Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"My Comments"
President Obama and AG Eric Holder Are Destroying Our US Military and our Federal Judiciary!
Where is the American “meanstream” (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, NY Times, Washington Post, etc.) media when you need them? Whose side are they on?
On Monday, December 7, 2009, we will witness as to how (y)our Liberal left-wing radical Obama administration’s command in the US Military and US Attorney Eric Holder are destroying America. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576646,00.html
Three US Navy SEALs captured Ahmed Hashim Abed, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, and who masterminded the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. Three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, and will face a court-martials for allegedly punching Ahmed Hashim Abed in the nose and/or the gut. The three SEALs will be arraigned separately on Dec. 7.
Folks, terrorists are killers. Some Liberal left-wing radicals want our US Military to treat these captured terrorist as children in Sunday School classes. President Obama’s US Military command and his US Attorney have the audacity to bring captured terrorists from the war battlefield, and being held in GITMO, to America for their habeas rights. Then these political idiots turnaround and prosecute Navy SEALs for punching a terrorist in his nose and/or his gut.
Where is the "meanstream" media?
Call your Senators and Representatives. Tell them you will be watching as to their action, or lack thereof, concerning this issue.
Oscar Y. Harward
"Daily Motivations"
Just one person taking action can inspire others to do the same. -- Leslie C. Aguilar
"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." -- William James
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. (Romans 5:2)
Faith is essential to the Christian life. But until we realize our faith is in the God who never changes, we will tend to walk by sight.
All of us have natural, everyday faith. This is the faith we exhibit in the ordinary things we do. When we sip a glass of water, we trust that it is pure. When we board an airplane, we have faith that the builders, the air traffic controllers, and the pilot know what they are doing. This type of faith comes from our senses. If the water looks odd or smells funny, we do not drink it. If the pilot reeks of alcohol, we do not board the plane.
But spiritual faith does not depend on our senses. It is based on God's consistent and trustworthy character. As George Mueller, 19th century British social reformer, explained, "Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends."
Although our circumstances may appear hopeless and our feelings may tell us to give up, we must not allow ourselves to be limited by the visible world. Instead, we should place our trust in the God who never changes.
Yet many times our faith extends only as far as we can see. An African impala antelope can jump higher than ten feet and a distance of more than thirty feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure behind a three-foot wall. The reason? The antelope will not jump if it cannot see where its feet will fall. The impala's dependency on its senses robs it of its freedom.
We, also, are often limited by our need to see before we will believe. Instead, we must improve our spiritual vision so that the walls of fear and doubt cannot doom us to a life of spiritual mediocrity.
Your View of God Really Matters …
If you really believed that God never changes, how would that affect the way you trust Him for the things you cannot see, or the circumstances you don't understand?
"The Patriot Post"
"It will not be doubted, that with reference either to individual, or National Welfare, Agriculture is of primary importance. In proportion as Nations advance in population, and other circumstances of maturity, this truth becomes more apparent; and renders the cultivation of the Soil more and more, an object of public patronage." -- George Washington, Eighth Annual Message to Congress, 1796
"National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman." -- John Adams
Editorial Exegesis
"One of the media's least accurate tropes is that, with the President's speech last night, Afghanistan is now 'Obama's war.' No, it isn't. Nations go to war, not merely Administrations, and President Obama's commitment of 30,000 more troops to that Southwest Asian theater is a national investment in blood and treasure on behalf of vital U.S. security interests. We support Mr. Obama's decision, and this national effort, notwithstanding our concerns about the determination of the President and his party to see it through. Now that he's committed, so is the country, and one of our abiding principles is that nations should never start (much less escalate) wars they don't intend to win." -- The Wall Street Journal
Upright
"The full transcript of President Obama's long-delayed speech on Afghanistan is here. You can watch it in full here. Bush-bashing? Check. Noxious complaining about the cost of fighting a necessary war? Check. Disingenuous denial that he dithered? Check. 'Let me be clear's = 9. Self-congratulations for sticking to Gitmo closure policy = 1. Self-referential 'As your Commander-in-Chief's = 2. References to global jihad = 0." -- columnist Michelle Malkin
"[In his speech Tuesday night,] Obama did what he could to mollify those [on the Left] by blaming Bush -- always a safe bet when trying to curry favor from the Left -- and by declaring there would be a time limit on the new deployment and they would be withdrawn starting in July 2011 -- just as the 2012 re-election campaign would be getting underway." -- political analyst Rich Galen
"The issue isn't whether a war is popular: either it has to be fought or it doesn't. It is a president's duty to define the war and lead the nation to victory. And if a war is worth one American life, it is -- by definition -- worth however many dollars it takes to win. Domestic spending must be curtailed to fund a war, not the other way around." -- columnist Jed Babbin
"[S]trategic success isn't Obama's ultimate concern. He wants political cover and is doing all he can to ensure that he's not on the blame-line, no matter what happens. He wants to appear strong -- but without unleashing our strength. He'll send more troops -- but won't let them do more." -- columnist Ralph Peters
"The blunt truth is: The United States needs to win in Afghanistan. Defeating the Taliban and destroying al-Qa'ida is in our vital interests. It is the price of peace in South Asia. It is the only way to prevent another 9/11. By dedicating the resources needed to win and by getting our fiscal house in order, we can keep our nation safe, free and prosperous. Any other talk is just politics." -- James Jay Carafano of The Heritage Foundation
"The reason the Democratic leadership and the White House are rushing to pass the [health care] bill is that they know it is killing them and believe doing it quickly will kill fewer of them than doing it slowly. If they pass it by year's end, perhaps voters will move on to other concerns by the November 2010 midterm elections." -- columnist Byron York
"How many times has a liberal touted this or that government agenda with the idea that they're doing it 'for the children.' When more Americans begin to understand that the more accurate phrase it 'to the children,' it will be the beginning of the end for these power-hungry thugs. Here's hoping it happens sooner rather than later." -- columnist Arnold Ahlert
Insight
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
"It is one of the maladies of our age to profess a frenzied allegiance to truth in unimportant matters, and to refuse consistently to face her where graver issues are at stake." -- British writer Norman Douglas (1868-1952)
"The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish." -- French economist Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)
Dezinformatsia
Non Compos Mentis: "[Obama] went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his case. I mean, that's where Paul Wolfowitz used to write speeches for, back in the old Bush days. That's where he went to rabble rouse the 'we're going to democratize the world' campaign back in '02. So, I thought it was a strange venue." -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews on West Point (Matthews later said that "maybe" he "used the wrong phrase, 'enemy camp,' but..." Some apology.)
Fretting: "Is this the last time the president is going to ask for American troops from the American people?" -- ABC's Diane Sawyer to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs
Oh those heartless Republicans: "Who would deny health care to all Americans? Well, there are a lot of those folks in Congress, including nearly all Republican lawmakers, none of whom have rejected their own generous government health care plans. The United States is the only country in the developed world that does not provide affordable health care for all its citizens." -- Hearst White House correspondent Helen Thomas
Will wonders never cease? "Is the honeymoon over? ... Although President Obama has been in office less than a year, many Americans are growing disenchanted with his handling of the enormous problems he and the country are facing, from health care to unemployment to Afghanistan. His poll numbers are sliding, and at least one poll shows his job approval rating has fallen, for the first time, below 50 percent." -- CBS's Katie Couric
"The American people are increasingly questioning the president's credibility. He says the stimulus has saved or created 640,000 jobs, but only 7 percent of Americans believe it has created any. And he's repeatedly promised health care reform will not increase the deficit, but a mere 19 percent believe him." -- CBS's Chip Reid
"The more [Obama] talks about these hard issues, the less people are buying it. ... People want something to be done about the deficit, and here he's talking about spending a trillion more dollars." -- CBS News analyst John Dickerson
"The Web"
ISLAM: A WARNING TO AMERICA
http://thelastcrusade.org/2009/09/21/islam-a-warning-to-america/
Sounding the Alarm
Armageddon Looms
thelastcrusade.org
A speech by Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom (the Netherlands) at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City, September 19, 2009
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe . This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States is the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.
The Europe you know is changing.
You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration.
All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It’s the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. Mosques stand on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe , street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities.
In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear “whore, whore.” Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin.
In France, school teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin . The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity.
In England, sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system.
Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves.
Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels because he was drinking during the Ramadan.
Jews are fleeing France in record numbers – - on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II.
French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel.
I could go on forever with stories like these.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe . San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 % of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call ‘respect’. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.
The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators “settlers” because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies; they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages – at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza.
Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But, in its essence, Islam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means “submission.” Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam “the most retrograde force in the world,” and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel: first, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz; second, because it is a democracy; and, third, because Israel is our first line of defense.
This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam’s territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh in Indonesia . Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest.
Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But if Israel were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior and accept our values.
On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything.
So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a “right-wing extremists” or “racists.” In my country, the Netherlands , 60 % of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II – - and another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat.
Yet there is a danger – - greater danger than terrorist attacks: the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America – as its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs.
With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives.
All throughout Europe, American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish.
My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe ’s children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.
When do we wake up America??? It’s almost too late now!!!
ClimateGate: NPR sees silver lining
Larry Elder - Syndicated Columnist
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=796088
National Public Radio recently reported on the e-mails "stolen" from a British climate laboratory.
It started right off by letting listeners know, e-mails aside, that anthropogenic, or man-made, global warming and its consequences remain the "consensus" view. It provided no information on the number of dissenters, what they dissent about or whether the number of dissenters has grown.
The piece said nothing about the e-mails' apparent effort to explain away the inconvenient fact about the lack of global warming over the past decade -- something inconsistent with the computer models used by the global warming alarmists. It said nothing about destroyed data. It said nothing about the possibility that this scandal (a word not used) may have resulted not from computer hackers, but a whistle-blower.
It never gave the listener any idea of the importance of the compromised Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. or of its influential role in promoting the "consensus" of man-made global warming. The NPR piece gave no sense of the gravity of these e-mails or whether they shed doubt on the very question of whether man's activity is causing global warming, to what degree and whether the alarmists who demand immediate and costly action are right to do so.
NPR failed to report that some of the scientists engaging in questionable tactics -- including using self-described "tricks" to explain away phenomena that go against conventional wisdom -- are some of the biggest names in the global warming alarmist community.
It said nothing about the amount of money the U.N. wants "polluting" countries to spend. It said nothing about the loss in jobs -- assuming the United States agreed to mandate huge cuts in CO2 emissions -- or whether the hit to our economy can be justified given what the compromised e-mails say about the scientists' own doubts.
The NPR piece said little about the apparent effort to stop scientific papers challenging the "consensus" view from getting into peer-reviewed journals. This allows contrary theories to be dismissed because, after all, they aren't reviewed by peers! Though it briefly mentioned "possible boycotts" (with no elaboration), the piece said nothing about the retaliation against legitimate journals that have published skeptical papers. The e-mails urge an effort by the global warming crowd to punish journals that publish skeptical papers by not sending their own papers to them, thus undermining the publications' credibility.
NPR played a sound bite from a professor who felt politics kept his skeptical paper from being published. The sound bite, however, was immediately countered by another sound bite from a scientist who dismissed the first as, in effect, paranoid. If the prof's paper was rejected because his theory "wasn't new" -- as the other scientist argued -- why wasn't the professor told this when his paper was repeatedly rejected, if only to defuse any conspiracy theory? We don't know because the NPR story never asked.
The piece never talked about professor Michael Mann of Penn State University. Apart from Al Gore, Mann is probably the most important voice in the Gore-bull warming world.
Scientific American magazine called Mann the "Man Behind the Hockey Stick" -- referring to the famous or, depending upon your point of view, infamous "hockey stick" graph that shows a huge recent increase in worldwide temperature, supposedly coinciding with a huge increase in CO2. The increase in CO2 is, again supposedly, primarily the result of man-made activity. The term "hockey stick" is used because the graph -- showing temperature over a long period -- looks like a hockey stick with its long flat shaft on the ground and the blade part sharply poking upward (reflecting a recent upward spike in temperature).
Mann's critics say he fudged the data to exclude or minimize the Medieval Warm Period (A.D. 800 to 1300), when the Earth's temperature was actually hotter than today. If man-made activity is heating up the Earth and will continue to do so with catastrophic consequences, how do you explain that 1,000 years ago, with no factories or autos and far fewer people, the Earth was actually warmer? The e-mails suggest that there may be at least something to the critics' charges.
One crosses the line from scientist to advocate when, if faced with conflicting or unexpected data, the scientist tries to get around it rather than to understand it. If data cause a re-examination of previously held assumptions, so be it.
The incurious NPR piece did almost nothing to inform its listeners of the seriousness of this e-mail scandal. It spun this as if a couple of kids carjacked a Lexus and went joyriding.
Yawn.
The Climate Has Changed
http://patriotpost.us/perspective/2009/12/01/the-climate-has-changed/
The case for man-made global warming took a major hit last week when 62 megabytes of data, including e-mail messages and model codes (searchable here), were stolen from the UK's University of East Anglia and then made public. The new information tells us much that we already suspected -- warming scaremongers are cooking the books and suppressing dissent in order to push their agenda.
These aren't just any scientists, either. They have been influential in driving the hype, including with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which issued a report in 2007 declaring that the end is near if massive shackles aren't put on the economies of nations such as the U.S. Phil Jones, director of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, Keith Briffa also of CRU and Michael Mann of Penn State University -- the creator of the debunked "hockey stick" graph -- are some of the key players.
One of the most enlightening e-mails discusses whether the work of academic skeptics should be included in that IPCC report (which won the Committee and Al Gore a Nobel Peace Prize, by the way). Jones wrote to Mann, "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow -- even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" Trenberth is head of the Climate Analysis Section at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The pair also discussed how they could pressure scientific journals to maintain the party line. Mann suggested that, for one, the journal "Climate Research" should be targeted. "Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal." (Sounds a bit like White House adviser David Axelrod's assessment of Fox News: "[Fox is] really not news -- it's pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations ... ought not to treat them that way, and we're not going to treat them that way.")
Of course, the definition of science is challenging hypotheses, not stifling dissent; following the evidence, not contriving it to fit.
But stifling and contriving are exactly what warmists are doing. In another e-mail, Jones wrote, "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd [sic] from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline." So the goal is to "hide the decline"?
Scientist Mick Kelly wrote to Jones about manipulating data to hide the fact that the planet is actually cooling: "I'll maybe cut the last few points off the filtered curve before I give the talk again, as that's trending down as a result of the end effects and the recent coldish years."
Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research wrote to Mann complaining of cold weather and admitting, "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can't."
Perhaps they can't account for cooling because their code for creating the models is geared toward making the earth appear warmer. In fact, the code may be more damning than the e-mails. One line of code features, for example, a variable called "fudge factor," which allows these scientists to put in whatever they want to create the desired outcome in the computer models.
Australian geologist Ian Plimer, a global warming skeptic, summed it up: The e-mails "show that data was massaged, numbers were fudged, diagrams were biased, there was destruction of data after freedom of information requests, and there was refusal to submit taxpayer-funded data for independent examination." Other than that, the science was accurate!
Considering that everything from the Kyoto Protocol to Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer in Congress, to EPA regulations to the Copenhagen conference are based on this faulty, fudged and fictitious data, policy makers should, at minimum, re-evaluate their plans. Certainly, the world's economy should not take a hit for nothing but lies.
UPDATE: The Washington Post, no doubt in an effort to be "fair and balanced," published three letters to the editor in response to an editorial about this climate scandal. Two of the letters were in opposition to the Post's defense of the warmists. Trouble is, the second letter was from none other than Michael Mann, and he linked to RealClimate.org so readers could be bombarded with more warming propaganda. The Post didn't bother to note that Mann is being investigated for his role in the scandal.
UPDATE 2 (Tuesday afternoon): The Associated Press reports, "Britain's University of East Anglia says [Phil Jones] the director of its prestigious Climatic Research Unit is stepping down pending an investigation into allegations that he overstated the case for man-made climate change."
116 U.S. Troops Died in Afghanistan While Obama Pondered Reinforcements
By Edwin Mora
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/57832
Georgia state National Guardsman, Sgt. Scott A. Millican, right, from Statesboro, GA., and Air Force Techincal Sgt. Phllip M. Huaser from Salina, Kansas, both part of the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (CIED) route clearance unit look up as US fighter jets fly overhead near the town of Maidan Shar, Wardak province, Afghanistan Monday Nov. 30, 2009. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
(Editor's Note: The Defense Department clarified after this story was posted that one of the casualties during October was a civilian, putting the number of U.S. military casualties between Aug. 30 and Dec. 1 at 116, instead of the 117 as first reported. The text below reflects this correction.)
(CNSNews.com) - One hundred and sixteen U.S. troops died in Afghanistan between August 30, when Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in that country, first reported that reinforcements were needed, and Tuesday, when President Barack Obama was set to announce that he will send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
There were 58 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan in October alone, making that the deadliest month of the eight-year-long U.S. war. There were also 37 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan in September, making September the third deadliest month of the war. In November, the U.S. casualties in Afghanistan dropped to 17.
On Aug. 30, Gen. McChrystal submitted a 66-page assessment of the war in Afghanistan to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The assessment said that without additional resources the war would “likely result in failure.”
“However, without a new strategy, the mission should not be resourced,” wrote Gen. McChrystal.
“Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months)--while Afghan security capacity matures--risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible," the general wrote.
President Obama sent McChrystal to Afghanistan to be the top U.S. commander there in June after Defense Secretary Robert Gates had fired the previous commander, Gen. David McKiernan, in May.
President Obama is scheduled to announce that he is sending additional forces to Afghanistan and to reveal a new war strategy in a primetime address to be delivered today from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
The period since Gen. McChrystal submitted his assessment that additional troops were needed has included the second deadliest thee-month period of the war. In September through November, there were 112 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan (including 37 in September, 58 in October and 17 in November). Together with 4 casualties that occurred on August 31, these account for the 116 total U.S. casualties that have occurred in Afghanistan since the general’s assessment.
The deadliest three-month period of the war was June through August of this year, when there were 119 U.S. casualties. These included 24 in June, 44 in July, and 51 in August.
So far this year, there have been 291 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, making 2009 the deadliest year of the war. Prior to this year, the deadliest single month of the war in Afghanistan was June 2008, when 28 U.S. troops were killed.
The casualty information reported here comes from a CNSNews.com data base of all U.S. casualties in Operation Enduring Freedom. The casualty numbers are based on U.S. Defense Department casualty reports. The database also includes additional information about the circumstances of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan that is derived from public information released by the U.S. Defense Department and also from published news reports.
The casualty numbers reported here include only those that took place within Afghanistan itself and exclude casualties involving troops supporting Operation Enduring Freedom outside of Afghanistan.
Operation Enduring Freedom is comprised of the operations in Afghanistan along with other anti-terrorists actions in other countries as well as training assistance to foreign militaries that are fighting terrorism.
In June 2007, at a presidential debate in New Hampshire, then-candidate Obama pledge to focus on what he called “the critical battle that we have in Afghanistan.”
“One of the things that I think is critical, as the next president, is to make absolutely certain that we not only phase out the Iraq war, but we also focus on the critical battle that we have in Afghanistan and root out al Qaeda,” he said.
Obama said at the time that the war in Iraq “is an enormous distraction from the battle that does have to be waged in Afghanistan.”
ACORN Dispersing Resources to SEIU, other Liberal Groups, House Probe Finds
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/57886
Steve Kest, executive director of ACORN, right, and ACORN member Hugh Alleyne. (AP photo)
(CNSNews.com) – ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, is in the process of changing its name and has already transferred many of its resources to several other left-wing advocacy and political groups, according to a report released Tuesday by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
While the Justice Department has said that federal housing funds should continue to flow to ACORN, several congressmen, in a joint hearing of the House Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee, said they want a special prosecutor to investigate the group's use of taxpayer dollars.
Several weeks back, Congress included in the Continuing Appropriations Resolution for 2010 a provision that bars federal funds to ACORN and its “affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations.”
President Obama signed the resolution. But the Justice Department’s opinion issued last week cleared the way for funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to continue going to the organization, a group that many House Republicans have called a “criminal enterprise.”
Former ACORN employee-turned-whistleblower Anita Moncrief told the House panel of eight Republicans and no Democrats that the organization continually got federal block grants but did not use the grants for helping the poor as promised. Rather, ACORN “used the money to fund the political machine,” Moncrief said.
“ACORN makes money off the poor,” Moncrief said. “Poverty is big business for ACORN.”
Attorney General Eric Holder. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
CNSNews.com could not reach an ACORN spokesman on Tuesday for comment after attempts by phone and e-mail. But ACORN spokesmen in the past have said that any illegal or unethical incidents were isolated and that the organization is dedicated to helping the poor.
However, the House Oversight report claimed otherwise, saying, “ACORN’s own training manual reflects a business model in which money is taken from poor people and then funneled into partisan political efforts.”
“ACORN is currently in the process of changing its name and has already transferred resources to several chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and possibly Data and Field Services, the Working Families Party, Change to Win and the Council for Unity,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee.
The federal government has awarded at least $53 million to ACORN and its affiliates since 1994, according to an analysis by the House Republican staff.
One of the group’s most recent scandals involved a hidden-camera video showing ACORN workers apparently giving tax advice to a purported pimp and prostitute who said they planned to open a business involving underage girls.
These incidents, repeated at several ACORN offices, drew rebuke from Republicans and from the White House.
Because of those hidden-camera reports, the U.S. Census Bureau terminated its partnership with ACORN for the 2010 census. Also, the Internal Revenue Service removed ACORN from its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.
Earlier this year, the state of Nevada indicted ACORN after investigating the group’s alleged voter registration fraud. ACORN is also under investigation in California, Missouri, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Representative Lamar Smith (R-Texas)
Part of the probable cause for the probe in Louisiana came from the House Oversight staff report, said David Caldwell, deputy attorney general in Louisiana. He appealed to federal and other state law enforcement agencies for a coordinated effort.
“The purpose of our appearance today is to ask for assistance in coordinating any state and federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies who may be interested in benefiting from a shared investigative effort,” Caldwell told the House panel.
“The task of properly investigating almost 400 entities and over 600 bank accounts is massive to say the least,” said Caldwell. “Estimates we received from an outside computer forensic firm to do even a targeted forensic review of the hard drives and servers obtained indicate a cost of around $3.5 million. This cost does not include the necessary forensic accounting review of the 600-plus ACORN affiliated accounts.”
Still, the Justice Department is not doing a nationwide investigation as it should, said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. He also thinks the close ties between ACORN and President Obama, going back to Obama’s days as a community organizer in Chicago, create a conflict.
“The president’s close ties with ACORN, which date back over 15 years, are of additional concern,” Smith said. “President Obama previously served as ACORN’s lawyer, participated in ACORN training programs in Chicago, and sat on the boards of two organizations that provided funding to ACORN’s Chicago chapter.”
“The president’s ties to ACORN taint any conclusion that the Justice Department may reach with regard to whether or not to investigate and prosecute ACORN employees,” Smith said. “That’s why I request that the attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into ACORN.”
Is this the challenger who will eject Pelosi?
'People in this district are getting just as sick of her as everyone else'
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=117614
John Dennis
A libertarian conservative has declared his plans to "take out Nancy Pelosi" in the 2010 election to stop her from devastating the nation.
John Dennis, a businessman and real-estate investor in California's 8th Congressional District, told WND, "I've decided to run because the statist Pelosi agenda will destroy America."
Rep. Pelosi's district covers most of San Francisco, and Democrats have held the seat since 1949. Since first winning the House seat in a 1987 special election, Pelosi, 69, has breezed to re-election 10 times. President Obama received 85 percent of the vote there in 2008.
For just $29.95 you can send an individualized notice to every member of Congress in the form of a "pink slip."
Looking ahead to 2010
What gives Dennis hope for 2010?
"I think we can build a very sturdy case for taking out Pelosi," he said. "I find most of the people on the left find that she's not their cup of tea. She engages in a lot of class warfare, and there are a lot of folks on the left who are disaffected by her and disaffected with her. We're going to leverage as many of those relationships as we possibly can."
California's 8th Congressional District
Dennis, son of a longshoreman and a city hall clerk, grew up in a Jersey City, N.J., housing project. He graduated from Fordham University with a degree in business administration and co-founded Humanscale, one of the world's top 10 design firms, specializing in office ergonomics. He later created Foundation Real Estate, a San Francisco-based investment company. In 2008, he served as Phonebank and Get Out the Vote director for Ron Paul's presidential campaign in San Francisco.
"I became actively involved in politics about two years ago," he said. "I was frustrated with everything – even my own party and the lost opportunities we had to put a cap on spending and the growth of government. I was looking for good candidates to support, and I just finally decided to be a candidate myself."
Dennis is founder of the San Francisco chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus, board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of California and has served as an alternate on the San Francisco Republican Central Committee.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House
Asked whether he has the Republican Party behind his campaign, he replied, "I don't have the nomination yet, although I have some major endorsements. I don't suspect that's going to be an issue."
Dennis expressed deep concern over the "looming dollar crisis," the nation's "mountain of debt" and what he considers the federal government's unconstitutional expansion of power.
He blasted Pelosi's "disastrous" legislative agenda advocating government-run health care, cap and trade and the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, a bill that would give the president "emergency" control of the Internet.
"Everything that Nancy Pelosi has her hands on is anti-liberty and pro-government power," Dennis said, with a laugh. "I defy anybody to show me a speech or a press release that says she's going to somehow protect their liberties and reduce the size of government."
Energy and the free market
Dennis said he would like to see improved relations with foreign countries and that the federal government's only energy policy should be its foreign policy.
He noted that Sen. John McCain said during his 2008 presidential campaign that Americans are buying oil from "countries that don't like us very much."
"It stopped me in my tracks and made me think, what if they did like us?" Dennis asked. "How would we feel about that?"
He continued, "The first step is to see what we can do to improve our relationships so we feel more comfortable with other countries as trading partners for our energy needs. The second thing to do is let the free market do its job. If we allow the market to do what it does best, much better than any managed economy could ever do, then, ultimately, we'll find the appropriate sources for our energy needs that'll make everybody feel comfortable and drive our economy."
Cap and trade: 'Almost laughable'
Dennis blasted Pelosi's support for the cap-and-trade bill, calling the legislation a "poor excuse for a new tax."
"I'm very leery of the government," he said. "When I read the Constitution, I see our founders writing the document when they are very concerned about the potential abuse of power from the federal government. Every time I hear of a new scheme like cap and trade, it makes me ask, where's the constitutional authorization to do this? Of course, it's not there."
He called the science behind the climate legislation "almost laughable."
"The people who are advocating this say it will maybe reduce global temperatures by half of a percent by the year 2100," he said. "Good luck getting me behind that legislation."
Education credits for homeschoolers
Dennis proposes education credits for children enrolled in private, parochial and home schools.
"It's very simple," he said. "Make a tax credit available to those folks and give them the option to take their money and go wherever they want."
He said he lived in Holland for a brief time and noticed the region had a strong education system in which the students speak English by the age of 9 and are well-versed in history and mathematics.
"What I found was, instead of the money going to the schools, the money followed the kids," he said. "That's the objective – to actually have the money go to the kids as opposed to being stuck in schools or some bureaucratic organization like the Department of Education, which may be the single biggest waste of money in the federal government."
As for the Department of Education, Dennis proposes abandoning it altogether – and immediately.
"Of all the departments, the only one I would cut immediately and not gradually unwind is the Department of Education," he said. "I challenge anybody to tell me how their life will be affected if the Department of Education didn't exist tomorrow."
Dennis said he firmly believes education is an issue between parents and teachers.
"It's as local of a decision as you can possibly imagine, and that's where it's going to be most effective," he said. "To think that adding a layer of bureaucracy is somehow going to improve the educational prospects of students is beyond naive and almost infantile."
Health reform
As for health reform, Dennis said he does not support Pelosi's agenda of big-goevrnment interference. He recalled a time when he was sick and his doctor made a house call, but he said that level of care doesn't exist today.
"Back then, I would guess that virtually none or maybe 1 cent of every health-care dollar went through the federal government," he said. "But today, conservatively, 60 cents of every health-care dollar goes through government."
Since the 1960s, Dennis said the nation has experienced an explosion in health-care costs.
"I wonder if there's a relationship there," he said. "The government got involved in a particular industry, and the costs went up."
He said free markets must be able to solve these problems, and government-run health care would seriously worsen an already overregulated system.
"People think their health care is expensive when the government is involved with 60 cents on the dollar? Wait until it's involved in 80, 90 or 100 cents on the dollar and see how expensive it becomes," he said.
Dennis proposes making all out-of-pocket medical expenses and insurance premiums tax deductible and using the Constitution's commerce clause to enable all insurers to compete anywhere in the United States.
Illegal immigration
While Pelosi has called enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, "un-American," Dennis proposes an end to birthright citizenship, amnesty and government services for illegal immigrants.
"People come here and use services mandated by the federal government that help bankrupt states and put hospitals out of business in border towns," he said. "To the extent that those illegal immigrants weaken the dollar and usher in the demise of the dollar, I am very opposed to illegal immigration."
As a businessman, Dennis said he knows it is often difficult to find laborers during periods of economic growth. He also said he doesn't believe the U.S. border will ever be 100 percent "air tight."
"They can fly in and stay, run across the borders. That's a reality, and I don't think we can ever stop that completely," he said. "We can try like heck, and we can stem the flow, but it's always going to happen."
So Dennis proposes a temporary worker program that would require immigrants to identify themselves and register for work before entering the United States. The program would create incentives, such as a fast track to citizenship or partial Social Security benefits, for those who comply. He said harsh penalties would apply to those who don't participate in the program and to the employers who illegally hire them.
"I don't think it's the silver bullet," he said, "but I think it's something that can contribute to a much more orderly process of immigration."
Proud gun owner
Dennis, a member of the National Rifle Association, or NRA, said he is a proud gun owner and strong advocate of property rights.
"The Second Amendment is fine by me," he said, "and I don't even need a Second Amendment to tell me that I have the right to defend myself."
As for mandatory waiting periods before an individual may purchase a firearm, he said, "I find it remarkable that private citizens who are non-felons can't buy guns and have them at their disposal. It's staggering to me."
Clearly flustered at the mere idea of gun control, he added, "If I keep talking about this topic, I'll probably get upset.
"You have the right to your person, and you have the right to your property," he said. "Without the right to defend your property and your person, then those rights are meaningless. That just goes without saying."
Social Security and nation's 'mountain of debt'
Referring to Social Security as a "pyramid scheme," Dennis advocates offering citizens a chance to opt-out of the system. He also proposes abolishing various departments to save billions, shore up Social Security and pay down the national debt.
"I want to go back and look at every portion of the budget and say, 'Is this constitutional, or isn't it?'" he said. "If it isn't, let's cut it and manage to somehow create a surplus as opposed to a deficit. Let's start paying down the debt that we owe."
He said the nation cannot ignore a $12.5 trillion mountain of debt that doesn't include unfunded liabilities.
"We have no choice, we've got to do this," he said. "Either that, or we're going to debase the dollar and have a back-door default on what we owe. That will create chaos in the world."
As for Social Security and Medicare, he said he believes the nation still owes the benefits it has promised.
"But I think we have to find a way to make those private and get the government out of the retirement and health-care business permanently," he said. "We have to begin a reasonable, responsible march toward that end. I don't think governments are particularly good at creating wealth and managing wealth, and I really don't think they're great at managing money."
States rights and Senate elections
Dennis said he is a "big fan" of the 10th Amendment state sovereignty movement and advocates a complete repeal of the 17th Amendment, the 1913 constitutional amendment that calls for direct election of senators.
As one example of why he believes senators should be elected by their state legislatures, as originally outlined in the Constitution, Dennis recalled taxpayer reaction to proposed bailouts earlier this year.
"People are mad. People are upset," Rep. Mark Udall said on "Meet the Press." "My calls are mixed between people who say 'No' and people who say 'Hell no.'"
Dennis noted, "People didn't want those bailouts. They were vocal enough about it to their representatives."
However, he explained, the Senate passed the unpopular bill first because, with a re-election rate in the high 90 percent range, senators' races and positions are more secure.
"It provided political coverage so it could go back into the House, and the members who were on the fence could say, 'Hey, look, the Senate passed it. They seemed to think it was the right thing to do, so I voted for it,'" Dennis explained.
He said voters should imagine a situation in which those senators were elected by state legislatures and were forced to go back to those legislatures to defend their votes.
"There would be a lot less job security for those guys and a lot more transparency and responsiveness if the state legislatures were putting the senators in Washington as opposed to the people," he said.
'Time to bring troops home'
Soldiers enter house in Tameem, Iraq, in search of suspects linked to shooting on U.S. forces (photo: Tech Sgt. Jeremy Lock, U.S. Army)
While Dennis acknowledges that the U.S. military is "unwinding" in Iraq with goals to be out by 2011, he said, "I would just as soon see that time frame sped up so we can just get the guys out."
He expressed concern about a civil war in Iraq that may "suck the troops back in."
"That would be a heartbreaking thing to see happen," he said. "I'd like to see them unwind, and, if not, we can at least keep our fingers crossed that nothing happens to draw them back in."
Dennis called the Afghanistan war "particularly troublesome."
"Osama bin Laden and his whole crew, they deserve to be caught," he said. "We had the right to go in after them. But, frankly, we got who we got and we missed the big cheese. He's gone now, and the one place on Earth where he's not going to be coming back is the place where we are."
While he said the troops have performed "magnificently," he called the current mission muddled.
"They have done their job, and it's time to bring them home."
Ending capital gains and income taxes
From a liberty perspective, Dennis said he gets defensive when he discusses the income tax.
"Think about everything it implies," he said. "It implies that the government owns things that you work for. It owns you, and it lets you keep a portion of it."
When he suggests ending the income tax and cutting government spending, Dennis said some people ask him, "How are we going to finance our government?"
"My first question is, 'Why don't you want your money back?!'" he said, laughing. "Why are you making excuses for people taking away your money to spend it the way they see fit? Why don't you work to keep your money and spend it the way you see fit?"
While the income tax generates about $1.1 trillion, Dennis said the government must cut spending and send that money back to taxpayers.
"Just imagine if we put $1.1 trillion back into consumers' pockets," he said. "Think about that and what that would mean."
Abolishing the Federal Reserve
Dennis suggests the Fed meet its fate.
"Central banking is an interesting thing," he said. "It's a key plank in the Communist Manifesto. It's another form of central economic planning, just like they did in Moscow during the Soviet Union era. Look what it's wrought."
He said allowing a central group to set interest rates – which he said they invariably set too low – will send the wrong economic signals to entrepreneurs.
"By doing that, they start doing projects that will never be completed because the resources just don't exist for it," he said. "You might have mild business cycles, but with a central bank you have these gigantic boom and bust cycles."
On the bust side, he said the Fed's response is to ease monetary policy when it should raise interest rates so people begin to save again. When people save, those savings go into investment, leading to production and spurred growth.
Federal Reserve
"When you discourage saving by lowering interest rates, you can never start the kind of growth that you need," he explained.
Dennis said he's concerned the U.S. will face the same stagflation environment Japan has been suffering through for the last 20 years.
"Think about another 17, 18 or 20 years of what we just went through from here on out," he said. "That's the prospect that a Federal Reserve central bank can create, and that's one of the things I'd like to see abolished."
Homosexual 'marriage' and abortion
As for same-sex "marriage," Dennis said, "I don't think the government has any business being involved in marriage in the first place. As much as I don't have anything against gays by any stretch of the imagination – as someone seeking federal office – I can't find a way to support gay marriage."
Asked whether he believes the issue should be left to the states, he replied, "I'm running for federal office, and the states can decide what they want to do. But it's definitely not a federal issue."
Dennis also said he's strongly opposed to federal funding of abortion.
"I'm strongly opposed to the federal government getting involved in stem-cell research as well," he said. "That's just not its business. It shouldn't have anything to do with it. It's a really complex issue, and it's not in the Constitution that we should be subsidizing any kind of research, especially stem cell."
John Dennis, wife Heather and daughter Devan (photo: John Dennis)
'Sick' of Nancy Pelosi
While he expressed numerous concerns about Pelosi's legislative agenda, Dennis was most outspoken about the House speaker's reported use of Air Force jets to fly back and forth between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
"Here's a woman who is a class warrior, constantly going after the rich, and yet she lives a very elitist lifestyle herself," he said. "In fact, her elitist lifestyle is subsidized by us."
Air Force C-32
Since Sept. 11, Pelosi has received what the Air Force refers to as "shuttle service," allegedly due to concerns for security. In recent years, Pelosi has reportedly requested a C-32 plane for her travels. The aircraft is a luxurious version of the Boeing 757-200 commercial intercontinental airliner and costs $22,000 an hour to operate.
Dennis said some estimates reach as high as $25 to $30 million to fly her all over the country.
"That's the sort of thing that infuriates people," he said. "You know why? We're borrowing one-third of that."
He added, "She could buy out every first-class cabin in every flight and save the country a fortune. But she's got to use military jets."
Dennis said he often asks people, "What's the one thing about Pelosi that bothers you most?"
"A lot of times, truth be told, people respond, 'Everything,'" he said. "Aside from that response, people say her holier-than-thou attitude, her above-it-all unresponsiveness."
Pelosi professes to have sentiments of being for the people, Dennis said, but her actions speak volumes.
"Her lifestyle doesn't support any of those positions," he said. "I think people in this district are getting just as sick of her as everyone else."
"The e-mail Bag"
Somebody’s watching you..
http://tasneemrocks.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/somebodys-watching-you/
A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said,
'Jesus knows you're here.'
He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze.
When he heard nothing more , after a bit, he shook his head and continued.
Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard
'Jesus is watching you.'
Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice.
Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.
'Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot.
'Yep', the parrot confessed, then squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you that he is watching you.'
The burglar relaxed. 'Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?'
'Moses,' replied the bird.
'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?'
'The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'
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