respondents are opposed to efforts to repeal the 1993 law. This level of solid support for the law has remained virtually unchanged in similar annual surveys dating back to January 2005.
According to a report in the Military Times, Army Capt. Steven J. Lacy, a logistician assigned to the 71st Transportation Battalion at Fort Eustis, Va., said he is very concerned about the policy being repealed.
“I think a lot of people are,” Lacy said. “In the field environment, you’re in very close proximity to one another. The fact that someone could be openly gay could exacerbate stress on teams and small units when you’re already at a high stress level.”
Donnelly agrees.
If Congress repeals the 1993 statute stating that homosexuals are not eligible to serve in uniform, and the military is ordered to accommodate professed (not discreet) homosexuals, the culture of the military will be radically changed, she argues.
“Recruiters will be directed to accept and even seek out professed homosexuals for induction in all branches of the military, including direct ground combat communities.
“This means that heterosexuals — the majority of men and women who volunteer to serve — will be required to live in forced cohabitation with professed, not discreet, homosexuals, on all military bases and ships at sea, on a 24/7 basis.
“Such a policy would impose new, unneeded burdens of sexual tension on men and women serving in high-pressure working conditions, far from home, that are unlike any occupation in the civilian world.
“The real-world issue here is not superficial. Nor is it a Hollywood fantasy portrayed for laughs in a television sitcom. We are talking about human sexuality and the normal, human desire for personal privacy and modesty in sexual matters.
“Repealing the 1993 law would be tantamount to forcing female soldiers to cohabit with men in intimate quarters, on all military bases and ships at sea, on a 24/7 basis,” she concludes.
But Donnelly may be bucking a strong current for change.
That same Military Times poll highlighted above indicates that 71 percent of respondents said they would continue to serve if the policy was overturned.
Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Pfau, of the 284th Engineer Company in Seagoville, Texas, told the Times he isn’t concerned about the issue.
“That policy does not bother me whatsoever,” Pfau said. “I don’t judge people by their sexual orientation. I judge them by the kind of person they are. As long as they do their job, it does not bother me.”
But it’s not just the lower ranks that are getting more comfortable with gays openly in the military.
Retired Admiral Charles Larson, former Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, heads a list of 104 retired generals and admirals calling for an end to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the Associated Press reported.
In a petition, Larson and the others respectfully call for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy:
“Those of us endorsing this letter have dedicated our lives to defending the rights of our citizens to believe whatever they wish. Scholarly data shows there are approximately one million gay and lesbian veterans in the United States today, as well as 65,000 gays and lesbians currently serving in our armed forces.
“They have served our nation honorably. We support the recent comments of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General John Shalikashvili, who has concluded that repealing the…policy would not harm and would indeed help our armed forces.”
For her part, Donnelly admits the battle may be uphill.
Activists for gays in the military are not letting up in their drive to impose their agenda on the military, she says.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said transition leaders were “very receptive” to requests from gay activists. “I think they went to great lengths to explain their vision for how [policy initiatives] would work and how our community would be a part of that,” he told the Washington Blade.
According to a Military Times report, the DoD has discharged nearly 12,500 service members since the law was first enforced in 1994, including critically needed service members such as Arabic linguists, medics, pilots and intelligence analysts.
Donnelly opines that the number of such discharges under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” could be nearly wiped out if induction forms asked a question about sexual preference right up front.
Interestingly, if that question was allowed to be asked and other key features of the old law stayed in effect, a “yes” answer might not result in a kneejerk tossing of the application.
Donnelly notes to Newsmax: “It’s technical, but there is the ‘rebuttable presumption’ language, which applies only if someone said they were gay under unusual circumstances; i.e., while drunk, trying to get out of the military, etc. It’s a long story, but it is not the loophole that it appears to be.”
Thursday, January 8, 2009 6:22 PM
By: Dave Eberhart Article Font Size
When Bill Clinton came to power in 1993, among his first agenda items: Allow gays to serve openly in the armed forces.
The plan sparked a firestorm of controversy, with Clinton ultimately acquiescing to what became known as the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, a position military brass found acceptable.
Now, a new commander in chief is facing the same hot-button issue and critics from both the left and the right are already taking shots at President-elect Barack Obama’s plans to deal with the matter. Most expect Obama, who pledged during the Democratic primaries to end “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” to dispense with the rule and allow gays serving in the military to profess their homosexuality openly.
A new poll by the Military Times, however, found that a majority of active-duty service members want to keep the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in place.
Little surprise, then, that Obama appears increasingly reluctant to repeat Clinton’s disastrous decision to tackle — right out of the starting blocks — the controversial issue of how to handle openly gay men and women serving in the military. That political wariness hasn’t stopped some on the left from insisting that the new administration will give the demise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” top priority.
In a few weeks, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., will reopen the issue by re-introducing legislation to repeal the 1993 law stating that homosexuals are not eligible to be in the military.
Elaine Donnelly, the founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness, which favors the ban on gays, says Clinton’s effort to lift the ban was one of the most controversial agenda items of his administration — crippling his rapport with the military and contributing to the Democrats losing control of Congress in 1994.
“This time, the move to repeal the law is coming from Congress,” she says. “Anybody who thinks that Obama’s administration won’t push for it is mistaken.”
Perceptions purveyed in the media are less important than reality, and the meetings of high-level transition team members with representatives of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered left are a clear indication that Obama’s administration is fully engaged in this issue, Donnelly tells Newsmax.
“The only difference is that the meetings are taking place behind closed doors, instead of in the Oval Office with an official photograph taken and published in the Washington Post, as Clinton did in 1993,” she adds.
But not all maneuvering is behind those closed doors.
The nation’s largest gay-rights lobbying group has demanded that Obama eliminate the policy banning openly gays from the armed forces.
Last month, The Human Rights Campaign, asked the president-elect to adopt the group’s “Blueprint for Positive Change,” which includes the banishment of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
According to a Human Rights Campaign official, the specific demand is to “develop a plan within the first 100 days to eliminate the military’s … policy regarding the sexual orientation of its members.”
But Donnelly is having none of it, noting that the only change that can come about is negative and crippling rather than positive.
“The advocates of gays in the military at the Military Times spun their poll story by focusing on the 71 percent who said they would stay if the law is repealed, instead of the almost one in 10 who said they would definitely leave, plus an additional 14 percent who said they would consider leaving,” she tells Newsmax. “Losses anywhere close to these numbers would virtually destroy the volunteer force.”
Donnelly did the math:
A rough estimate using Defense Department numbers for all service branches and components, totaling more than 2 million, indicates that a loss of one in ten (almost 10 percent) would cost the military approximately 228,600 people — more than the active duty Marine Corps (200,000).
If an additional 14 percent decided to leave, the voluntary exodus would translate into a loss of almost 527,000 — a figure approaching the size of today’s active duty Army (more than 545,000).
“Estimates of losses in active duty forces alone would range between 141,000 (10 percent) and 323,000 (23 percent),” warns Donnelly.
The poll’s findings are not an exact prediction, but they are significant and ought to be of concern to President Obama and members of Congress who are considering a vote to repeal the 1993 law, says Donnelly.
“This potential decimation of the volunteer force eclipses the small number of discharges that occurred over a period of nine years [under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’],” concludes Donnelly.
Meanwhile as the controversy brews, the Obama transition camp may be leaving the new chief executive some wiggle room.
According to the Washington Blade, a newspaper serving the gay community, a member of the team is downplaying media reports that the president-elect has decided to delay efforts to repeal the law popularly called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” until 2010.
The anonymous representative said the decision on how to deal with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would be tackled only after more experts have joined the Obama administration. “These decisions will not be made before the full national security team is in place,” the spokesperson said.
Also weighing in on the timing of the fate of the law, the Washington Times recently reported that two people who have advised Obama’s transition team said the president-elect “will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is gay, said repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may be further off and told the Blade that “once Iraq is over,” Congress can wipe the law off the books.
But Donnelly is not buying into Barney Frank’s delayed-decision scenario.
She tells Newsmax, “The gay activists, including Barney Frank, keep telling conservative media that nothing will happen anytime soon. But a reporter for a liberal major media organization who had been surveying the same people was told that this is the number three item on their agenda. I believe that the liberal reporter is correct.”
Donnelly concludes, “Keep in mind that Frank has threatened to cut the defense budget by 25 percent. All the pressure will be on the Joint Chiefs to go along with him in the ‘best interests of the military.’”
Rep. Tauscher doesn’t believe the wait will be long either, telling CNN recently that, in her opinion, the administration would approve of such a bill in 2009.
Charged Issue
But whether sooner or later, the issue is one of the most charged the new president will have to confront.
Adding to the rising temperature in the pressure cooker is the recent 2008 annual Military Times poll of active duty personnel that reveals most active-duty service members continue to oppose Obama’s campaign pledge to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to allow gays to serve openly in the military.
According to that poll, approximately 58 percent of respondents are opposed to efforts to repeal the 1993 law. This level of solid support for the law has remained virtually unchanged in similar annual surveys dating back to January 2005.
According to a report in the Military Times, Army Capt. Steven J. Lacy, a logistician assigned to the 71st Transportation Battalion at Fort Eustis, Va., said he is very concerned about the policy being repealed.
“I think a lot of people are,” Lacy said. “In the field environment, you’re in very close proximity to one another. The fact that someone could be openly gay could exacerbate stress on teams and small units when you’re already at a high stress level.”
Donnelly agrees.
If Congress repeals the 1993 statute stating that homosexuals are not eligible to serve in uniform, and the military is ordered to accommodate professed (not discreet) homosexuals, the culture of the military will be radically changed, she argues.
“Recruiters will be directed to accept and even seek out professed homosexuals for induction in all branches of the military, including direct ground combat communities.
“This means that heterosexuals — the majority of men and women who volunteer to serve — will be required to live in forced cohabitation with professed, not discreet, homosexuals, on all military bases and ships at sea, on a 24/7 basis.
“Such a policy would impose new, unneeded burdens of sexual tension on men and women serving in high-pressure working conditions, far from home, that are unlike any occupation in the civilian world.
“The real-world issue here is not superficial. Nor is it a Hollywood fantasy portrayed for laughs in a television sitcom. We are talking about human sexuality and the normal, human desire for personal privacy and modesty in sexual matters.
“Repealing the 1993 law would be tantamount to forcing female soldiers to cohabit with men in intimate quarters, on all military bases and ships at sea, on a 24/7 basis,” she concludes.
But Donnelly may be bucking a strong current for change.
That same Military Times poll highlighted above indicates that 71 percent of respondents said they would continue to serve if the policy was overturned.
Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Pfau, of the 284th Engineer Company in Seagoville, Texas, told the Times he isn’t concerned about the issue.
“That policy does not bother me whatsoever,” Pfau said. “I don’t judge people by their sexual orientation. I judge them by the kind of person they are. As long as they do their job, it does not bother me.”
But it’s not just the lower ranks that are getting more comfortable with gays openly in the military.
Retired Admiral Charles Larson, former Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, heads a list of 104 retired generals and admirals calling for an end to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the Associated Press reported.
In a petition, Larson and the others respectfully call for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy:
“Those of us endorsing this letter have dedicated our lives to defending the rights of our citizens to believe whatever they wish. Scholarly data shows there are approximately one million gay and lesbian veterans in the United States today, as well as 65,000 gays and lesbians currently serving in our armed forces.
“They have served our nation honorably. We support the recent comments of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General John Shalikashvili, who has concluded that repealing the…policy would not harm and would indeed help our armed forces.”
For her part, Donnelly admits the battle may be uphill.
Activists for gays in the military are not letting up in their drive to impose their agenda on the military, she says.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said transition leaders were “very receptive” to requests from gay activists. “I think they went to great lengths to explain their vision for how [policy initiatives] would work and how our community would be a part of that,” he told the Washington Blade.
According to a Military Times report, the DoD has discharged nearly 12,500 service members since the law was first enforced in 1994, including critically needed service members such as Arabic linguists, medics, pilots and intelligence analysts.
Donnelly opines that the number of such discharges under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” could be nearly wiped out if induction forms asked a question about sexual preference right up front.
Interestingly, if that question was allowed to be asked and other key features of the old law stayed in effect, a “yes” answer might not result in a kneejerk tossing of the application.
Donnelly notes to Newsmax: “It’s technical, but there is the ‘rebuttable presumption’ language, which applies only if someone said they were gay under unusual circumstances; i.e., while drunk, trying to get out of the military, etc. It’s a long story, but it is not the loophole that it appears to be.”
Sarah Palin: Media Goes Easy on Kennedy
Thursday, January 8, 2009 7:23 PM
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin believes Caroline Kennedy is getting softer press treatment in her pursuit of the New York Senate seat than Palin did as the Republican vice-presidential nominee because of Kennedy’s social class.
“I’ve been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope,” Palin told conservative filmmaker John Ziegler during an interview Monday for his upcoming documentary film, “How Obama Got Elected.” Excerpts from the interview were posted on YouTube Wednesday evening.
Get Sarah Palin's new book with Free Offer — Click Here. And see Sarah Palin in hot new calendar — Click Here.]
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out and I think that as we watch that we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be.”
Palin said she remains subject to unfair press coverage of her and her family.
“Is it political? Is it sexism?” she asked. “What is it that drives someone to believe the worst and perpetuate the worst in terms of gossip and lies?”
She observed that Katie Couric and Tina Fey have been “capitalizing on” and “exploiting” her.
“I did see that Tina Fey was named entertainer of the year and Katie Couric’s ratings have risen,” she said. “And I know that a lot of people are capitalizing on, oh I don’t know, perhaps some exploiting that was done via me, my family, my administration. That’s a little bit perplexing, but it also says a great deal about our society.”
The Alaska governor said that when she sees some of the coverage of her daughter Bristol especially “the momma grizzly rises up in me.”
Looking back on the Couric interviews, Palin said she knew things were not going well after their first session and asked the McCain campaign to pull the plug on the remaining sit downs but insisted the campaign made her go through with the rest.
“I knew it didn’t go well the first day, and then we gave her a couple of other segments after that. And my question to the campaign was, after it didn’t go well the first day, why were we going to go back for more?” she said. “Because of however it works in that upper echelon of power brokering in the media and with spokespersons, it was told to me that, yeah, we are going to go back for more. And going back for more was not a wise decision either.”
Palin criticized Couric for the way CBS “spliced it together,” saying that “so many of the topics brought up were not portrayed as accurately as they could have, should have, been.”
She also expressed frustration with Couric’s characterization of her since the interviews. After being shown a clip of Couric complaining to David Letterman that no post-election interviewer has asked Palin why she would not tell the CBS anchor what newspapers she reads, the Alaska governor responded: “Because, Katie, you’re not the center of everybody’s universe.”
Get Sarah Palin's new book with Free Offer — Click Here. And see Sarah Palin in hot new calendar — Click Here.]
Thursday, January 8, 2009 7:23 PM
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin believes Caroline Kennedy is getting softer press treatment in her pursuit of the New York Senate seat than Palin did as the Republican vice-presidential nominee because of Kennedy’s social class.
“I’ve been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled and if she will be handled with kid gloves or if she will be under such a microscope,” Palin told conservative filmmaker John Ziegler during an interview Monday for his upcoming documentary film, “How Obama Got Elected.” Excerpts from the interview were posted on YouTube Wednesday evening.
Get Sarah Palin's new book with Free Offer — Click Here. And see Sarah Palin in hot new calendar — Click Here.]
“It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out and I think that as we watch that we will perhaps be able to prove that there is a class issue here also that was such a factor in the scrutiny of my candidacy versus, say, the scrutiny of what her candidacy may be.”
Palin said she remains subject to unfair press coverage of her and her family.
“Is it political? Is it sexism?” she asked. “What is it that drives someone to believe the worst and perpetuate the worst in terms of gossip and lies?”
She observed that Katie Couric and Tina Fey have been “capitalizing on” and “exploiting” her.
“I did see that Tina Fey was named entertainer of the year and Katie Couric’s ratings have risen,” she said. “And I know that a lot of people are capitalizing on, oh I don’t know, perhaps some exploiting that was done via me, my family, my administration. That’s a little bit perplexing, but it also says a great deal about our society.”
The Alaska governor said that when she sees some of the coverage of her daughter Bristol especially “the momma grizzly rises up in me.”
Looking back on the Couric interviews, Palin said she knew things were not going well after their first session and asked the McCain campaign to pull the plug on the remaining sit downs but insisted the campaign made her go through with the rest.
“I knew it didn’t go well the first day, and then we gave her a couple of other segments after that. And my question to the campaign was, after it didn’t go well the first day, why were we going to go back for more?” she said. “Because of however it works in that upper echelon of power brokering in the media and with spokespersons, it was told to me that, yeah, we are going to go back for more. And going back for more was not a wise decision either.”
Palin criticized Couric for the way CBS “spliced it together,” saying that “so many of the topics brought up were not portrayed as accurately as they could have, should have, been.”
She also expressed frustration with Couric’s characterization of her since the interviews. After being shown a clip of Couric complaining to David Letterman that no post-election interviewer has asked Palin why she would not tell the CBS anchor what newspapers she reads, the Alaska governor responded: “Because, Katie, you’re not the center of everybody’s universe.”
Get Sarah Palin's new book with Free Offer — Click Here. And see Sarah Palin in hot new calendar — Click Here.]
Urgent message from Dick Morris
Urgent message from Dick Morris
Dear fellow American:
Al Franken is trying every trick in the book to get into the U.S. Senate.
Recently Franken was "certified" of the recent recount, but as the liberal Sec. of State of Minnesota admitted, this does not mean he is the election winner.
In fact, the result is now open for legal challenge.
I believe a fair court ruling will negate Franken's phony victory and declare Norm Coleman the winner — who was ahead by hundred of votes on election night.
This week the Wall Street Journal came out with guns blazing for the the out-and-out vote theft going on in Minnesota.
The Journal noted that shockingly almost every controversial dispute during the vote recount went in the favor of Al Franken.
The Journal said: "We can't recall a similar recount ... in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate (Franken). If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be appointing a tainted and undeserving senator."
Well, you and I can help stop Al Franken.
The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) is leading the fight for a fair Senate election and vote.
They urgently need your help to continue their battle — Go Here Now
Exposing Al Franken's vote fraud won't be easy. Franken has gotten millions from George Soros and his liberal Hollywood friends.
But already the RNLA has made major strides.
Even Sen. Harry Reid relented and said he won't seat Al Franken yet.
We must demand an honest vote in Minnesota.
You can help the RNLA do that — Go Here Now.
The Republican National Lawyers Association is the number one group in the country fighting vote fraud.
The Wall Street Journal said that if it was not for the RNLA, John Kerry could well have won the 2004 election.
Now they are fighting for a key Senate seat. If the Democrats get Franken in the Senate they are just one vote shy of a filibuster proof Senate.
That means Obama, Pelosi and Reid can push through a radical liberal agenda including higher taxes, abolishing free talk radio, and giving amnesty to millions of illegals.
You can stop them. We can stop them. Help the RNLA today — Go Here Now.
Thank you.
Dick Morris
P.S. The Republican National Lawyers Association is leading Republican efforts to expose vote fraud. They have a distinquished advisory board including former Reagan attorney general Edwin Meese. Their work is crucial now and in the years to come. But it's critically important we help the RNLA today in the Minnesota race. Please act today — Go Here Now.
Dear fellow American:
Al Franken is trying every trick in the book to get into the U.S. Senate.
Recently Franken was "certified" of the recent recount, but as the liberal Sec. of State of Minnesota admitted, this does not mean he is the election winner.
In fact, the result is now open for legal challenge.
I believe a fair court ruling will negate Franken's phony victory and declare Norm Coleman the winner — who was ahead by hundred of votes on election night.
This week the Wall Street Journal came out with guns blazing for the the out-and-out vote theft going on in Minnesota.
The Journal noted that shockingly almost every controversial dispute during the vote recount went in the favor of Al Franken.
The Journal said: "We can't recall a similar recount ... in which nearly every crucial decision worked to the advantage of the same candidate (Franken). If the Canvassing Board certifies Mr. Franken as the winner based on the current count, it will be appointing a tainted and undeserving senator."
Well, you and I can help stop Al Franken.
The Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) is leading the fight for a fair Senate election and vote.
They urgently need your help to continue their battle — Go Here Now
Exposing Al Franken's vote fraud won't be easy. Franken has gotten millions from George Soros and his liberal Hollywood friends.
But already the RNLA has made major strides.
Even Sen. Harry Reid relented and said he won't seat Al Franken yet.
We must demand an honest vote in Minnesota.
You can help the RNLA do that — Go Here Now.
The Republican National Lawyers Association is the number one group in the country fighting vote fraud.
The Wall Street Journal said that if it was not for the RNLA, John Kerry could well have won the 2004 election.
Now they are fighting for a key Senate seat. If the Democrats get Franken in the Senate they are just one vote shy of a filibuster proof Senate.
That means Obama, Pelosi and Reid can push through a radical liberal agenda including higher taxes, abolishing free talk radio, and giving amnesty to millions of illegals.
You can stop them. We can stop them. Help the RNLA today — Go Here Now.
Thank you.
Dick Morris
P.S. The Republican National Lawyers Association is leading Republican efforts to expose vote fraud. They have a distinquished advisory board including former Reagan attorney general Edwin Meese. Their work is crucial now and in the years to come. But it's critically important we help the RNLA today in the Minnesota race. Please act today — Go Here Now.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
TAKE HEART IN THIS PRINT IT FOR YOUR INFO
Blood Clots/Stroke - They Now Have a Fourth Indicator, the Tongue
I will continue to forward this every time it comes around!
STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters....S.T.R.
STROKE IDENTIFICATION
It only takes a minute to read this...
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.
RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, STR . Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. It is sunny out today.)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other,that is also an indication of a stroke.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
I have done my part....will you?
I will continue to forward this every time it comes around!
STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters....S.T.R.
STROKE IDENTIFICATION
It only takes a minute to read this...
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.
RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, STR . Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. It is sunny out today.)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other,that is also an indication of a stroke.
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
I have done my part....will you?
Made In Iran
Made In Iran
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, January 08, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Mideast: Rockets launched from Lebanon once again strike northern Israel. It may be a warning. It may be an isolated incident. But one thing is certain: The target is Israel, but the launch point is Tehran.
The three Katyushas that struck northern Israel on Thursday, one going through the roof of a nursing home, do not a second front make. Suspicions are that the attack was from a Hamas auxiliary using outdated rockets, hoping to provoke a response from an angry Israel.
The attack, reminiscent of Hezbollah's massive barrage in 2006 using state-of-the-art missiles, still raises the question of where are the U.N. peacekeepers, and if this was the act of a few loose cannons, how could anyone transport rockets into Lebanon and fire them without Hezbollah's knowledge and permission?
It could be that this pinprick was intended to tell Israel it had better watch its backside before it goes too far in Gaza. It also may have been a reminder that while Hezbollah is busy consolidating its power in Lebanon, it's still there armed beyond pre-war levels, ready to strike on orders from Tehran.
The mullahs are in fact waist deep in the big muddle that is Gaza. Iran has provided Hamas with training and weapons for the current conflict with Israel. The rockets Hamas has fired thus far include more than homemade Qasams. Some have reached targets more than two dozen miles inside Israel, destroying buildings in the southern Israeli towns of Ashdod and Beersheba.
According to the Israeli security agency, the Shia Bet, the rockets that struck Beersheba were transported from Sudan, through the Sinai, and then smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under Egypt's border. The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Center reports Hamas smuggled at least 80 tons of explosives, including an unknown number of rockets, into Gaza since June 2007.
This is nothing new. In 2002, Israel seized a Palestinian-captained ship bound for Gaza carrying 50 tons of Iranian missiles, mortars, rifles and ammo. In 2006, Ahmed Aboul, Egypt's foreign minister, accused Iran of being behind Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza. Hamas may have been isolated from the world, but Iran announced $50 million in support in 2006. By mid-2007, known Iranian support had reached $120 million, with pledges of $250 million more, not including Iranian-supplied weapons and training.
Last March, the London Sunday Times published an interview with a top Hamas commander of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas that Iran is turning into a disciplined army like Hezbollah. "We have sent seven 'courses' of our fighters to Iran," he said. "During each course, the group receives training that will increase our capacity to fight."
At that point, some 150 members of the Qassam Brigades had passed through training in Tehran, where they studied anywhere from 45 days to six months at a closed military base run by the Quds (Jerusalem) force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The most promising members of each group stay longer for advanced training and return as trainers themselves. According to the Hamas commander, another 650 had at the time been trained in camps in Syria under instructors who learned their stuff in Iran.
Says terrorism expert Walid Phares: "The Gaza fight is about Iran's confrontation with Israel, and perhaps with the U.S. globally. A global strategic reading leads us to conclude that — just as we saw in Lebanon in 2006 — Tehran is pulling the strings, and very smartly."
Attempts to arrange the usual paper-thin cease-fires and kick the can down the road to peace are attempts to treat the symptoms and not the disease. Hamas and Hezbollah are stalking horses for Iran. Until Iran is dealt with, there will be no peace for either Israel or the United States.
Email To Friend |
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, January 08, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Mideast: Rockets launched from Lebanon once again strike northern Israel. It may be a warning. It may be an isolated incident. But one thing is certain: The target is Israel, but the launch point is Tehran.
The three Katyushas that struck northern Israel on Thursday, one going through the roof of a nursing home, do not a second front make. Suspicions are that the attack was from a Hamas auxiliary using outdated rockets, hoping to provoke a response from an angry Israel.
The attack, reminiscent of Hezbollah's massive barrage in 2006 using state-of-the-art missiles, still raises the question of where are the U.N. peacekeepers, and if this was the act of a few loose cannons, how could anyone transport rockets into Lebanon and fire them without Hezbollah's knowledge and permission?
It could be that this pinprick was intended to tell Israel it had better watch its backside before it goes too far in Gaza. It also may have been a reminder that while Hezbollah is busy consolidating its power in Lebanon, it's still there armed beyond pre-war levels, ready to strike on orders from Tehran.
The mullahs are in fact waist deep in the big muddle that is Gaza. Iran has provided Hamas with training and weapons for the current conflict with Israel. The rockets Hamas has fired thus far include more than homemade Qasams. Some have reached targets more than two dozen miles inside Israel, destroying buildings in the southern Israeli towns of Ashdod and Beersheba.
According to the Israeli security agency, the Shia Bet, the rockets that struck Beersheba were transported from Sudan, through the Sinai, and then smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under Egypt's border. The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Center reports Hamas smuggled at least 80 tons of explosives, including an unknown number of rockets, into Gaza since June 2007.
This is nothing new. In 2002, Israel seized a Palestinian-captained ship bound for Gaza carrying 50 tons of Iranian missiles, mortars, rifles and ammo. In 2006, Ahmed Aboul, Egypt's foreign minister, accused Iran of being behind Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza. Hamas may have been isolated from the world, but Iran announced $50 million in support in 2006. By mid-2007, known Iranian support had reached $120 million, with pledges of $250 million more, not including Iranian-supplied weapons and training.
Last March, the London Sunday Times published an interview with a top Hamas commander of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas that Iran is turning into a disciplined army like Hezbollah. "We have sent seven 'courses' of our fighters to Iran," he said. "During each course, the group receives training that will increase our capacity to fight."
At that point, some 150 members of the Qassam Brigades had passed through training in Tehran, where they studied anywhere from 45 days to six months at a closed military base run by the Quds (Jerusalem) force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The most promising members of each group stay longer for advanced training and return as trainers themselves. According to the Hamas commander, another 650 had at the time been trained in camps in Syria under instructors who learned their stuff in Iran.
Says terrorism expert Walid Phares: "The Gaza fight is about Iran's confrontation with Israel, and perhaps with the U.S. globally. A global strategic reading leads us to conclude that — just as we saw in Lebanon in 2006 — Tehran is pulling the strings, and very smartly."
Attempts to arrange the usual paper-thin cease-fires and kick the can down the road to peace are attempts to treat the symptoms and not the disease. Hamas and Hezbollah are stalking horses for Iran. Until Iran is dealt with, there will be no peace for either Israel or the United States.
Email To Friend |
Whatever Happened To Elections?
Whatever Happened To Elections?
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, January 07, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Politics: Now that Minnesota says Stuart Smalley is the winner over Norm Coleman, we may wind up with a new Senate of Franken, Burris and Kennedy. What we won't get are special elections where the people vote.
Surely we can do better than to add to the world's greatest deliberative body the likes of a famous socialite, an unknown cipher and a failed talk show host not ready for prime time. Yet this is what the political system has labored mightily to produce.
On Monday, after a flurry of ballots that materialized after election night, the Minnesota Canvassing Board determined that Al Franken is the duly elected junior senator from the land of 10,000 lakes and almost as many questionable ballots. The margin was 225 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.
Franken is the former comedy writer and performer who played self-help guru Stuart Smalley ("I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and, doggone it, people like me!") on "Saturday Night Live" before he launched a talk show on the Air America Radio network that went bankrupt in 2 1/2 years.
Franken is not quite senator yet. Incumbent Norm Coleman, who led on election night by more than 700 votes, has filed what is called an election contest. This is a legal proceeding, held before a panel of judges to be appointed by the chief judge of the Supreme Court, to determine the winner of the election.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't waiting. "Al Franken has won the election," he told reporters. "Everything is over." Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., new head of the Senate Rules Committee, also jumped the gun.
Coleman's term officially ended Saturday. Schumer proclaimed Franken the winner on Sunday.
To be resolved through the election contest are a few tidbits such as 650 additional improperly rejected absentee ballots identified by the Coleman campaign that were excluded from the recount.
Among absentee ballots, 138 appear to have been double-counted in Franken's favor. And 133 missing ballots from a heavily Democratic Minneapolis precinct were nevertheless included in the recount.
Interestingly, as Newsmax has reported, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who orchestrated the recount that gave Franken a lead six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day, has extensive ties to the ACORN organization under federal investigation for vote fraud.
All this could have been avoided if Minnesota had a law like Georgia's allowing for a runoff if no candidate had a majority in the original contest. But then, as in Georgia, it might result in a Republican holding the seat.
Fears that a special election might result in a GOP victory led Illinois Democrats to rescind their own call for one and create the second ring in this three-ring election circus. Instead, we have the spectacle of perennial wannabe Roland Burris showing up on the steps of the Senate pleading that he is the junior senator from Illinois and can he come in and play.
Choosing Obama's replacement in the Senate, as the Chicago Tribune points out in an editorial, should be the privilege of the voters of Illinois, just as it is the privilege of the voters in Rahm Emmanuel's congressional district to vote for a replacement for President-elect Obama's new chief of staff.
In New York, as we've noted, Caroline's chief accomplishments seem to have been organizing a rock concert to raise money for New York public schools, serving on the board of a ballet company and serving on Barack Obama's vice presidential selection committee.
It doesn't seem to matter what the voters of these states want. What Reid wants are three warm Democratic bodies in these seats to reliably vote for the expansion of government power, even if they're not the three brightest bulbs on the tree. He wanted it so badly in Illinois, he even called Burris' accused felon patron, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to offer a few suggestions.
Democrats once chanted that we should let every vote count. Not any more.
Email To Friend |
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, January 07, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Politics: Now that Minnesota says Stuart Smalley is the winner over Norm Coleman, we may wind up with a new Senate of Franken, Burris and Kennedy. What we won't get are special elections where the people vote.
Surely we can do better than to add to the world's greatest deliberative body the likes of a famous socialite, an unknown cipher and a failed talk show host not ready for prime time. Yet this is what the political system has labored mightily to produce.
On Monday, after a flurry of ballots that materialized after election night, the Minnesota Canvassing Board determined that Al Franken is the duly elected junior senator from the land of 10,000 lakes and almost as many questionable ballots. The margin was 225 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.
Franken is the former comedy writer and performer who played self-help guru Stuart Smalley ("I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and, doggone it, people like me!") on "Saturday Night Live" before he launched a talk show on the Air America Radio network that went bankrupt in 2 1/2 years.
Franken is not quite senator yet. Incumbent Norm Coleman, who led on election night by more than 700 votes, has filed what is called an election contest. This is a legal proceeding, held before a panel of judges to be appointed by the chief judge of the Supreme Court, to determine the winner of the election.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't waiting. "Al Franken has won the election," he told reporters. "Everything is over." Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., new head of the Senate Rules Committee, also jumped the gun.
Coleman's term officially ended Saturday. Schumer proclaimed Franken the winner on Sunday.
To be resolved through the election contest are a few tidbits such as 650 additional improperly rejected absentee ballots identified by the Coleman campaign that were excluded from the recount.
Among absentee ballots, 138 appear to have been double-counted in Franken's favor. And 133 missing ballots from a heavily Democratic Minneapolis precinct were nevertheless included in the recount.
Interestingly, as Newsmax has reported, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who orchestrated the recount that gave Franken a lead six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day, has extensive ties to the ACORN organization under federal investigation for vote fraud.
All this could have been avoided if Minnesota had a law like Georgia's allowing for a runoff if no candidate had a majority in the original contest. But then, as in Georgia, it might result in a Republican holding the seat.
Fears that a special election might result in a GOP victory led Illinois Democrats to rescind their own call for one and create the second ring in this three-ring election circus. Instead, we have the spectacle of perennial wannabe Roland Burris showing up on the steps of the Senate pleading that he is the junior senator from Illinois and can he come in and play.
Choosing Obama's replacement in the Senate, as the Chicago Tribune points out in an editorial, should be the privilege of the voters of Illinois, just as it is the privilege of the voters in Rahm Emmanuel's congressional district to vote for a replacement for President-elect Obama's new chief of staff.
In New York, as we've noted, Caroline's chief accomplishments seem to have been organizing a rock concert to raise money for New York public schools, serving on the board of a ballet company and serving on Barack Obama's vice presidential selection committee.
It doesn't seem to matter what the voters of these states want. What Reid wants are three warm Democratic bodies in these seats to reliably vote for the expansion of government power, even if they're not the three brightest bulbs on the tree. He wanted it so badly in Illinois, he even called Burris' accused felon patron, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to offer a few suggestions.
Democrats once chanted that we should let every vote count. Not any more.
Email To Friend |
THE PARTY'S OVER
A must read for all Americans … You must understand!!
There is a strong possibility our dollar will become completely worthless within the next two years. Our currency is not backed by anything except the trust and faith of the nation. If no one financially trusts this country, our money becomes worthless. It has not been backed by gold since the 70s. This was ended by a democratic president.
Loel
About Linda Monk :
Linda R. Monk, J. D., is a constitutional scholar, journalist, and nationally award-winning author. A graduate of Harvard Law School, she twice received the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, its highest honor for law-related media. Her books include The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution, Ordinary Americans: U. S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People, and The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide. For more than 20 years, Ms. Monk has written commentary for newspapers nationwide, including the New York Times,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune.
THE PARTY'S OVER
By Linda Monk
The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.
The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The 'Omnipower' and 'Indispensable Nation' we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.
Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism. This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon Gecko ('Greed Is Good!') capitalism.
What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that mad e it great.
A true conservative (Rep or Dem) cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic.
He believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in living within your means.
Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess -- that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk? 'Government must save us!' cries the left, as ever.
Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government -- the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy?
For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt -- all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.
Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars. We are going to have to learn to live again within our means.
THE PARTY'S OVER!
Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent.
But this generation decided that was yesterday's bromide and we must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all depend on one another.
American companies morphed into 'Global Companies' and moved plants and factories to Mexico, Asia, China, and India, and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.
As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GD P, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad.
At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise.
The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar.
Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come.
Barrack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.
Who are we kidding?
What we are witnessing today is how empires end. The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars, or balance its budget.
Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars.
What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.
Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says s he had nothing to do with it.
Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen.
Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U. S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages.
They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves. Unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation.
We are just spectators.
What the Greatest Generation handed down to us -- the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved -- the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.
Added Comments:
How do WE THE PEOPLE put the villains who are responsible under oath and sit them down at public hearings to determine whose necks should meet the guillotine?
Hypocritically, those who had oversight responsibility such as Senator Chris Dodd [Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee] and Barney Frank [Chairmen, House Financial Services Committee] who helped get us into this mess are on every TV channel voicing their righteous indignation and pompously sitting on their elevated platform glaring down at those they are chastising and grilling, trying to pass the blame to others.
WE THE PEOPLE should be on the elevated platform in judgment and execution of the likes of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the band of thieves and conspirators who are responsible for the financial collapse of the USA.
To name just a few of the culprits:
Henry Paulson Jr, Secretary of the Treasury
Alan Greenspan & Ben Bernanke -- Chairman Federal Reserve
Christophe r Cox, SEC Chairman.
But not to worry -- YOUR PUBLIC SERVANTS who fear being voted out of office will take their self-awarded Golden Parachute Congressional Retirement, give WE THE PEOPLE the finger one last time and head for their safe havens as the World Citizens they are.
However, before they waddle off into the sunset, they will go on record one last time denouncing corporate greed, lavish salaries, and bonuses for their key felons at Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers & AIG
Meanwhile, WE THE PEOPLE fiddle while Rome burns and were too lazy and indifferent to vote them out of office!
There is a strong possibility our dollar will become completely worthless within the next two years. Our currency is not backed by anything except the trust and faith of the nation. If no one financially trusts this country, our money becomes worthless. It has not been backed by gold since the 70s. This was ended by a democratic president.
Loel
About Linda Monk :
Linda R. Monk, J. D., is a constitutional scholar, journalist, and nationally award-winning author. A graduate of Harvard Law School, she twice received the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, its highest honor for law-related media. Her books include The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution, Ordinary Americans: U. S. History Through the Eyes of Everyday People, and The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide. For more than 20 years, Ms. Monk has written commentary for newspapers nationwide, including the New York Times,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune.
THE PARTY'S OVER
By Linda Monk
The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.
The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The 'Omnipower' and 'Indispensable Nation' we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.
Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism. This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon Gecko ('Greed Is Good!') capitalism.
What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that mad e it great.
A true conservative (Rep or Dem) cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic.
He believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in living within your means.
Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess -- that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk? 'Government must save us!' cries the left, as ever.
Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government -- the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy?
For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt -- all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.
Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars. We are going to have to learn to live again within our means.
THE PARTY'S OVER!
Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent.
But this generation decided that was yesterday's bromide and we must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all depend on one another.
American companies morphed into 'Global Companies' and moved plants and factories to Mexico, Asia, China, and India, and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.
As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GD P, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad.
At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise.
The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar.
Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come.
Barrack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.
Who are we kidding?
What we are witnessing today is how empires end. The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars, or balance its budget.
Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars.
What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.
Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says s he had nothing to do with it.
Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen.
Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U. S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages.
They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves. Unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation.
We are just spectators.
What the Greatest Generation handed down to us -- the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved -- the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.
Added Comments:
How do WE THE PEOPLE put the villains who are responsible under oath and sit them down at public hearings to determine whose necks should meet the guillotine?
Hypocritically, those who had oversight responsibility such as Senator Chris Dodd [Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee] and Barney Frank [Chairmen, House Financial Services Committee] who helped get us into this mess are on every TV channel voicing their righteous indignation and pompously sitting on their elevated platform glaring down at those they are chastising and grilling, trying to pass the blame to others.
WE THE PEOPLE should be on the elevated platform in judgment and execution of the likes of Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the band of thieves and conspirators who are responsible for the financial collapse of the USA.
To name just a few of the culprits:
Henry Paulson Jr, Secretary of the Treasury
Alan Greenspan & Ben Bernanke -- Chairman Federal Reserve
Christophe r Cox, SEC Chairman.
But not to worry -- YOUR PUBLIC SERVANTS who fear being voted out of office will take their self-awarded Golden Parachute Congressional Retirement, give WE THE PEOPLE the finger one last time and head for their safe havens as the World Citizens they are.
However, before they waddle off into the sunset, they will go on record one last time denouncing corporate greed, lavish salaries, and bonuses for their key felons at Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers & AIG
Meanwhile, WE THE PEOPLE fiddle while Rome burns and were too lazy and indifferent to vote them out of office!
FBI Warns of Inauguration Terror Threat
FBI Warns of Inauguration Terror Threat
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 9:33 PM
WASHINGTON – The upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama is an attractive target for international and domestic terrorists, but U.S. intelligence officials have no information about specific threats to the Jan. 20 event.
An internal intelligence assessment, obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, says the high visibility of the event, the presence of dignitaries and the significance of swearing in the country's first black president make the inauguration vulnerable to attacks.
What concerns analysts most, the report says, is the potential use of improvised explosive devices, a hostage situation or suicide bombers.
While security will be tight around the U.S. Capitol, the joint FBI and Homeland Security assessment says nearby hotels, public gatherings, restaurants and roads could be vulnerable to some kind of attack.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said security concerns during inaugurations have been elevated since the 2001 terror attacks. "I think it will be the most security, as far as I'm aware, that any inauguration has had," Chertoff said in an interview with the AP.
Chertoff also said there is no specific intelligence pointing to terrorist plots during the event.
"We have scrubbed very hard to look at anything that would suggest a credible, imminent threat or one that was specifically focused on the inauguration," Chertoff said, though not referring to the intelligence assessment. "We're not, at this point, aware of a credible, specific, imminent threat that would affect the inauguration."
The Secret Service, which is in charge of the overall security for the event, announced Wednesday that bridges into Washington and about 3.5 square miles of the downtown will be closed on Jan. 20. The security perimeter covers more of the city than previous inaugurations.
The analysis says that threats against Obama have increased since he was elected, which also poses concern for the inauguration.
According to the intelligence assessment, a so-called lone wolf poses the greatest threat during the inauguration because such criminals are generally not affiliated with any specific group or act without the direction of a group. There have been some lone wolf threats reported, but nothing points to a well-planned plot, the assessment said.
Officials are concerned about explosives placed in crowded areas and people impersonating emergency and law enforcement officials, but they have no specific information that indicates terrorists are planning to do this, the assessment said.
While intelligence officials have seen no credible threats to the event from international terrorists or domestic terrorists, al-Qaida and its affiliates remain a threat to U.S. interests within the country and abroad, and the significance of Obama's presidency raises the potential threat from hate groups.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 9:33 PM
WASHINGTON – The upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama is an attractive target for international and domestic terrorists, but U.S. intelligence officials have no information about specific threats to the Jan. 20 event.
An internal intelligence assessment, obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday, says the high visibility of the event, the presence of dignitaries and the significance of swearing in the country's first black president make the inauguration vulnerable to attacks.
What concerns analysts most, the report says, is the potential use of improvised explosive devices, a hostage situation or suicide bombers.
While security will be tight around the U.S. Capitol, the joint FBI and Homeland Security assessment says nearby hotels, public gatherings, restaurants and roads could be vulnerable to some kind of attack.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said security concerns during inaugurations have been elevated since the 2001 terror attacks. "I think it will be the most security, as far as I'm aware, that any inauguration has had," Chertoff said in an interview with the AP.
Chertoff also said there is no specific intelligence pointing to terrorist plots during the event.
"We have scrubbed very hard to look at anything that would suggest a credible, imminent threat or one that was specifically focused on the inauguration," Chertoff said, though not referring to the intelligence assessment. "We're not, at this point, aware of a credible, specific, imminent threat that would affect the inauguration."
The Secret Service, which is in charge of the overall security for the event, announced Wednesday that bridges into Washington and about 3.5 square miles of the downtown will be closed on Jan. 20. The security perimeter covers more of the city than previous inaugurations.
The analysis says that threats against Obama have increased since he was elected, which also poses concern for the inauguration.
According to the intelligence assessment, a so-called lone wolf poses the greatest threat during the inauguration because such criminals are generally not affiliated with any specific group or act without the direction of a group. There have been some lone wolf threats reported, but nothing points to a well-planned plot, the assessment said.
Officials are concerned about explosives placed in crowded areas and people impersonating emergency and law enforcement officials, but they have no specific information that indicates terrorists are planning to do this, the assessment said.
While intelligence officials have seen no credible threats to the event from international terrorists or domestic terrorists, al-Qaida and its affiliates remain a threat to U.S. interests within the country and abroad, and the significance of Obama's presidency raises the potential threat from hate groups.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
THIS TAKES THE CAKE, PELOSI APOLOGY TO obama
Obama Apologizes to Sen. Feinstein for CIA Surprise
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 4:56 PM
WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama apologized to her for not notifying her ahead of time that Leon Panetta was his pick for CIA director.
His name leaked to the press before Obama informed Feinstein, a California Democrat and incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, who will oversee Panetta's nomination hearing.
"I have been contacted by both President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, and they have explained to me the reasons why they believe Leon Panetta is the best candidate for CIA Director," she said.
Feinstein complained Monday she had not been told about Panetta and expressed doubts he has the necessary experience.
There was no immediate comment from the Obama team, which has made no formal announcement of the CIA pick.
However, Vice President-elect Joe Biden told reporters at the Capitol that the Obama team made a "mistake" in not consulting with top Senate officials before deciding on Panetta.
Panetta is a congressional and White House veteran with a strong administrative background, but no intelligence-gathering experience.
Biden called Panetta a "strong figure" for the CIA who would "take it on a new path."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Obama Apologizes to Sen. Feinstein for CIA Surprise
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 4:56 PM
WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama apologized to her for not notifying her ahead of time that Leon Panetta was his pick for CIA director.
His name leaked to the press before Obama informed Feinstein, a California Democrat and incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, who will oversee Panetta's nomination hearing.
"I have been contacted by both President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, and they have explained to me the reasons why they believe Leon Panetta is the best candidate for CIA Director," she said.
Feinstein complained Monday she had not been told about Panetta and expressed doubts he has the necessary experience.
There was no immediate comment from the Obama team, which has made no formal announcement of the CIA pick.
However, Vice President-elect Joe Biden told reporters at the Capitol that the Obama team made a "mistake" in not consulting with top Senate officials before deciding on Panetta.
Panetta is a congressional and White House veteran with a strong administrative background, but no intelligence-gathering experience.
Biden called Panetta a "strong figure" for the CIA who would "take it on a new path."
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Limbaugh: 'Segregationist' Sen. Reid Barred Burris
Limbaugh: 'Segregationist' Sen. Reid Barred Burris
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 6:37 PM
By: David A. Patten
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday compared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to infamous Southern segregationists Lester Maddox and George Wallace, because he is blocking the appointment of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate.
Bristling over how the media has covered the Senate’s refusal to seat Burris, Limbaugh blamed “a few extremist liberal racists and others” for questioning whether President-elect Barack Obama and Burris are “authentically black enough.”
Conservatives, he said, do not think in such terms.
“You’ve got a guy who’s legit, he’s qualified, and according to the Chicago Tribune today he’s ‘authentically black,’” Limbaugh told listeners. “And a bunch of white people would not let him in the door, would not let him use the restroom or the drinking water. Now what are we to make of this?”
Had Republicans refused to seat a legally qualified African-American appointee, Limbaugh said, the media coverage would have been much different.
“If Harry Reid were a Republican … he would have been stoned and pilloried, they would have demanded his ouster for his lack of sensitivity,” Limbaugh charged.
Limbaugh continued his broadside against progressive hypocrisy on matters of race: “They are compassionate and feeling, and they love minorities and they want minorities to excel -- except, except when the minorities get too uppity. And then it’s time to revert to Bull Connor, or, in this case, Lester Maddox.
“What’s the difference in dingy Harry and Lester Maddox? George Wallace? Remember, all these great segregationists of the past are Democrats. It’s in the blood, and it’s showing up on the steps of the United States Senate,” Limbaugh said.
Lester Maddox is the late Georgia governor who defended states’ rights and was considered an advocate for segregation during the Civil Rights era. Bull Connor was the public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Ala., who used fire hoses to attack civil-rights marchers. Wallace, a former governor of Alabama, was an opponent of desegregation who ran for the presidency on four occasions.
Limbaugh said that Democrats, by their treatment of Burris, are “in the process of delegitimizing themselves.”
Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to fill the seat vacated by Obama. Limbaugh warned Democrats are on “thin Constitutional ice” in their refusal to accept Burris as a member of the Senate.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 6:37 PM
By: David A. Patten
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday compared Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to infamous Southern segregationists Lester Maddox and George Wallace, because he is blocking the appointment of former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate.
Bristling over how the media has covered the Senate’s refusal to seat Burris, Limbaugh blamed “a few extremist liberal racists and others” for questioning whether President-elect Barack Obama and Burris are “authentically black enough.”
Conservatives, he said, do not think in such terms.
“You’ve got a guy who’s legit, he’s qualified, and according to the Chicago Tribune today he’s ‘authentically black,’” Limbaugh told listeners. “And a bunch of white people would not let him in the door, would not let him use the restroom or the drinking water. Now what are we to make of this?”
Had Republicans refused to seat a legally qualified African-American appointee, Limbaugh said, the media coverage would have been much different.
“If Harry Reid were a Republican … he would have been stoned and pilloried, they would have demanded his ouster for his lack of sensitivity,” Limbaugh charged.
Limbaugh continued his broadside against progressive hypocrisy on matters of race: “They are compassionate and feeling, and they love minorities and they want minorities to excel -- except, except when the minorities get too uppity. And then it’s time to revert to Bull Connor, or, in this case, Lester Maddox.
“What’s the difference in dingy Harry and Lester Maddox? George Wallace? Remember, all these great segregationists of the past are Democrats. It’s in the blood, and it’s showing up on the steps of the United States Senate,” Limbaugh said.
Lester Maddox is the late Georgia governor who defended states’ rights and was considered an advocate for segregation during the Civil Rights era. Bull Connor was the public safety commissioner of Birmingham, Ala., who used fire hoses to attack civil-rights marchers. Wallace, a former governor of Alabama, was an opponent of desegregation who ran for the presidency on four occasions.
Limbaugh said that Democrats, by their treatment of Burris, are “in the process of delegitimizing themselves.”
Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to fill the seat vacated by Obama. Limbaugh warned Democrats are on “thin Constitutional ice” in their refusal to accept Burris as a member of the Senate.
Insider Report from Newsmax.com
Insider Report from Newsmax.com
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets With Campaign Funds: Report
5. We Heard: Billy Graham, Warren Buffett, Fox Business News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
Barack Obama said during his campaign that congressional earmarks should be reined in, but his choice for Transportation secretary, retiring Rep. Ray LaHood, is one of the leading purveyors of pork in the House.
In fiscal 2008, the Illinois Republican secured $62.7 million in earmarks for his district, either alone or working with other House members, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
That put him in the top 10 percent of House members when it came to pork barrel outlays, the Wall Street Journal reported in an opinion piece headlined “Obama’s Secretary of Earmarks.”
LaHood, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, makes no bones about his efforts to bring home the bacon to his district, which includes Peoria.
He told the Peoria Journal Star: “The reason I went on the Appropriations Committee, the reason other people go on the Appropriations Committee, is they know that it puts them in a position to know where the money is at, to know the people who are doling the money out and to be in the room when the money is being doled out.”
The Journal observed: “Mr. Obama repeatedly said during the presidential campaign that the earmarking system should be overhauled, yet he’s elevated to his cabinet a Machiavelli of this system.”
LaHood, first elected in 1994, is not on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee now, although he has been in the past. As a member of the Appropriations Committee he did not work on transportation funding.
But with Obama “planning what looks to be one of the largest single increases in federal spending in history,” the Journal reports, “Mr. LaHood may be exactly the man for the moment.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
Terry McAuliffe, who has solicited millions in donations for Bill and Hillary Clinton and others, could use his considerable fundraising skills to garner contributions for a political campaign of his own.
The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee filed in November to form a committee to explore a possible run for the Democratic nomination for governor in Virginia this year.
Virginia places no limits on how much an individual, corporation or union can donate to a candidate running for state office. Given his extensive contacts, some observers believe McAuliffe could raise $80 million for his campaign — three times what incumbent Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine raised in his 2005 campaign.
Under state law, Kaine is barred from running for re-election in 2009.
McAuliffe raised more than $200 million for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, oversaw $500 million in party fundraising as the DNC chairman, and chaired Hillary’s presidential campaign, which raised around $220 million, according to The Washington Post.
In January 2005, McAuliffe distributed $5 million of DNC funds to Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign.
“I think the sky is the limit in terms of Terry McAuliffe’s fundraising potential in Virginia,” Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told The Post.
“I suspect there will be a lot more interest in Virginia politics in Manhattan and Palm Beach than there usually is.”
McAuliffe said he won’t announce his decision on whether to run until Jan. 7.
Virginia House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran and state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds have announced they will seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell is the only announced Republican candidate.
McDonnell’s campaign manager Phil Cox acknowledged that McAuliffe’s fundraising ability could play a big role in the campaign, noting that Barack Obama outspent John McCain by a 2-to-1 margin in Virginia.
“You can’t tell me that didn’t make a difference,” he said. “Money matters in politics.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
The official Iranian news agency claimed that members of the nation’s small Jewish community staged a protest in Tehran to protest “Israeli war crimes and the slaughter of the innocent people in Gaza Strip.”
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the protesters were led by the Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament, Siamak Mara-Sedq.
The agency, an arm of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, also claimed that in a speech to the Iranian parliament on Tuesday, Mara-Sedq “expressed shock” over the “savage acts” perpetrated by the Tel Aviv regime, according to the Jerusalem Post.
He also reportedly said he hoped all “peace-loving nations” would support the “defenseless Palestinian people” and make Israel “stop the genocide in the region by exerting pressure on Tel Aviv.”
About 25,000 Jews live in Iran, and Iranian Jewish leaders are often quoted as having voiced extreme anti-Israeli views, the Post observed.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “Israeli sources familiar with the Iranian Jewish community suspect that the demonstration was organized by the government in Tehran, and does not represent the actual stance of Iranian Jews.”
Also in Iran, a judiciary official said Iran has set up a court to try Israel for its air attacks on Gaza and is ready to try in absentia anyone Tehran says has committed “crimes.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets with Campaign Funds: Report
Rep. Charles Rangel, already embroiled in an ethics committee probe, used campaign funds to pay $1,540 in fines from parking tickets in Washington during the past two years, according to a report on the Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
The New York Democrat’s campaign committee and his political action committee have made 14 separate payments to the D.C. treasurer for “automobile expenses” since March 2007, and a Rangel spokesman confirmed to CQ that campaign aides believe they were for parking tickets.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman has paid $2,035 in parking ticket fines since 2001.
It is not illegal for Rangel to use campaign funds to pay for parking tickets if they were incurred while he was engaged in campaign activities or carrying out his duties as an officeholder.
But it is illegal to use contributions “to fulfill any commitment, obligation or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of federal office,” including a “non-campaign-related automobile expense,” according to federal campaign finance law.
Rangel’s spokesman Emile Milne told the Web site, CQ Politics, that the congressman is in compliance with the law, but could not provide details on each of the tickets.
CQ notes: “Regardless of any potential legal issues, the congressman is paying parking tickets with other people’s money.”
Last year Rangel’s car was towed from the House garage after the New York Post disclosed that he had been storing the undrivable vehicle there for several years, in violation of House rules.
The Post also reported that Rangel was using a Cadillac leased by his taxpayer-funded House office to travel to campaign events in New York — also a violation of House rules.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics charges that recently came to light.
The Times disclosed that Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the firm’s chief executive was promising to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Rangel paid below-market rents on four apartments in New York, including one that was used illegally as a campaign office.
It also is alleged that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on rental income from a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and used official letterhead stationery to solicit donations to the public service school.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. We Heard…
THAT after 55 years at a Dallas church, evangelist Billy Graham is changing membership to a church near his retirement home in South Carolina.
Graham’s personal assistant told First Baptist Dallas, which Graham joined in 1953, that the 90-year-old was switching to First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, S.C., the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The pastor of the South Carolina church, the Rev. Don Wilton, has preached for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
THAT Sirius XM satellite radio has dropped the Fox Business News channel from its lineup.
Sirius and XM merged last year and began broadcasting combined lineups in November. A source told the Web site TVNewser that Fox Business News was dropped because of the merger and the lack of channel space.
THAT Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company has the largest cache of cash among the world’s listed companies.
Buffett’s firm can claim $106 billion in net cash, defined as cash and short-term investments or marketable securities minus debt, the Financial Times reports.
Chinese banks hold the next three positions. Bank of China has $101 billion in net cash, ICBC has $89 billion, and China Construction Bank has $82 billion.
Only 29 of the top 100 global companies by market value have net cash, according to the Times.
Berkshire Hathaway’s many holdings include GEICO, Benjamin Moore Paints, Diary Queen, and Fruit of the Loom.
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets With Campaign Funds: Report
5. We Heard: Billy Graham, Warren Buffett, Fox Business News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
Barack Obama said during his campaign that congressional earmarks should be reined in, but his choice for Transportation secretary, retiring Rep. Ray LaHood, is one of the leading purveyors of pork in the House.
In fiscal 2008, the Illinois Republican secured $62.7 million in earmarks for his district, either alone or working with other House members, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
That put him in the top 10 percent of House members when it came to pork barrel outlays, the Wall Street Journal reported in an opinion piece headlined “Obama’s Secretary of Earmarks.”
LaHood, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, makes no bones about his efforts to bring home the bacon to his district, which includes Peoria.
He told the Peoria Journal Star: “The reason I went on the Appropriations Committee, the reason other people go on the Appropriations Committee, is they know that it puts them in a position to know where the money is at, to know the people who are doling the money out and to be in the room when the money is being doled out.”
The Journal observed: “Mr. Obama repeatedly said during the presidential campaign that the earmarking system should be overhauled, yet he’s elevated to his cabinet a Machiavelli of this system.”
LaHood, first elected in 1994, is not on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee now, although he has been in the past. As a member of the Appropriations Committee he did not work on transportation funding.
But with Obama “planning what looks to be one of the largest single increases in federal spending in history,” the Journal reports, “Mr. LaHood may be exactly the man for the moment.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
Terry McAuliffe, who has solicited millions in donations for Bill and Hillary Clinton and others, could use his considerable fundraising skills to garner contributions for a political campaign of his own.
The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee filed in November to form a committee to explore a possible run for the Democratic nomination for governor in Virginia this year.
Virginia places no limits on how much an individual, corporation or union can donate to a candidate running for state office. Given his extensive contacts, some observers believe McAuliffe could raise $80 million for his campaign — three times what incumbent Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine raised in his 2005 campaign.
Under state law, Kaine is barred from running for re-election in 2009.
McAuliffe raised more than $200 million for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, oversaw $500 million in party fundraising as the DNC chairman, and chaired Hillary’s presidential campaign, which raised around $220 million, according to The Washington Post.
In January 2005, McAuliffe distributed $5 million of DNC funds to Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign.
“I think the sky is the limit in terms of Terry McAuliffe’s fundraising potential in Virginia,” Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told The Post.
“I suspect there will be a lot more interest in Virginia politics in Manhattan and Palm Beach than there usually is.”
McAuliffe said he won’t announce his decision on whether to run until Jan. 7.
Virginia House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran and state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds have announced they will seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell is the only announced Republican candidate.
McDonnell’s campaign manager Phil Cox acknowledged that McAuliffe’s fundraising ability could play a big role in the campaign, noting that Barack Obama outspent John McCain by a 2-to-1 margin in Virginia.
“You can’t tell me that didn’t make a difference,” he said. “Money matters in politics.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
The official Iranian news agency claimed that members of the nation’s small Jewish community staged a protest in Tehran to protest “Israeli war crimes and the slaughter of the innocent people in Gaza Strip.”
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the protesters were led by the Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament, Siamak Mara-Sedq.
The agency, an arm of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, also claimed that in a speech to the Iranian parliament on Tuesday, Mara-Sedq “expressed shock” over the “savage acts” perpetrated by the Tel Aviv regime, according to the Jerusalem Post.
He also reportedly said he hoped all “peace-loving nations” would support the “defenseless Palestinian people” and make Israel “stop the genocide in the region by exerting pressure on Tel Aviv.”
About 25,000 Jews live in Iran, and Iranian Jewish leaders are often quoted as having voiced extreme anti-Israeli views, the Post observed.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “Israeli sources familiar with the Iranian Jewish community suspect that the demonstration was organized by the government in Tehran, and does not represent the actual stance of Iranian Jews.”
Also in Iran, a judiciary official said Iran has set up a court to try Israel for its air attacks on Gaza and is ready to try in absentia anyone Tehran says has committed “crimes.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets with Campaign Funds: Report
Rep. Charles Rangel, already embroiled in an ethics committee probe, used campaign funds to pay $1,540 in fines from parking tickets in Washington during the past two years, according to a report on the Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
The New York Democrat’s campaign committee and his political action committee have made 14 separate payments to the D.C. treasurer for “automobile expenses” since March 2007, and a Rangel spokesman confirmed to CQ that campaign aides believe they were for parking tickets.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman has paid $2,035 in parking ticket fines since 2001.
It is not illegal for Rangel to use campaign funds to pay for parking tickets if they were incurred while he was engaged in campaign activities or carrying out his duties as an officeholder.
But it is illegal to use contributions “to fulfill any commitment, obligation or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of federal office,” including a “non-campaign-related automobile expense,” according to federal campaign finance law.
Rangel’s spokesman Emile Milne told the Web site, CQ Politics, that the congressman is in compliance with the law, but could not provide details on each of the tickets.
CQ notes: “Regardless of any potential legal issues, the congressman is paying parking tickets with other people’s money.”
Last year Rangel’s car was towed from the House garage after the New York Post disclosed that he had been storing the undrivable vehicle there for several years, in violation of House rules.
The Post also reported that Rangel was using a Cadillac leased by his taxpayer-funded House office to travel to campaign events in New York — also a violation of House rules.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics charges that recently came to light.
The Times disclosed that Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the firm’s chief executive was promising to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Rangel paid below-market rents on four apartments in New York, including one that was used illegally as a campaign office.
It also is alleged that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on rental income from a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and used official letterhead stationery to solicit donations to the public service school.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. We Heard…
THAT after 55 years at a Dallas church, evangelist Billy Graham is changing membership to a church near his retirement home in South Carolina.
Graham’s personal assistant told First Baptist Dallas, which Graham joined in 1953, that the 90-year-old was switching to First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, S.C., the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The pastor of the South Carolina church, the Rev. Don Wilton, has preached for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
THAT Sirius XM satellite radio has dropped the Fox Business News channel from its lineup.
Sirius and XM merged last year and began broadcasting combined lineups in November. A source told the Web site TVNewser that Fox Business News was dropped because of the merger and the lack of channel space.
THAT Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company has the largest cache of cash among the world’s listed companies.
Buffett’s firm can claim $106 billion in net cash, defined as cash and short-term investments or marketable securities minus debt, the Financial Times reports.
Chinese banks hold the next three positions. Bank of China has $101 billion in net cash, ICBC has $89 billion, and China Construction Bank has $82 billion.
Only 29 of the top 100 global companies by market value have net cash, according to the Times.
Berkshire Hathaway’s many holdings include GEICO, Benjamin Moore Paints, Diary Queen, and Fruit of the Loom.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
My Predictions for the New Obama "Presidency"
Kit Lange is an Air Force veteran and military writer who specializes in investigating murder cases stemming from actions in combat. Her work was used as evidence in the Lt. Ilario Pantano case, and has been quoted extensively in other news publications for other cases. In 2005, she co-wrote a 10-part series disproving war crime allegations against an elite Army unit; her blog, EuphoricReality.com, was named as one of the top 10 milblogs of the year. She is also the National Web Coordinator for Gathering of Eagles, a nationally-recognized troop support organization. Kit holds a degree in Aircraft Maintenance Technology from Spartan College of Aeronautics, and is currently working on a second degree in Aviation Technology Management. She resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
INTERESTING COMMENTARY FROM A FEMALE AIR FORCE VETERAN WHO IS NOW A TALK SHOW HOST.
Kit Lange is a lady (Former Air Force) who has worked tirelessly on the Hutchins case.
My Predictions for the New Obama "Presidency"
Now that America has shown us all that affirmative action even works in politics, I've compiled a list of things that you can probably expect to happen. These predictions are 80% gleaned from information all of us have access to, and 15% gut instinct based on many years of research, historical study, and being glued to current affairs. The other 5% is just anger at my countrymen's stupidity--I admit it.
-----
- Websites and mass emails offering "free grants," courtesy of the government and "Obama's wealth redistribution." Actually, this one's a freebie, because I have an email with a date and timestamp of literally minutes after Obama was declared the winner, offering exactly that.
- Israel will understand this election was the end of any type of assistance, military or otherwise, from the U.S., and will stop holding back their defense at the request of the American administration. Look for a first strike on Iran soon, as well as increased activity by the Israeli military in general. Israel is on her own now, and God help us all because of it.
- Look for Iranian retaliation--against American targets. That goes doubly for other terrorist organizations. We just elected a man with the full endorsement of every major terrorist group in the world as leader of the free world. It's the political equivalent of hiring a child molester to babysit your kids while you leave for the weekend.
Not only is HE going to have fun with your child, but he'll probably sit and watch while his friends come over and do it too.
- Look for far-left justices appointed to the Supreme Court, effectively tying up the entire government in a trifecta of liberal humanism, the buzzwords of which remain empty platitudes like "hope and change," and the ultimate goal of which is socialism--and soon, sharia law.
- Military cases of troops being tried and convicted for killing the enemy in combat will continue to rise--and the conviction/plea-bargain rate will stay at nearly 100%, as the government seeks to use the best men and women this country has to offer as sacrificial lambs on the altar of global appeasement. Those brave and honorable men who currently reside in prison cells across the country, stripped of their rank, their careers, families, and their good name, will not taste free air again for many years. Their sacrifices and their stories will be forgotten by the general public, remembered only by those of us who continue to fight for them.
- Look for the slow but steady erosion of rights you have enjoyed for your entire lives--all the while being told it's "for your own good."
Restrictions on gun ownership, home schooling, encouraged dependence on the ever-growing federal government. More nanny-state provisions will be put into place to protect the "disadvantaged" and the "poor,"
(read: lazy, uneducated, unwilling to better themselves) even while groups like the unborn, the mentally handicapped, elderly, and terminally ill are slowly pushed toward euthanasia. Of course, this will be done with feel-good phrases like "death with dignity," "not wanting to be a burden,"
and "merciful release from suffering," all of which ignore the basic fact that we are killing people without their consent for the "good of the people." Before you tell me I'm crazy, let's just remember that Barack Obama was the ONLY senator in the Illinois state senate to vote against providing medical care for babies who were inconsiderate enough to survive an abortion. Also, look for taxes to go up. Yes, they'll go up.
- You think t he economy is bad now? Just wait. You'll have the most expensive "free" health care ever. Bread lines aren't just for Russians anymore.
We have traded experience for color, freedom for slavery--and the irony is that the average American sheeple thinks their vote somehow righted an ancient wrong, somehow ENDED the spectre of slavery and ushered in some beautiful era of liberty. In reality, we are about to be less free than you ever thought possible.
I watched the faces of those crowded into the mob (excuse the pun) in Chicago. They stared at Obama like he was a god, an idol, a panacea to their every want and need. We have truly failed as a nation if we are at the point where we feel we must look to one man to take care of us all, to be our father figure and our sugar daddy. We have lost not only the "can-do" attitude of past generations, but the "MUST-do"
attitude of our forefathers. We have allowed ourselves to become reduced from Patrick Henry's proud cry of "liberty or death" to the sniveling, whining idea that we are owed something. We have gone from being the honorable defenders of freedom, to being told we are the problem.
The eyes of Obama and McCain were also telling. McCain acted with class and grace in his concession speech , offering the most honorable response I've seen yet. I don't agree with all of McCain's positions, but it cannot be denied that the man has served his nation--at permanent and severe detriment to himself--for half a century.
His eyes were clear and sincere, honest. His speech underlined the very reasons why, of the two men offered, he was hands down the best choice.
On the other hand, Obama's eyes were cold, calculating. His manner was smug and still carried the arrogance he has always had. His facial expression was one of barely disguised disdain for everything people like me believe in. His body language was smooth, polished--
too much so. He talked of patriotism as though it is a value he is familiar with--and yet, his horrifying attitude toward the country he now leads is as well-documented as his friendships with those who seek its demise. He is charismatic to those who don't know what to look for, and he is inspiring to those who cannot or will not think for themselves. However, too many who voted for him are guilty of the most dangerous kind of hypocrisy. You see, we are told daily that we must not see color, just mankind. (We are all family, you know--or so we're told.) And yet Barack Obama was handed the White House on a silver platter by a fawning media, a bevy of foreign donors (who, to this day and in violation of U.S. election laws, remain nameless and unaccounted for), and a populace who voted based on color instead of right and wrong--even in the face of the most damning evidence against a Presidential candidate in many years , perhaps ever.
It is said that the people receive the government they deserve. Sadly, I fear that's correct. We have become complacent, unwilling to see the writing on the wall, content to frolic in the warm water without bothering to notice that it's been getting hotter by the minute. We are two seconds from a rolling boil--and perhaps it is already too late.
So, liberals, enjoy your victory. Jump around. Have a party, file for your free grants. Scream "Gimme my handout!" and make fun of those of us who fought to make sure your "messiah" didn't get access to the most powerful position in the world. Just remember when it all comes crashing down: You own the White House, the Congress, and soon the Supreme Court. You have no one to blame but yourselves for the mess you just created.
As for me, I'm buying my handguns this week so I have an answer for those who will come try to take them.
Kit
INTERESTING COMMENTARY FROM A FEMALE AIR FORCE VETERAN WHO IS NOW A TALK SHOW HOST.
Kit Lange is a lady (Former Air Force) who has worked tirelessly on the Hutchins case.
My Predictions for the New Obama "Presidency"
Now that America has shown us all that affirmative action even works in politics, I've compiled a list of things that you can probably expect to happen. These predictions are 80% gleaned from information all of us have access to, and 15% gut instinct based on many years of research, historical study, and being glued to current affairs. The other 5% is just anger at my countrymen's stupidity--I admit it.
-----
- Websites and mass emails offering "free grants," courtesy of the government and "Obama's wealth redistribution." Actually, this one's a freebie, because I have an email with a date and timestamp of literally minutes after Obama was declared the winner, offering exactly that.
- Israel will understand this election was the end of any type of assistance, military or otherwise, from the U.S., and will stop holding back their defense at the request of the American administration. Look for a first strike on Iran soon, as well as increased activity by the Israeli military in general. Israel is on her own now, and God help us all because of it.
- Look for Iranian retaliation--against American targets. That goes doubly for other terrorist organizations. We just elected a man with the full endorsement of every major terrorist group in the world as leader of the free world. It's the political equivalent of hiring a child molester to babysit your kids while you leave for the weekend.
Not only is HE going to have fun with your child, but he'll probably sit and watch while his friends come over and do it too.
- Look for far-left justices appointed to the Supreme Court, effectively tying up the entire government in a trifecta of liberal humanism, the buzzwords of which remain empty platitudes like "hope and change," and the ultimate goal of which is socialism--and soon, sharia law.
- Military cases of troops being tried and convicted for killing the enemy in combat will continue to rise--and the conviction/plea-bargain rate will stay at nearly 100%, as the government seeks to use the best men and women this country has to offer as sacrificial lambs on the altar of global appeasement. Those brave and honorable men who currently reside in prison cells across the country, stripped of their rank, their careers, families, and their good name, will not taste free air again for many years. Their sacrifices and their stories will be forgotten by the general public, remembered only by those of us who continue to fight for them.
- Look for the slow but steady erosion of rights you have enjoyed for your entire lives--all the while being told it's "for your own good."
Restrictions on gun ownership, home schooling, encouraged dependence on the ever-growing federal government. More nanny-state provisions will be put into place to protect the "disadvantaged" and the "poor,"
(read: lazy, uneducated, unwilling to better themselves) even while groups like the unborn, the mentally handicapped, elderly, and terminally ill are slowly pushed toward euthanasia. Of course, this will be done with feel-good phrases like "death with dignity," "not wanting to be a burden,"
and "merciful release from suffering," all of which ignore the basic fact that we are killing people without their consent for the "good of the people." Before you tell me I'm crazy, let's just remember that Barack Obama was the ONLY senator in the Illinois state senate to vote against providing medical care for babies who were inconsiderate enough to survive an abortion. Also, look for taxes to go up. Yes, they'll go up.
- You think t he economy is bad now? Just wait. You'll have the most expensive "free" health care ever. Bread lines aren't just for Russians anymore.
We have traded experience for color, freedom for slavery--and the irony is that the average American sheeple thinks their vote somehow righted an ancient wrong, somehow ENDED the spectre of slavery and ushered in some beautiful era of liberty. In reality, we are about to be less free than you ever thought possible.
I watched the faces of those crowded into the mob (excuse the pun) in Chicago. They stared at Obama like he was a god, an idol, a panacea to their every want and need. We have truly failed as a nation if we are at the point where we feel we must look to one man to take care of us all, to be our father figure and our sugar daddy. We have lost not only the "can-do" attitude of past generations, but the "MUST-do"
attitude of our forefathers. We have allowed ourselves to become reduced from Patrick Henry's proud cry of "liberty or death" to the sniveling, whining idea that we are owed something. We have gone from being the honorable defenders of freedom, to being told we are the problem.
The eyes of Obama and McCain were also telling. McCain acted with class and grace in his concession speech , offering the most honorable response I've seen yet. I don't agree with all of McCain's positions, but it cannot be denied that the man has served his nation--at permanent and severe detriment to himself--for half a century.
His eyes were clear and sincere, honest. His speech underlined the very reasons why, of the two men offered, he was hands down the best choice.
On the other hand, Obama's eyes were cold, calculating. His manner was smug and still carried the arrogance he has always had. His facial expression was one of barely disguised disdain for everything people like me believe in. His body language was smooth, polished--
too much so. He talked of patriotism as though it is a value he is familiar with--and yet, his horrifying attitude toward the country he now leads is as well-documented as his friendships with those who seek its demise. He is charismatic to those who don't know what to look for, and he is inspiring to those who cannot or will not think for themselves. However, too many who voted for him are guilty of the most dangerous kind of hypocrisy. You see, we are told daily that we must not see color, just mankind. (We are all family, you know--or so we're told.) And yet Barack Obama was handed the White House on a silver platter by a fawning media, a bevy of foreign donors (who, to this day and in violation of U.S. election laws, remain nameless and unaccounted for), and a populace who voted based on color instead of right and wrong--even in the face of the most damning evidence against a Presidential candidate in many years , perhaps ever.
It is said that the people receive the government they deserve. Sadly, I fear that's correct. We have become complacent, unwilling to see the writing on the wall, content to frolic in the warm water without bothering to notice that it's been getting hotter by the minute. We are two seconds from a rolling boil--and perhaps it is already too late.
So, liberals, enjoy your victory. Jump around. Have a party, file for your free grants. Scream "Gimme my handout!" and make fun of those of us who fought to make sure your "messiah" didn't get access to the most powerful position in the world. Just remember when it all comes crashing down: You own the White House, the Congress, and soon the Supreme Court. You have no one to blame but yourselves for the mess you just created.
As for me, I'm buying my handguns this week so I have an answer for those who will come try to take them.
Kit
LEARN THIS AND THEN REMEMBER
FYI
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom
by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.
What one person receives without working for,
another person must work for without receiving.
The government cannot give to anybody anything
that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that
they do not have to work
because the other half is going to take care of them,
and when the other half gets the idea that
it does no good to work
because somebody else is going to get what they work for,
that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.
You cannot multiply wealth
by dividing it."
"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom
by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.
What one person receives without working for,
another person must work for without receiving.
The government cannot give to anybody anything
that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that
they do not have to work
because the other half is going to take care of them,
and when the other half gets the idea that
it does no good to work
because somebody else is going to get what they work for,
that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation.
You cannot multiply wealth
by dividing it."
Military Poll Shows 6 Out of 10 Wary of Obama
Breaking from Newsmax.com
Military Poll Shows 6 Out of 10 Wary of Obama
A recent survey conducted by The Military Times shows six out of 10 active-duty service members are uncertain or pessimistic about President-elect Barack Obama as the nation’s next commander in chief.
Respondents to the survey of more than 1,900 active-duty subscribers to Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times newspapers say much of the uncertainty lies in Obama's lack of military service and experience in leadership abilities.
"Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief," one lance corporal who asked not to be identified said in a follow up interview with The Times.
Other issues causing uncertainty among the ranks are Obama’s stated 16-month timetable for pulling combat troops out of Iraq and his call to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to allow gays to serve openly in the military.
Half of all respondents say they disapprove of Obama’s plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office on Jan. 20. A slightly higher percent say they support the plan to leave the country by the end of 2011.
The survey shows eight out of 10 respondents say the U.S. should have gone to war in Afghanistan and express optimism the U.S. will succeed there. A majority support plans to boost the number of troops in Afghanistan, while 30 percent say troops will need to stay for more than a decade to achieve its goals.
A higher percentage of respondents say outgoing President George W. Bush has their best interests at heart over Obama. Nearly half described their political views as conservative or very conservative. Slightly more than half said they consider themselves Republicans, 22 percent independents and 13 percent Democrats.
One-third of respondents say they are optimistic about the newly elected president, including eight out of 10 black service members.
The survey notes that responses are not representative of the opinions of the military as a whole, and that the survey group overall under-represents minorities, women and junior enlisted service members, and over-represents soldiers.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Military Poll Shows 6 Out of 10 Wary of Obama
A recent survey conducted by The Military Times shows six out of 10 active-duty service members are uncertain or pessimistic about President-elect Barack Obama as the nation’s next commander in chief.
Respondents to the survey of more than 1,900 active-duty subscribers to Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times newspapers say much of the uncertainty lies in Obama's lack of military service and experience in leadership abilities.
"Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief," one lance corporal who asked not to be identified said in a follow up interview with The Times.
Other issues causing uncertainty among the ranks are Obama’s stated 16-month timetable for pulling combat troops out of Iraq and his call to end the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to allow gays to serve openly in the military.
Half of all respondents say they disapprove of Obama’s plan to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office on Jan. 20. A slightly higher percent say they support the plan to leave the country by the end of 2011.
The survey shows eight out of 10 respondents say the U.S. should have gone to war in Afghanistan and express optimism the U.S. will succeed there. A majority support plans to boost the number of troops in Afghanistan, while 30 percent say troops will need to stay for more than a decade to achieve its goals.
A higher percentage of respondents say outgoing President George W. Bush has their best interests at heart over Obama. Nearly half described their political views as conservative or very conservative. Slightly more than half said they consider themselves Republicans, 22 percent independents and 13 percent Democrats.
One-third of respondents say they are optimistic about the newly elected president, including eight out of 10 black service members.
The survey notes that responses are not representative of the opinions of the military as a whole, and that the survey group overall under-represents minorities, women and junior enlisted service members, and over-represents soldiers.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
When Harry Met Blago
When Harry Met Blago
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Politics: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich may have played the race card in a cynical attempt to save his political skin, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others are no less cynical or offensive in their actions.
The controversy over Blago's appointment of renowned empty suit and former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat could have been avoided had Illinois Democrats obeyed their initial impulse and passed legislation calling for a special election.
Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, among others, was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the idea, but now is among those calling for Blagojevich to resign so Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn can appoint Obama's replacement.
Seems it dawned on party leaders that the Democrat brand might be so tarnished that a (gasp) Republican might win, campaigning oddly enough against a Democratic "culture of corruption."
Maintaining Democratic control of Obama's seat is paramount for Democrats who are so close to a filibuster-proof majority. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate would absolutely refuse to seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.
But it wasn't that long ago that Reid was offering Blago interesting suggestions on just whom to pick.
On Saturday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that on Dec. 3, six days before Blagojevich's arrest, Reid talked with the governor about who the Senate appointee might be. According to the Sun-Times, "Reid made it clear who he didn't want in the post: Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones."
In other words, Reid opposed the appointment of two sitting U.S. congressmen and the leader of the Illinois Senate with whom Obama served and was arguably Obama's political mentor and godfather. Rep. Davis, unlike Burris, had the dignity and self-respect to reject an offer for the Senate seat before Burris accepted.
Instead, Reid expressed support for state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth, who recently lost a U.S. house race, or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, on the grounds that either of these was more electable for the Democrats in 2010.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero confirms that Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., called Blagojevich separately on Dec. 3 shortly after Obama's chief of staff, soon-to-be former Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, called to tell Blago to expect calls from the Senate leadership about Obama's vacant seat.
As the Sun-Times reports, the Reid-Menendez calls came a day before a Dec. 4 conversation overheard on government wiretaps where Blagojevich says he was getting "a lot of pressure" not to appoint Jackson.
In a statement released Saturday night, Reid said this was a Blagojevich ploy to distract attention from his own troubles. On "Meet the Press" Sunday, he said Blago was "making all this up to divert attention" in a conversation that was likely taped by the feds. A "Democratic official familiar with the conversation" told the Chicago Tribune the Sun-Times account was accurate.
"Of course Sen. Reid spoke to the governor of Illinois — just as he spoke to the governors of Colorado and New York when senators from these states accepted jobs in the new administration," said Reid spokesman Joe Manley. But did he tell them whom to reject?
"The people of Illinois deserve a simple explanation from Sen. Reid — why does he believe these three Illinois officeholders are 'unelectable' to the U.S. Senate," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in a Saturday statement. We'd like to know too.
Whether Reid and the Democrats will actually have the Capitol Police stand in the Senate doorway to block Burris remains unknown. But imagine if a Republican Senate majority leader had called a governor and advised him not to appoint an African-American for any reason to fill a vacant seat.
Email To Friend |
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Politics: Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich may have played the race card in a cynical attempt to save his political skin, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others are no less cynical or offensive in their actions.
The controversy over Blago's appointment of renowned empty suit and former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to fill Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat could have been avoided had Illinois Democrats obeyed their initial impulse and passed legislation calling for a special election.
Illinois' senior senator, Dick Durbin, among others, was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the idea, but now is among those calling for Blagojevich to resign so Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn can appoint Obama's replacement.
Seems it dawned on party leaders that the Democrat brand might be so tarnished that a (gasp) Republican might win, campaigning oddly enough against a Democratic "culture of corruption."
Maintaining Democratic control of Obama's seat is paramount for Democrats who are so close to a filibuster-proof majority. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate would absolutely refuse to seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.
But it wasn't that long ago that Reid was offering Blago interesting suggestions on just whom to pick.
On Saturday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that on Dec. 3, six days before Blagojevich's arrest, Reid talked with the governor about who the Senate appointee might be. According to the Sun-Times, "Reid made it clear who he didn't want in the post: Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones."
In other words, Reid opposed the appointment of two sitting U.S. congressmen and the leader of the Illinois Senate with whom Obama served and was arguably Obama's political mentor and godfather. Rep. Davis, unlike Burris, had the dignity and self-respect to reject an offer for the Senate seat before Burris accepted.
Instead, Reid expressed support for state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth, who recently lost a U.S. house race, or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, on the grounds that either of these was more electable for the Democrats in 2010.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero confirms that Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., called Blagojevich separately on Dec. 3 shortly after Obama's chief of staff, soon-to-be former Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, called to tell Blago to expect calls from the Senate leadership about Obama's vacant seat.
As the Sun-Times reports, the Reid-Menendez calls came a day before a Dec. 4 conversation overheard on government wiretaps where Blagojevich says he was getting "a lot of pressure" not to appoint Jackson.
In a statement released Saturday night, Reid said this was a Blagojevich ploy to distract attention from his own troubles. On "Meet the Press" Sunday, he said Blago was "making all this up to divert attention" in a conversation that was likely taped by the feds. A "Democratic official familiar with the conversation" told the Chicago Tribune the Sun-Times account was accurate.
"Of course Sen. Reid spoke to the governor of Illinois — just as he spoke to the governors of Colorado and New York when senators from these states accepted jobs in the new administration," said Reid spokesman Joe Manley. But did he tell them whom to reject?
"The people of Illinois deserve a simple explanation from Sen. Reid — why does he believe these three Illinois officeholders are 'unelectable' to the U.S. Senate," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in a Saturday statement. We'd like to know too.
Whether Reid and the Democrats will actually have the Capitol Police stand in the Senate doorway to block Burris remains unknown. But imagine if a Republican Senate majority leader had called a governor and advised him not to appoint an African-American for any reason to fill a vacant seat.
Email To Friend |
Intel Chair Feinstein Slaps at Obama’s Choice
CNSNews.com
Intel Chair Feinstein Slaps at Obama’s Choice of Panetta as CIA Director
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
By Staff
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week assumes the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, took a slap yesterday at President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Leon Panetta to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” she stated shortly after the selection of Panetta was revealed in television reports. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
A spokesman for Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.-W.V.), who served as intelligence chairman in the last Congress, indicated that Rockefeller was "puzzled" by Obama’s selection of Panetta.
Rockefeller “thinks very highly of Panetta,” the aide told The Los Angeles Times. “But he’s puzzled by the selection. He has concerns because he has always believed that the director of CIA needs to be someone with significant operational intelligence experience and someone outside the political realm.”
Panetta has no experience in intelligence but a great deal of experience in politics. He served in the House of Representatives from 1976 until 1993. He then became budget director for President Bill Clinton, and then Clinton’s White House chief of staff.
Panetta also served on the Iraq Study Group that issued a report critical of the conduct of the Iraq War in 2006.
Some liberals are hailing Panetta's opposition to the use of torture in interrogating terrorist suspects. In an article last year in the Washington Monthly, Panetta wrote that fear had transformed America from a nation that championed human dignity into a "nation of armchair torturers."
"We cannot and we must not use torture under any circumstances. We are better than that," Panetta wrote.
Viewer Comments
The following comments are posted by our readers and are not necessarily the opinions of either CNSNews.com or the story’s author. To be considered for publication, comments must adhere to the Terms of Use for posting to this Web site. Thank you.
Showing 1-2 of 2 Comments Newer to Older Older to Newer Loading...
Ozark_Sunshine at 11:49 AM - January 06, 2009
For once I agree with the Feinstein. Having served in the military and intelligence community, it is a must to have a trained professional at the head of the community. Of course a trained professional in the Presidents chair would know that. Sad how we have to face the most dangerous time in our history with a man who has no credentials, credibility nor character in that chair. The POTUS is not a position you learn in on the job training.
Hisemiester at 11:32 AM - January 06, 2009
Not frequent do I agree with Feinstien, however on this one, I do agree. Another thing, If I were still in intelligence gathering, I would prior to his being seated as the Chairman of the CIA, resign and disappear. This man knows nothing about intelligence gathering and will most likely get a good many operatives killed. Is that the aim of Mr. Obama? Most likely so. All I can say, with Obama's cabinet picks, God help America. We are surely going to need Gods intervention.
Intel Chair Feinstein Slaps at Obama’s Choice of Panetta as CIA Director
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
By Staff
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week assumes the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, took a slap yesterday at President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Leon Panetta to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” she stated shortly after the selection of Panetta was revealed in television reports. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
A spokesman for Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.-W.V.), who served as intelligence chairman in the last Congress, indicated that Rockefeller was "puzzled" by Obama’s selection of Panetta.
Rockefeller “thinks very highly of Panetta,” the aide told The Los Angeles Times. “But he’s puzzled by the selection. He has concerns because he has always believed that the director of CIA needs to be someone with significant operational intelligence experience and someone outside the political realm.”
Panetta has no experience in intelligence but a great deal of experience in politics. He served in the House of Representatives from 1976 until 1993. He then became budget director for President Bill Clinton, and then Clinton’s White House chief of staff.
Panetta also served on the Iraq Study Group that issued a report critical of the conduct of the Iraq War in 2006.
Some liberals are hailing Panetta's opposition to the use of torture in interrogating terrorist suspects. In an article last year in the Washington Monthly, Panetta wrote that fear had transformed America from a nation that championed human dignity into a "nation of armchair torturers."
"We cannot and we must not use torture under any circumstances. We are better than that," Panetta wrote.
Viewer Comments
The following comments are posted by our readers and are not necessarily the opinions of either CNSNews.com or the story’s author. To be considered for publication, comments must adhere to the Terms of Use for posting to this Web site. Thank you.
Showing 1-2 of 2 Comments Newer to Older Older to Newer Loading...
Ozark_Sunshine at 11:49 AM - January 06, 2009
For once I agree with the Feinstein. Having served in the military and intelligence community, it is a must to have a trained professional at the head of the community. Of course a trained professional in the Presidents chair would know that. Sad how we have to face the most dangerous time in our history with a man who has no credentials, credibility nor character in that chair. The POTUS is not a position you learn in on the job training.
Hisemiester at 11:32 AM - January 06, 2009
Not frequent do I agree with Feinstien, however on this one, I do agree. Another thing, If I were still in intelligence gathering, I would prior to his being seated as the Chairman of the CIA, resign and disappear. This man knows nothing about intelligence gathering and will most likely get a good many operatives killed. Is that the aim of Mr. Obama? Most likely so. All I can say, with Obama's cabinet picks, God help America. We are surely going to need Gods intervention.
A HISTORY LESSON OF SORTS FROM TED/JO AND JOHN D
FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE
"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
~ Thomas Jefferson
(This is why Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton want gun control so badly! )
FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE
1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3. Colt: The original point and click interface.
4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
10. The United States Constitution (c)1791. All Rights Reserved.
11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?
12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.
15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.
20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.
23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.
24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
IF YOU AGREE, PASS THIS "REFRESHER" ON TO TEN FREE CITIZENS.
"In Accordance With The Prophecy."
"Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented immigrant" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist
" IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM !!!
FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE
"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
~ Thomas Jefferson
(This is why Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton want gun control so badly! )
FIREARMS REFRESHER COURSE
1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
3. Colt: The original point and click interface.
4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
10. The United States Constitution (c)1791. All Rights Reserved.
11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?
12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the others.
13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.
15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.
16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.
17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.
20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.
21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.
23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.
24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.
IF YOU AGREE, PASS THIS "REFRESHER" ON TO TEN FREE CITIZENS.
"In Accordance With The Prophecy."
"Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented immigrant" is like calling a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist
" IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, PLEASE, FEEL FREE TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM !!!
Monday, January 5, 2009
TED KENNEDY A POMPAS ASS
Last of The Kennedy Dynasty.
As soon as cancer was found, I noticed the immediate attempt at canonization of old Teddy by the main stream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.
1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.
2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops, the man can't count to four. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the U.S. from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him like "he" charged President Bush received.
3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private.
4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving
90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959, amazing!!!
5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we.
6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.
7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, after passing several houses and a fire station. Then two friends returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew, that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne, and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout ?from the Kennedy's insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills... a "token of friendship"?
8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years,but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate role, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.
9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of and increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the Pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court Nominees, as if he were the standard bearer for the nation in matters of right. What a pompous ass.
10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American".
Let's not allow the spin doctors make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is...
As soon as cancer was found, I noticed the immediate attempt at canonization of old Teddy by the main stream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.
1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.
2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops, the man can't count to four. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the U.S. from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him like "he" charged President Bush received.
3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private.
4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving
90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959, amazing!!!
5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we.
6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.
7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, after passing several houses and a fire station. Then two friends returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew, that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne, and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout ?from the Kennedy's insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills... a "token of friendship"?
8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years,but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate role, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.
9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of and increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the Pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court Nominees, as if he were the standard bearer for the nation in matters of right. What a pompous ass.
10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American".
Let's not allow the spin doctors make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is...
Richardson Withdrawal Leaves Obama With A Cabinet Gap
IT APPEARS TO ME THAT THE DEMO-RATES CAN'T GET THEIR STUFF TOGETHER AND IF
THEY COULD THEY COULDN'T LIFT IT.
CNSNews.com
Richardson Withdrawal Leaves Obama With A Cabinet Gap
Monday, January 05, 2009
By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's withdrawal as commerce secretary nominee is the first bump in Barack Obama's Cabinet selection process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency.Washington (AP) - The Cabinet that President-elect Barack Obama picked on a fast track has an unexpected opening, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrawing under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.
Richardson insisted he would be cleared in a grand jury probe. But he and Obama said the investigation would have likely disrupted a timely nomination to a top economic post.
"I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process," Richardson said in a statement. "Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the president-elect and his administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done."
Richardson's withdrawal was the first bump in Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has not been implicated in either the New Mexico case or accusations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell Obama's former Senate seat.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said he expected a new commerce secretary would be chosen soon but didn't have a timetable. Gibbs denied that those tasked to look into Richardson's background missed something.
A senior Obama adviser said Richardson gave assurances before he was nominated last month he would come out fine in the investigation. But as the grand jury pursued the case, it became clear that confirmation hearings would be delayed at least six weeks until the investigation was complete, said the adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity about the discussions because they were private.
Aides to both men insisted Richardson made the decision to withdraw and was not pushed out by Obama. But one Democrat involved in discussions over the matter said transition officials became increasingly nervous during the last couple of weeks that the investigation could become an embarrassment to Obama, who ran on a clean government pledge.
Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the governor believed the investigation would be resolved by this time, but decided to withdraw when it became clear it would not.
In a statement, Obama praised Richardson and said he accepted his withdrawal "with deep regret."
"It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time," Obama said. "Although we must move quickly to fill the void left by Governor Richardson's decision, I look forward to his future service to our country and in my administration."
Richardson ran against Obama in the Democratic presidential primary. He is one of the most prominent Hispanics in the Democratic Party, having served in Congress, and in the Clinton administration as ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary. As governor he has kept up an international profile with a specialty in dealing with rogue nations. Obama also considered him for secretary of state.
Richardson said in his statement that he will remain as governor.
The announcement came ahead of Obama's Monday meetings with congressional leaders on a massive economic recovery bill he wants passed quickly. Obama transition officials said Richardson's withdrawal would not affect the stimulus plan because the Commerce Department was not heavily involved.
A person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the grand jury is looking into possible "pay-to-play" dealings between CDR Financial Products and someone in a position to push the contract through the state of New Mexico.
State documents show CDR was paid a total of $1.48 million in 2004 and 2005 for its work on a transportation program.
In a statement issued Sunday night, CDR's chief executive, David Rubin, described Richardson as "an exceptionally able and dedicated public official, who was highly deserving of the opportunity to hold a cabinet-level position in the new Obama administration." Rubin also said CDR "adamantly doesn't practice pay-for-play under any circumstance on any playing field."
CDR and Rubin have contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson, according to an AP review of campaign finance records.
(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
THEY COULD THEY COULDN'T LIFT IT.
CNSNews.com
Richardson Withdrawal Leaves Obama With A Cabinet Gap
Monday, January 05, 2009
By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's withdrawal as commerce secretary nominee is the first bump in Barack Obama's Cabinet selection process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency.Washington (AP) - The Cabinet that President-elect Barack Obama picked on a fast track has an unexpected opening, with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrawing under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.
Richardson insisted he would be cleared in a grand jury probe. But he and Obama said the investigation would have likely disrupted a timely nomination to a top economic post.
"I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process," Richardson said in a statement. "Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing, I could not in good conscience ask the president-elect and his administration to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done."
Richardson's withdrawal was the first bump in Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has not been implicated in either the New Mexico case or accusations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell Obama's former Senate seat.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said he expected a new commerce secretary would be chosen soon but didn't have a timetable. Gibbs denied that those tasked to look into Richardson's background missed something.
A senior Obama adviser said Richardson gave assurances before he was nominated last month he would come out fine in the investigation. But as the grand jury pursued the case, it became clear that confirmation hearings would be delayed at least six weeks until the investigation was complete, said the adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity about the discussions because they were private.
Aides to both men insisted Richardson made the decision to withdraw and was not pushed out by Obama. But one Democrat involved in discussions over the matter said transition officials became increasingly nervous during the last couple of weeks that the investigation could become an embarrassment to Obama, who ran on a clean government pledge.
Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the governor believed the investigation would be resolved by this time, but decided to withdraw when it became clear it would not.
In a statement, Obama praised Richardson and said he accepted his withdrawal "with deep regret."
"It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time," Obama said. "Although we must move quickly to fill the void left by Governor Richardson's decision, I look forward to his future service to our country and in my administration."
Richardson ran against Obama in the Democratic presidential primary. He is one of the most prominent Hispanics in the Democratic Party, having served in Congress, and in the Clinton administration as ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary. As governor he has kept up an international profile with a specialty in dealing with rogue nations. Obama also considered him for secretary of state.
Richardson said in his statement that he will remain as governor.
The announcement came ahead of Obama's Monday meetings with congressional leaders on a massive economic recovery bill he wants passed quickly. Obama transition officials said Richardson's withdrawal would not affect the stimulus plan because the Commerce Department was not heavily involved.
A person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the grand jury is looking into possible "pay-to-play" dealings between CDR Financial Products and someone in a position to push the contract through the state of New Mexico.
State documents show CDR was paid a total of $1.48 million in 2004 and 2005 for its work on a transportation program.
In a statement issued Sunday night, CDR's chief executive, David Rubin, described Richardson as "an exceptionally able and dedicated public official, who was highly deserving of the opportunity to hold a cabinet-level position in the new Obama administration." Rubin also said CDR "adamantly doesn't practice pay-for-play under any circumstance on any playing field."
CDR and Rubin have contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson, according to an AP review of campaign finance records.
(Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Insider Report from Newsmax.com
Insider Report from Newsmax.com
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets With Campaign Funds: Report
5. We Heard: Billy Graham, Warren Buffett, Fox Business News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
Barack Obama said during his campaign that congressional earmarks should be reined in, but his choice for Transportation secretary, retiring Rep. Ray LaHood, is one of the leading purveyors of pork in the House.
In fiscal 2008, the Illinois Republican secured $62.7 million in earmarks for his district, either alone or working with other House members, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
That put him in the top 10 percent of House members when it came to pork barrel outlays, the Wall Street Journal reported in an opinion piece headlined “Obama’s Secretary of Earmarks.”
LaHood, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, makes no bones about his efforts to bring home the bacon to his district, which includes Peoria.
He told the Peoria Journal Star: “The reason I went on the Appropriations Committee, the reason other people go on the Appropriations Committee, is they know that it puts them in a position to know where the money is at, to know the people who are doling the money out and to be in the room when the money is being doled out.”
The Journal observed: “Mr. Obama repeatedly said during the presidential campaign that the earmarking system should be overhauled, yet he’s elevated to his cabinet a Machiavelli of this system.”
LaHood, first elected in 1994, is not on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee now, although he has been in the past. As a member of the Appropriations Committee he did not work on transportation funding.
But with Obama “planning what looks to be one of the largest single increases in federal spending in history,” the Journal reports, “Mr. LaHood may be exactly the man for the moment.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
Terry McAuliffe, who has solicited millions in donations for Bill and Hillary Clinton and others, could use his considerable fundraising skills to garner contributions for a political campaign of his own.
The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee filed in November to form a committee to explore a possible run for the Democratic nomination for governor in Virginia this year.
Virginia places no limits on how much an individual, corporation or union can donate to a candidate running for state office. Given his extensive contacts, some observers believe McAuliffe could raise $80 million for his campaign — three times what incumbent Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine raised in his 2005 campaign.
Under state law, Kaine is barred from running for re-election in 2009.
McAuliffe raised more than $200 million for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, oversaw $500 million in party fundraising as the DNC chairman, and chaired Hillary’s presidential campaign, which raised around $220 million, according to The Washington Post.
In January 2005, McAuliffe distributed $5 million of DNC funds to Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign.
“I think the sky is the limit in terms of Terry McAuliffe’s fundraising potential in Virginia,” Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told The Post.
“I suspect there will be a lot more interest in Virginia politics in Manhattan and Palm Beach than there usually is.”
McAuliffe said he won’t announce his decision on whether to run until Jan. 7.
Virginia House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran and state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds have announced they will seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell is the only announced Republican candidate.
McDonnell’s campaign manager Phil Cox acknowledged that McAuliffe’s fundraising ability could play a big role in the campaign, noting that Barack Obama outspent John McCain by a 2-to-1 margin in Virginia.
“You can’t tell me that didn’t make a difference,” he said. “Money matters in politics.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
The official Iranian news agency claimed that members of the nation’s small Jewish community staged a protest in Tehran to protest “Israeli war crimes and the slaughter of the innocent people in Gaza Strip.”
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the protesters were led by the Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament, Siamak Mara-Sedq.
The agency, an arm of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, also claimed that in a speech to the Iranian parliament on Tuesday, Mara-Sedq “expressed shock” over the “savage acts” perpetrated by the Tel Aviv regime, according to the Jerusalem Post.
He also reportedly said he hoped all “peace-loving nations” would support the “defenseless Palestinian people” and make Israel “stop the genocide in the region by exerting pressure on Tel Aviv.”
About 25,000 Jews live in Iran, and Iranian Jewish leaders are often quoted as having voiced extreme anti-Israeli views, the Post observed.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “Israeli sources familiar with the Iranian Jewish community suspect that the demonstration was organized by the government in Tehran, and does not represent the actual stance of Iranian Jews.”
Also in Iran, a judiciary official said Iran has set up a court to try Israel for its air attacks on Gaza and is ready to try in absentia anyone Tehran says has committed “crimes.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets with Campaign Funds: Report
Rep. Charles Rangel, already embroiled in an ethics committee probe, used campaign funds to pay $1,540 in fines from parking tickets in Washington during the past two years, according to a report on the Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
The New York Democrat’s campaign committee and his political action committee have made 14 separate payments to the D.C. treasurer for “automobile expenses” since March 2007, and a Rangel spokesman confirmed to CQ that campaign aides believe they were for parking tickets.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman has paid $2,035 in parking ticket fines since 2001.
It is not illegal for Rangel to use campaign funds to pay for parking tickets if they were incurred while he was engaged in campaign activities or carrying out his duties as an officeholder.
But it is illegal to use contributions “to fulfill any commitment, obligation or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of federal office,” including a “non-campaign-related automobile expense,” according to federal campaign finance law.
Rangel’s spokesman Emile Milne told the Web site, CQ Politics, that the congressman is in compliance with the law, but could not provide details on each of the tickets.
CQ notes: “Regardless of any potential legal issues, the congressman is paying parking tickets with other people’s money.”
Last year Rangel’s car was towed from the House garage after the New York Post disclosed that he had been storing the undrivable vehicle there for several years, in violation of House rules.
The Post also reported that Rangel was using a Cadillac leased by his taxpayer-funded House office to travel to campaign events in New York — also a violation of House rules.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics charges that recently came to light.
The Times disclosed that Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the firm’s chief executive was promising to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Rangel paid below-market rents on four apartments in New York, including one that was used illegally as a campaign office.
It also is alleged that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on rental income from a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and used official letterhead stationery to solicit donations to the public service school.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. We Heard…
THAT after 55 years at a Dallas church, evangelist Billy Graham is changing membership to a church near his retirement home in South Carolina.
Graham’s personal assistant told First Baptist Dallas, which Graham joined in 1953, that the 90-year-old was switching to First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, S.C., the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The pastor of the South Carolina church, the Rev. Don Wilton, has preached for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
THAT Sirius XM satellite radio has dropped the Fox Business News channel from its lineup.
Sirius and XM merged last year and began broadcasting combined lineups in November. A source told the Web site TVNewser that Fox Business News was dropped because of the merger and the lack of channel space.
THAT Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company has the largest cache of cash among the world’s listed companies.
Buffett’s firm can claim $106 billion in net cash, defined as cash and short-term investments or marketable securities minus debt, the Financial Times reports.
Chinese banks hold the next three positions. Bank of China has $101 billion in net cash, ICBC has $89 billion, and China Construction Bank has $82 billion.
Only 29 of the top 100 global companies by market value have net cash, according to the Times.
Berkshire Hathaway’s many holdings include GEICO, Benjamin Moore Paints, Diary Queen, and Fruit of the Loom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Notes:
Obama Caught Red-handed! Report Exposes Funny Money
Get Mike Huckabee's New Book Autographed, Free Offer
Special: 6 Days of Hell: The Coming War with Iran
Hot Sarah Palin Calendar Released
Warren Buffett Says Every Investor Must Read This Book or Else
5 Fish Are Absolutely Dangerous, 4 Are Great for Heart
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets With Campaign Funds: Report
5. We Heard: Billy Graham, Warren Buffett, Fox Business News
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Obama’s Transportation Secretary Is Earmarks King
Barack Obama said during his campaign that congressional earmarks should be reined in, but his choice for Transportation secretary, retiring Rep. Ray LaHood, is one of the leading purveyors of pork in the House.
In fiscal 2008, the Illinois Republican secured $62.7 million in earmarks for his district, either alone or working with other House members, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.
That put him in the top 10 percent of House members when it came to pork barrel outlays, the Wall Street Journal reported in an opinion piece headlined “Obama’s Secretary of Earmarks.”
LaHood, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, makes no bones about his efforts to bring home the bacon to his district, which includes Peoria.
He told the Peoria Journal Star: “The reason I went on the Appropriations Committee, the reason other people go on the Appropriations Committee, is they know that it puts them in a position to know where the money is at, to know the people who are doling the money out and to be in the room when the money is being doled out.”
The Journal observed: “Mr. Obama repeatedly said during the presidential campaign that the earmarking system should be overhauled, yet he’s elevated to his cabinet a Machiavelli of this system.”
LaHood, first elected in 1994, is not on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee now, although he has been in the past. As a member of the Appropriations Committee he did not work on transportation funding.
But with Obama “planning what looks to be one of the largest single increases in federal spending in history,” the Journal reports, “Mr. LaHood may be exactly the man for the moment.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Fundraiser McAuliffe Eyeing Run for Virginia Governor
Terry McAuliffe, who has solicited millions in donations for Bill and Hillary Clinton and others, could use his considerable fundraising skills to garner contributions for a political campaign of his own.
The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee filed in November to form a committee to explore a possible run for the Democratic nomination for governor in Virginia this year.
Virginia places no limits on how much an individual, corporation or union can donate to a candidate running for state office. Given his extensive contacts, some observers believe McAuliffe could raise $80 million for his campaign — three times what incumbent Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine raised in his 2005 campaign.
Under state law, Kaine is barred from running for re-election in 2009.
McAuliffe raised more than $200 million for Bill Clinton in the 1990s, oversaw $500 million in party fundraising as the DNC chairman, and chaired Hillary’s presidential campaign, which raised around $220 million, according to The Washington Post.
In January 2005, McAuliffe distributed $5 million of DNC funds to Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign.
“I think the sky is the limit in terms of Terry McAuliffe’s fundraising potential in Virginia,” Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told The Post.
“I suspect there will be a lot more interest in Virginia politics in Manhattan and Palm Beach than there usually is.”
McAuliffe said he won’t announce his decision on whether to run until Jan. 7.
Virginia House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran and state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds have announced they will seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and Virginia Attorney General Robert McDonnell is the only announced Republican candidate.
McDonnell’s campaign manager Phil Cox acknowledged that McAuliffe’s fundraising ability could play a big role in the campaign, noting that Barack Obama outspent John McCain by a 2-to-1 margin in Virginia.
“You can’t tell me that didn’t make a difference,” he said. “Money matters in politics.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Tehran Claims Iranian Jews Protest Gaza ‘Genocide’
The official Iranian news agency claimed that members of the nation’s small Jewish community staged a protest in Tehran to protest “Israeli war crimes and the slaughter of the innocent people in Gaza Strip.”
The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the protesters were led by the Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament, Siamak Mara-Sedq.
The agency, an arm of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, also claimed that in a speech to the Iranian parliament on Tuesday, Mara-Sedq “expressed shock” over the “savage acts” perpetrated by the Tel Aviv regime, according to the Jerusalem Post.
He also reportedly said he hoped all “peace-loving nations” would support the “defenseless Palestinian people” and make Israel “stop the genocide in the region by exerting pressure on Tel Aviv.”
About 25,000 Jews live in Iran, and Iranian Jewish leaders are often quoted as having voiced extreme anti-Israeli views, the Post observed.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “Israeli sources familiar with the Iranian Jewish community suspect that the demonstration was organized by the government in Tehran, and does not represent the actual stance of Iranian Jews.”
Also in Iran, a judiciary official said Iran has set up a court to try Israel for its air attacks on Gaza and is ready to try in absentia anyone Tehran says has committed “crimes.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Rangel Paid Parking Tickets with Campaign Funds: Report
Rep. Charles Rangel, already embroiled in an ethics committee probe, used campaign funds to pay $1,540 in fines from parking tickets in Washington during the past two years, according to a report on the Congressional Quarterly’s Web site.
The New York Democrat’s campaign committee and his political action committee have made 14 separate payments to the D.C. treasurer for “automobile expenses” since March 2007, and a Rangel spokesman confirmed to CQ that campaign aides believe they were for parking tickets.
Overall, the House Ways and Means Committee chairman has paid $2,035 in parking ticket fines since 2001.
It is not illegal for Rangel to use campaign funds to pay for parking tickets if they were incurred while he was engaged in campaign activities or carrying out his duties as an officeholder.
But it is illegal to use contributions “to fulfill any commitment, obligation or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign or individual’s duties as a holder of federal office,” including a “non-campaign-related automobile expense,” according to federal campaign finance law.
Rangel’s spokesman Emile Milne told the Web site, CQ Politics, that the congressman is in compliance with the law, but could not provide details on each of the tickets.
CQ notes: “Regardless of any potential legal issues, the congressman is paying parking tickets with other people’s money.”
Last year Rangel’s car was towed from the House garage after the New York Post disclosed that he had been storing the undrivable vehicle there for several years, in violation of House rules.
The Post also reported that Rangel was using a Cadillac leased by his taxpayer-funded House office to travel to campaign events in New York — also a violation of House rules.
The Washington Post and The New York Times both called on Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the wake of ethics charges that recently came to light.
The Times disclosed that Rangel helped preserve a valuable tax loophole for an oil and gas drilling company while the firm’s chief executive was promising to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel School of Public Service at City College of New York.
The House Ethics Committee is investigating allegations that Rangel paid below-market rents on four apartments in New York, including one that was used illegally as a campaign office.
It also is alleged that he failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes on rental income from a vacation home in the Dominican Republic, and used official letterhead stationery to solicit donations to the public service school.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. We Heard…
THAT after 55 years at a Dallas church, evangelist Billy Graham is changing membership to a church near his retirement home in South Carolina.
Graham’s personal assistant told First Baptist Dallas, which Graham joined in 1953, that the 90-year-old was switching to First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, S.C., the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The pastor of the South Carolina church, the Rev. Don Wilton, has preached for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
THAT Sirius XM satellite radio has dropped the Fox Business News channel from its lineup.
Sirius and XM merged last year and began broadcasting combined lineups in November. A source told the Web site TVNewser that Fox Business News was dropped because of the merger and the lack of channel space.
THAT Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company has the largest cache of cash among the world’s listed companies.
Buffett’s firm can claim $106 billion in net cash, defined as cash and short-term investments or marketable securities minus debt, the Financial Times reports.
Chinese banks hold the next three positions. Bank of China has $101 billion in net cash, ICBC has $89 billion, and China Construction Bank has $82 billion.
Only 29 of the top 100 global companies by market value have net cash, according to the Times.
Berkshire Hathaway’s many holdings include GEICO, Benjamin Moore Paints, Diary Queen, and Fruit of the Loom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor's Notes:
Obama Caught Red-handed! Report Exposes Funny Money
Get Mike Huckabee's New Book Autographed, Free Offer
Special: 6 Days of Hell: The Coming War with Iran
Hot Sarah Palin Calendar Released
Warren Buffett Says Every Investor Must Read This Book or Else
5 Fish Are Absolutely Dangerous, 4 Are Great for Heart
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)