Friday, February 27, 2009

Obama's Stimulus to Reduce Tithes and Offerings

A big Hat tip from www.HughHewitt.com about the Stimulus as a method to destroy the mother's milk of money that goes to churches, synagogues, and charities!!

Friday, February 27, 2009
Soaking The Rich Means Crippling Churches, Charities, and Home ValuesPosted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:57 AM
President Obama's budget is built on a massive tax hike on upper income families. From the Washington Post:
Individuals who earn more than $200,000 a year and families who make more than $250,000 would also lose the tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, meaning their top income tax rate would rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent, their investment income would be taxed at 20 percent rather than 15 percent and their deductions for mortgage interest, state and local taxes and charitable contributions would be reduced.The attack on the mortgage interest rate deduction and the charitable deduction are simply hidden ways to increase the top rate beyond that of the Clinton years, but by using the deception, the Obama plan would devastate churches and charities that depend on the generosity of their highest income donors while also slamming the value of homes by reducing their value to borrowers.I have argued with the FairTax advocates for years that their plan was a dangerous one because it struck at these two deductions which undergird so much of the American safety net and Americans' wealth. If President Obama wants to raise rates above 39.6 percent, he should do so openly and honestly, and without doing enormous damage to the not-for-profit and housing sectors.Democrats who vote for this scheme are voting against every church in the land and against the equity every American has in their home. Radical plans like this one make academics happy and voters angry. Very angry.The GOP must immediately make clear that it will do all it can to defend churches and homeowners against this assault, and they must identify the 50 Democrats must vulnerable in 2010 and begin a very detailed web-based watch on what they say and do on these issues. It will be easy to explain why the plan assaults churches, synagogues, veterans' organizations, childrens's hospitals, private schools and not-for-profits of all sorts, and only slightly more difficult to explain that destroying part of the appeal of a home purchase hammers the entire housing market --from entry level to mansion-- but these arguments have to be made again and again.It is a radical plan, and no amount of smoke will cover that fact. Today's Wall Street Journal editorial quickly covers the enormous, permanent expanision of government the budget proposes. President Obama did not push these radical ideas on the campaign trail, nor did any Democrat I am aware of. The Republicans and moderate Democrats have to stand up and refuse this invitation to fundamentally alter the American economy and its deeply embedded values of giving and home ownership.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Statehood for D.C.?

A very interesting take on the constitutionality of this topic from www.myheritage.org.


Statehood for the District of Columbia?
February 25, 2009 By David Talbot

Lawmakers seem determined to grant the District of Columbia representation in the House of Representatives — in spite of the oath they took to defend the Constitution.
Writing in The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, legal expert Lee Casey explains that the Constitution is explicit: representation is limited to the states. And Heritage experts Joesph Postell and Nathaniel Ward take on activists for representation, explaining that "those who value the true interests of the District should defend the existing arrangement, which promotes the collective responsibility of Congress to preserve the welfare of the federal city."
As they make clear, D.C. is not exactly being neglected:
Lawmakers continue to spare little expense on the nation's capital. Congress today funds more than 20 percent of the city's operating budget and provides substantial funding for local amenities like the construction and operation of its subway system. In fact, in 2005, the city received more than $5.50 in federal spending for every dollar paid in federal taxes, more than double what any state receives. Even on the budgetary level, the District is given special treatment: The city receives federal funds under a separate appropriations bill instead of the general appropriations measure passed by Congress.
Meanwhile, Heritage blogger Rory Cooper weighs in on the prospects for a constitutional amendment to resolve this question, which involves fundamental American principles like consent of the governed.

Labor Secretary - A Bad Pick for American Workers!

Here is an interesting analysis from www.fairus.org on what this pick means for American workers.

Foe of Immigration Enforcement Named as Secretary of Labor
For American workers, 2008 was a disastrous year. The U.S. economy lost nearly 2 million jobs during the last four months alone, and most economists see things getting worse before they get better.
Unfortunately, President Obama’s choice to head the Department of Labor gives millions of unemployed and underemployed American workers little hope of gaining access to the 8 million jobs estimated to be held by illegal aliens or raising wages depressed by cheap foreign labor. In appointing Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Secretary of Labor, the president chose an implacable foe of immigration enforcement generally, and specifically enforcement in the workplace. Coupled with the selection of Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, there is little reason to expect either department to vigorously enforce laws against businesses that employ illegal aliens.
During her time in Congress, Solis supported or co-sponsored just about every effort to grant amnesty to illegal aliens and expand the number of foreign guest workers in the U.S. While a member of the California Legislature, Solis fought to provide taxpayer supported benefits and services to illegal aliens and to allow them to obtain driver’s licenses.
In Congress, Rep. Solis has co-sponsored or supported numerous bills that would have harmed American workers, including:
The AgJOBs amnesty, which would have granted green cards to virtually every illegal alien employed in some agriculture-related industry.
The 2007 STRIVE Act, which would have granted amnesty to most illegal aliens in the U.S. In addition, the bill would have allowed an additional 400,000 to 600,000 foreign guest workers to enter the U.S. labor force each year.
The DREAM Act, which would have granted green cards to illegal aliens who entered the country before age 16, and would have granted them subsidized college tuition benefits.
The Department of Labor can play a significant role in preventing the employment of illegal aliens. It is the department’s responsibility to promote “the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment…[and] helping employers find workers.”
While President Obama has embarked on an ambitious jobs creation program to deal with the unemployment crisis, millions of existing jobs could be made available to American workers by enforcing laws against employing illegal aliens. Given Secretary Solis’s long history of siding with illegal aliens, if she is confirmed by the Senate in that position, it will require strong direction from the White House to ensure that the Labor Department fulfills its stated mission.
FAIR will be reaching out to Congress and the new administration to stress the added importance, in this time of economic crisis, of vigorous enforcement against employers who rob American workers of job opportunities and seek to suppress wages. The first test of the Obama administration’s and the Congress’s commitment to protecting American jobs is likely to come in early March when the E-Verify program will need to be reauthorized. (See FAIR op-ed, page 7.)
February 2009
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageNavigator/issues/solis_named_labor_secretary

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Jim Tedisco - NY20

Here is an article about an interesting candidate in upstate New York. As you know, officials from outside your own state and district can have an effect on the laws passed that you are subject to. I would encourage you to visit his website here http://www.jimtedisco.com/news/

About Jim
James Nicholas Tedisco (R,C,I-Schenectady-Saratoga) was first elected to the Assembly in 1982. On November 29, 2005, he was unanimously elected Minority Leader by his colleagues. Throughout his tenure, Tedisco has been a leader and outspoken advocate for reforming state government and the budget process. He has authored numerous bills designed to make government more accountable to the people and bring about an on-time budget.
Tedisco graduated from Bishop Gibbons High School in 1968, received his B.A. in Psychology from Union College and a graduate degree in Special Education from the College of Saint Rose. While at Union College, he received numerous athletic awards for his talent on the basketball court, as well as other collegiate and civic awards for academics, character, community service and conduct.
From 1973-1982, Tedisco worked in the field of education, first as a guidance counselor, varsity basketball coach and athletic director at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, then as a special education teacher, resource room instructor and varsity basketball coach at Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar. Tedisco entered public service in 1977 when, at the age of 27, he was elected the youngest Schenectady City Councilman at that time. He was re-elected by an overwhelming majority four years later.

In 1982, Tedisco won a four-way primary to be the candidate to succeed long-time Assemblyman Clark Wemple, who had retired. He then went on to win the General Election. As a Freshman Legislator, Tedisco was named Ranking Minority Member of the Children and Families Committee. As a result of his work on behalf of missing children, he was appointed Chairman of the Assembly Minority Task Force on Missing Children. Following years of research, legislation and statewide public hearings on the subject, he authored a book in 1996 entitled, “Missing Children: A psychological approach to understanding the causes and consequences of stranger and non-stranger abduction of children.”

Married to Mary Song of Saratoga Springs, Tedisco is also active in many civic organizations. He is a member of the Sons of Italy, Schenectady Lodge 321; Principessa Elena Society in Saratoga Springs; Ballston Spa Elks Lodge No. 2619; Schenectady Rotary Club; Union College Alumni Association; Schenectady Big Brothers/Big Sisters; Friends of the Schenectady Museum; Center for HOPE; serves as Honorary Chairman of the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation; and a member of the Sonrise Bible Church.

In addition to receiving numerous community and civic awards and honors, including being named the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winner, and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) 25th Anniversary Award, Tedisco was elected in 2002 as one of the first members of the Union College Athletic Hall of Fame.
http://www.jimtedisco.com/donate/

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

John Kyl, Geert Wilders, and Fitna

A big hat tip from www.jihadwatch.org

Kyl under pressure for hosting Fitna
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025005.php
Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) is coming under pressure from stealth jihad groups and their allies and dupes for his plan to host a showing of the film Fitna in The Capitol.

Please contact Senator Kyl and declare your support for his courageous decision to show this honest and accurate but politically incorrect film. He needs expressions of support more than ever today!

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
730 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4521
Fax: (202) 224-2207
www.kyl.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Wilders to screen Fitna at the Capitol!
Stand up for free speech -- and the truth

Three cheers for John Kyl!
"US lawmaker hosts anti-Islamic Dutch lawmaker," by Associated Press, February 23:
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Jon Kyl is hosting a film screening at the Capitol building on Thursday for a far-right Dutch lawmaker who claims that Islam inspires terrorism.
Yes, Geert Wilders originated that idea! Osama bin Laden never thought of it!
Kyl is sponsoring the event for Geert Wilders, who was denied entry to London earlier this month because British authorities said he posed a threat to public order.
Wilders’ 15-minute film juxtaposes verses from the Quran with images of violence by Muslims. Wilders has called the Quran a "fascist book" and said it should be banned.
Kyl agreed to facilitate the event because "all too often, people who have the courage to point out the dangers of militant Islamists find themselves vilified and endangered," said spokesman Ryan Patmintra.
Thursday’s event was being sponsored by the International Free Press Society, headed by Danish activist Lars Hedegaard, and the Center for Security Policy, a think tank in Washington led by Republican Frank Gaffney....

More on the IFPS, of which I am a member of the Board of Advisors, here
-- and its joining Geert Wilders to call for an International First Amendment here.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Obama, Police, and Revolution: Welcome to Oklahoma!!!

Here is a very interesting article from www.badeagle.com, an interesting American Indian's site.


Obama Police Tyranny Begins
by David Yeagley · February 20, 2009 · 14 Comments ·

An Oklahoma City man was accosted by police for a sign he had on the back of his SUV: “Abort Obama, Not the Unborn.” The police pulled him over, confiscated his sign, reported him to the Secret Service, and he was was interrogated in his home by the SS. They did a “walk through” in his home, to determine whether he was a “racist.”

Click here to see video http://www.badeagle.com/2009/02/20/obama-police-tyranny-begins/

This happened February 12, over a week ago. It just made The Oklahoman yesterday, the 19th.
Chip Harrison, a normal, upstanding Oklahoma City man, was an embarrassingly innocent, simple Christian man. Here is his own testimony of what happened.
Chip Harrison, harassed by OKC police and the Secret Service.
The police claimed in their report that the Secret Service “could construe this [Harrison's sign] as a threat against President Obama.” So, what else might local police decide might be considered a threat to Obama in the eyes of the SS? So, the local city police may now act as the arm of the SS? The primary informants?
Oklahoma City Police spokesman Steve McCool said that the sign was taken in error, and Oklahoma City residents should not be worried that their First Amendment rights will be violated. This is called damage control. Ah, but the damage is done. The precedent it set.

Click here to see video http://www.badeagle.com/2009/02/20/obama-police-tyranny-begins/

OKC Police spokesman McCool’s damage control response.
It is abundantly clear that enforcement paranoia has set in. Make that tyranny. Don’t criticize Obama. The feds will come after you. That’s the pace now.
But who knows, maybe it was just Oklahoma Democrat police, who are smarting because the state legislature has turned Republican. Maybe it’s a case of personal frustration. Police are only human. Who knows what the Oklahoma police will do when the state declares independence from federal abuse?! Will the police go after Oklahoma House Representative Charles Key for his state sovereignty bill (HJR 1003), or Oklahoma State Senator Randy Brogdon for his state sovereignty bills SJR 10 and SJR 11? Will any disagreement with the nation-trasher in the White House be considered “a threat”? Senator Brogdon is on a literal campaign for liberty these days. Heroes are always marked men. Oklahoma will soon be a marked state.
But law enforcement is already liberalized. Law must have enforcement. If the laws are liberal, the enforcement mind set will be liberal. It is a cultural mood. Authority is becoming Communist before our eyes. Tyranny has begun.
People are already talking about “revolution” against it. Rush Limbaugh is using the word. CNBC financial reporter Rick Santelli lauded the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Talk is in the air, on the air, and on the net. (BadEagle.com has spoken of it for several years.)

Click here to see video http://www.badeagle.com/2009/02/20/obama-police-tyranny-begins/

Rick Santellis “Rant of the Year.”
While the people become more and more angry, the police force is growing in authority and equipment–by means of the Obama Bail Out. These things can always be discussed either way, but, the reputation of the police force has changed. It is definitely liberal, definitely raced-based–designed to “protect” the Negro and to denigrate the white (and other non-Negro groups, like the American Indian). The popular impression of the police is one of unreliability, and at this juncture in our cultural deconstruction, fear. The police will target the innocent–in the name of political correctness. In the name of “liberal” Democrat tyranny. That’s just the way it is now. The police enforce the law. If the law is liberal, the police are liberal.

Chip Harrison can vouch for that. It happened in Oklahoma City. Does anyone in the country know about this yet? Criticize Obama, and the SS will come to your door, and “walk through” your house. The dye is cast. The precedent is set. A “black” cloud is settling over the country. White liberals have created it. At this point, they’re Democrat and Republican.
When angry people outnumber the police, then we’ll see the National Guard on our streets. At that point, there will be effectively no American Constitution at all.

Obama's Tests

A big Hat Tip to Bill O'Reilly

Testing Obama
Bill O'Reilly
Saturday, February 21, 2009

Joseph Biden is a prophet. On Oct. 19, 2008, the now-vice president said: "Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy."

Forget about six months, the foreign affairs insults arrived within three weeks of Obama's presidency. And with the economy dominating the news cycle, very little attention has been paid.
Let's take them one by one:
By far the most important insult to the Obama administration came this week. Shortly after U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke visited Pakistan, the country surrendered to the Taliban and al-Qaida, putting the entire world in danger.
In a shocking abdication of responsibility, the Pakistani government now says the Taliban has the authority to impose sharia law in the northern part of the country. This means the Pakistani government is allowing these terrorists to do whatever they want, and that will include continuing their attacks on American forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
This is huge. And President Obama would be wise to respond quickly and punish the Pakistani government. They have thrown in with terrorists and killers, and the United States cannot accept that, nor should any responsible country.
Insult two: The government of Kyrgyzstan is closing the U.S. air base on its soil. That air base supplies NATO forces in Afghanistan. Again, this is huge.
The reason the base is being closed is because Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin doesn't like America assisting nations like Poland and Ukraine in their defense strategies. So Putin, whom the Kyrgyzstan government fears, has succeeded in hurting NATO's war against the Taliban. Nice.
The third insult comes from Iran. No surprise here. While the mullahs yak about talking with Obama, they continue to fast-track nuclear weapons. A report by the Institute for Science and International Security says that Iran could have weapons-grade nuclear material this year. So there is now an urgency to the situation, and Obama must respond quickly or the nuke genie will be out of the bottle.
Finally, insult four: Crazy Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea, celebrated his 67th birthday this week by threatening a nuclear missile test.

Again, because of the terrible economy, many Americans have no idea all of this stuff is going on, but there is no question that Obama is being tested and that villains are watching closely to see what he will do.
In that speech last October, Biden also told Americans to "gird your loins." I'm not exactly sure what that means vis-a-vis foreign policy, but it doesn't sound good. I also don't know whether President Obama is "girding" right now, but he had better be doing something.

Friday, February 20, 2009

ACORN Trains Foreclosure Squatters

A Big Hat Tip from our friends at Sweetness and Light about not paying for your house!!

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/acorn-trains-foreclosure-protesters

ACORN Trains Citizens To Protest Home Foreclosures
by Derek Valcourt
February 19, 2009
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ― A community organization breaks into a foreclosed home in what they are calling an act of civil disobedience.
The group wants to train homeowners facing eviction on peaceful ways they can remain in their homes…
Near Patterson Park, the padlock on the door and the sign in the window tell part of Donna Hanks foreclosure story.
"The mortgage went up $300 in one month," said Hanks, former homeowner.
She says the bank refused to modify her loan and foreclosed, kicking her out of the house in September.
The community group ACORN calls Hanks a victim of predatory lending.
"This is our house now," said Louis Beverly, ACORN.
And on Thursday afternoon, they literally broke the foreclosure padlock right off the front door and then broke into the house, letting Hanks back in for the first time in months.
"We are actually trespassing, and so this is a way of civil disobedience to try to stay in the house," said Beverly. "Legally it’s wrong, but homesteading is the only means that she has left to stay in her house. And we feel as though this is the right thing to do at this particular time to save this family."
Inside, there’s spray paint on the walls and evidence that someone has possibly been remodeling.
The group says it was staging similar demonstrations in six other cities nationwide while urging a moratorium on foreclosures. They want that until President Obama’s stimulus plan begins on March 4. The plan is designed to help threatened homeowners.
"As you all can see, Donna is reclaiming her home, and she’s putting a lock on her door at this time," said Beverly.
But that padlock won’t stay there for long.
Not that there is no mention of any criminal charges being brought anywhere in this report.
We are just supposed to accept this as ‘civil disobedience,” and political speech. (Meanwhile, real political speech is being outlawed.)
Luckily still more billions of dollars are on their way to these ‘community organizers’ so they can increase their noble work.
Welcome to the third world.

Related Articles:
How Many Did ACORN Trick Into Loans?
Obama Unveils $75B Housing Bailout
GOP Balks At Stimulus Dollars For ACORN
Obama, ACORN/Project Vote And The SEIU
Behold ACORN's 'Communist Manifesto'
Obama: Folks Tricked Into Buying Homes
ACORN: Bailout Failure Is An Opportunity
ACORN Got Millions In Last 'Housing Bill'
Check Out ACORN's 'Homebuyers Program'

Anti-Semitism in Dubai Tennis Match: The Wall Street Journal pulls sponsorship!!!!

A big hat tip to www.redstate.com and the Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal Gives Action to Principles
Posted by Warner Todd Huston (Profile)
Friday, February 20th

Kudos must go to the Wall Street Journal for standing by its principles. Haaretz reports that the WSJ pulled its sponsorship this week for a tennis tournament in Dubai after that Islamic state ignorantly denied a visa for an Israeli player scheduled to play there.
Dubai refused the visa for Israeli player Shahar Peer because of the supposed anger of Muslim tennis fans over the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza. United Arab Emirates officials claimed they feared riots if they allowed Peer to attend.
Once the decision was made known, however, the WSJ reacted well in a statement released on Wednesday.
“The Wall Street Journal’s editorial philosophy is free markets and free people, and this action runs counter to the Journal’s editorial direction.”
One can only admire a member of the Old Media that stands by a policy of free markets, democracy, fairness and general civility like that.

Be sure and subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. A publication of such principles should be supported.


***UPDATE***
from http://www.debbieschlussel.com

More Tennis World Apartheid: Israeli Gets Visa to Dubai Islamic Minstrel Show; Israel to Play Empty Arena Davis Cup

By Debbie Schlussel

While the women's portion of Dubai Tennis Championships continues to go on minus those undesirable Jewesses, there's more similar behavior afoot in the pro tennis world.
Israeli Andy Ram has gotten news that he will, indeed, get a visa to play doubles in Dubai in next week's mens portion of the same tournament. But, as I've noted before, even if he gets a visa to play, so what? That doesn't change the fact that no other Jewish Israelis can enter the country and that Dubai continues to boycott Israel, along with dozens of other Muslim states. This is an Islamic minstrel show. See. Look at the Jew. We let him play. (I can imagine this being said in the voice of "Family Guy"'s Stewie Griffin.)
Ram also played at the Qatar Open, where Jewish Israelis were never allowed before and haven't been since. But he was showcased along with Shahar Pe'er by the Al-Jazeera owner Qataris because they want to host a Summer Olympics. And we know why Dubai will give Ram the visa. They don't like the bad publicity they've gotten this week, publicity that will all die down by next week, after which their "No Jewish Israelis Allowed" policy will remain in place and unquestioned.
Israeli Doubles Player Andy Ram
Then, there's the Davis Cup, next month. Organizers say that Sweden and Israel will play each other in their first-round Davis Cup matches to an empty arena, March 6-8, because of security concerns. The matches take place in Malmo, Sweden, which has already been the site of anti-Semitic violence on a Jewish synagogue--it was firebombed!--and where anti-Semitic, anti-Israel demonstrations are planned during the matches.
The Swedes said they couldn't provide adequate security at the event. And I'm betting they got word or suspect that one of their many "moderate Muslim" residents was going to execute a terrorist attack. They don't cancel these things or exclude audiences over nothing. Europe is now at the whim at will of the wildings of Islam. Not a clash of civilizations. A loss of civilization. Because Sweden and these other countries let these savages invade their countries. Now, they are reaping the rewards.
Davis Cup
Yup, the Nazis of Europe have been reborn from their sleep. And they are called . . . Muslims. Religion of Peace, baby!
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2009/02/more_tennis_wor.html

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Stratfor: Mexico's Third War

I hope all is going well. I wanted to send you this article which describes how things are going in Mexico. A lot of people in the U.S. either live near or know someone who lives near the border so this article should be relevant. I hope you find this interesting.


Mexico: The Third War

February 18, 2009
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart


Mexico has pretty much always been a rough-and-tumble place. In recent years, however, the security environment has deteriorated rapidly, and parts of the country have become incredibly violent. It is now common to see military weaponry such as fragmentation grenades and assault rifles used almost daily in attacks.
In fact, just last week we noted two separate strings of grenade attacks directed against police in Durango and Michoacan states. In the Michoacan incident, police in Uruapan and Lazaro Cardenas were targeted by three grenade attacks during a 12-hour period. Then on Feb. 17, a major firefight occurred just across the border from the United States in Reynosa, when Mexican authorities attempted to apprehend several armed men seen riding in a vehicle. The men fled to a nearby residence and engaged the pursuing police with gunfire, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). After the incident, in which five cartel gunmen were killed and several gunmen, cops, soldiers and civilians were wounded, aut horities recovered a 60 mm mortar, five RPG rounds and two fragmentation grenades.
Make no mistake, considering the military weapons now being used in Mexico and the number of deaths involved, the country is in the middle of a war. In fact, there are actually three concurrent wars being waged in Mexico involving the Mexican drug cartels.
The first is the battle being waged among the various Mexican drug cartels seeking control over lucrative smuggling corridors, called plazas. One such battleground is Ciudad Juarez, which provides access to the Interstate 10, Interstate 20 and Interstate 25 corridors inside the United States.
The second battle is being fought between the various cartels and the Mexican government forces who are seeking to interrupt smuggling operations, curb violence and bring the cartel members to justice.
Then there is a third war being waged in Mexico, though because of its nature it is a bit more subdued. It does not get the same degree of international media attention generated by the running gun battles and grenade and RPG attacks. However, it is no less real, and in many ways it is more dangerous to innocent civilians (as well as foreign tourists and business travelers) than the pitched battles between the cartels and the Mexican government. This third war is the war being waged on the Mexican population by criminals who may or may not be involved with the cartels. Unlike the other battles, where cartel members or government forces are the primary targets and civilians are only killed as collateral damage, on this battlefront, civilians are squarely in the crosshairs.
The Criminal Front
There are many different shapes and sizes of criminal gangs in Mexico. While many of them are in some way related to the drug cartels, others have various types of connections to law enforcement — indeed, some criminal groups are composed of active and retired cops. These various types of criminal gangs target civilians in a number of ways, including, robbery, burglary, carjacking, extortion, fraud and counterfeiting. But of all the crimes committed by these gangs, perhaps the one that creates the most widespread psychological and emotional damage is kidnapping, which also is one of the most underreported crimes. There is no accurate figure for the number of kidnappings that occur in Mexico each year. All of the data regarding kidnapping is based on partial crime statistics and anecdotal accounts and, in the end, can produce only best-guess estimates. Despite this lack of hard data, however, there is little doubt — based even on the low end of these estimates & #8212; that Mexico has become the kidnapping capital of the world.
One of the difficult things about studying kidnapping in Mexico is that the crime not only is widespread, affecting almost every corner of the country, but also is executed by a wide range of actors who possess varying levels of professionalism — and very different motives. At one end of the spectrum are the high-end kidnapping gangs that abduct high-net-worth individuals and demand ransoms in the millions of dollars. Such groups employ teams of operatives who carry out specialized tasks such as collecting intelligence, conducting surveillance, snatching the target, negotiating with the victim’s family and establishing and guarding the safe houses.
At the other end of the spectrum are gangs that roam the streets and randomly kidnap targets of opportunity. These gangs are generally less professional than the high-end gangs and often will hold a victim for only a short time. In many instances, these groups hold the victim just long enough to use the victim’s ATM card to drain his or her checking account, or to receive a small ransom of perhaps several hundred or a few thousand dollars from the family. This type of opportunistic kidnapping is often referred to as an “express kidnapping”. Sometimes express kidnapping victims are held in the trunk of a car for the duration of their ordeal, which can sometimes last for days if the victim has a large amount in a checking account and a small daily ATM withdrawal limit. Other times, if an express kidnapping gang dis covers it has grabbed a high-value target by accident, the gang will hold the victim longer and demand a much higher ransom. Occasionally, these express kidnapping groups will even “sell” a high-value victim to a more professional kidnapping gang.
Between these extremes there is a wide range of groups that fall somewhere in the middle. These are the groups that might target a bank vice president or branch manager rather than the bank’s CEO, or that might kidnap the owner of a restaurant or other small business rather than a wealthy industrialist. The presence of such a broad spectrum of kidnapping groups ensures that almost no segment of the population is immune from the kidnapping threat. In recent years, the sheer magnitude of the threat in Mexico and the fear it generates has led to a crime called virtual kidnapping. In a virtual kidnapping, the victim is not really kidnapped. Instead, the criminals seek to convince a target’s family that a kidnapping has occurred, and then use threats and psychological pressure to force the family to pay a quick ransom. Although virtua l kidnapping has been around for several years, unwitting families continue to fall for the scam, which is a source of easy money. Some virtual kidnappings have even been conducted by criminals using telephones inside prisons.
As noted above, the motives for kidnapping vary. Many of the kidnappings that occur in Mexico are not conducted for ransom. Often the drug cartels will kidnap members of rival gangs or government officials in order to torture and execute them. This torture is conducted to extract information, intimidate rivals and, apparently in some cases, just to have a little fun. The bodies of such victims are frequently found beheaded or otherwise mutilated. Other times, cartel gunmen will kidnap drug dealers who are tardy in payments or who refuse to pay the “tax” required to operate in the cartel’s area of control.
Of course, cartel gunmen do not kidnap only their rivals or cops. As the cartel wars have heated up, and as drug revenues have dropped due to interference from rival cartels or the government, many cartels have resorted to kidnapping for ransom to supplement their cash flow. Perhaps the most widely known group that is engaging in this is the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO), also known as the Tijuana Cartel. The AFO has been reduced to a shadow of its former self, its smuggling operations dramatically impacted by the efforts of the U.S. and Mexican governments, as well as by attacks from other cartels and from an internal power struggle. Because of a steep decrease in smuggling revenues, the group has turned to kidnapping and extortion in order to raise the funds necessary to keep itself alive and to return to prominence as a smuggl ing organization.
In the Line of Fire
There is very little chance the Mexican government will be able to establish integrity in its law enforcement agencies, or bring law and order to large portions of the country, any time soon. Official corruption and ineptitude are endemic in Mexico, which means that Mexican citizens and visiting foreigners will have to face the threat of kidnapping for the foreseeable future. We believe that for civilians and visiting foreigners, the threat of kidnapping exceeds the threat of being hit by a stray bullet from a cartel firefight. Indeed, things are deteriorating so badly that even professional kidnapping negotiators, once seen as the key to a guaranteed payout, are now being kidnapped themselves. In an even more incredible twist of irony, anti-kidnapping authorities are being abducted and executed.
This environment — and the concerns it has sparked — has provided huge financial opportunities for the private security industry in Mexico. Armored car sales have gone through the roof, as have the number of uniformed guards and executive protection personnel. In fact, the demand for personnel is so acute that security companies are scrambling to find candidates. Such a scramble presents a host of obvious problems, ranging from lack of qualifications to insufficient vetting. In addition to old-fashioned security services, new security-technology companies are also cashing in on the environment of fear, but even high-tech tracking devices can have significant drawbacks and shortcomings.
For many people, armored cars and armed bodyguards can provide a false sense of security, and technology can become a deadly crutch that promotes complacency and actually increases vulnerability. Physical security measures are not enough. The presence of armed bodyguards — or armed guards combined with armored vehicles — does not provide absolute security. This is especially true in Mexico, where large teams of gunmen regularly conduct crimes using military ordnance. Frankly, there are very few executive protection details in the world that have the training and armament to withstand an assault by dozens of attackers armed with assault rifles and RPGs. Private security guards are frequently overwhelmed by Mexican crimi nals and either killed or forced to flee for their own safety. As we noted in May 2008 after the assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez, acting head of the Mexican Federal Police and the highest-ranking federal cop in Mexico, physical security measures must be supplemented by situational awareness, countersurveillance and protective intelligence.
Criminals look for and exploit vulnerabilities. Their chances for success increase greatly if they are allowed to conduct surveillance at will and are given the opportunity to thoroughly assess the protective security program. We have seen several cases in Mexico in which the criminals even chose to attack despite security measures. In such cases, criminals attack with adequate resources to overcome existing security. For example, if there are protective agents, the attackers will plan to neutralize them first. If there is an armored vehicle, they will find ways to defeat the armor or grab the target when he or she is outside the vehicle. Because of this, criminals must not be allowed to conduct surveillance at will.
Like many crimes, kidnapping is a process. There are certain steps that must be taken to conduct a kidnapping and certain times during the process when those executing it are vulnerable to detection. While these steps may be condensed and accomplished quite quickly in an ad hoc express kidnapping, they are nonetheless followed. In fact, because of the particular steps involved in conducting a kidnapping, the process is not unlike that followed to execute a terrorist attack. The common steps are target selection, planning, deployment, attack, escape and exploitation.
Like the perpetrators of a terrorist attack, those conducting a kidnapping are most vulnerable to detection when they are conducting surveillance — before they are ready to deploy and conduct their attack. As we’ve noted several times in past analyses, one of the secrets of countersurveillance is that most criminals are not very good at conducting surveillance. The primary reason they succeed is that no one is looking for them.
Of course, kidnappers are also very obvious once they launch their attack, pull their weapons and perhaps even begin to shoot. By this time, however, it might very well be too late to escape their attack. They will have selected their attack site and employed the forces they believe they need to complete the operation. While the kidnappers could botch their operation and the target could escape unscathed, it is simply not practical to pin one’s hopes on that possibility. It is clearly better to spot the kidnappers early and avoid their trap before it is sprung and the guns come out.
We have seen many instances of people in Mexico with armed security being kidnapped, and we believe we will likely see more cases of this in the coming months. This trend is due not only to the presence of highly armed and aggressive criminals and the low quality of some security personnel, but also to people placing their trust solely in reactive physical security. Ignoring the very real value of critical, proactive measures such as situational awareness, countersurveillance and protective intelligence can be a fatal mistake.
Tell Stratfor What You Think

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Barack's lack of Transparency!

A big hat tip from http://www.newsbusters.org/ to an article from http://www.politico.com/ about transparency!!


The White House's missing documents
Josh Gerstein Tue Feb 17

In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire.
Despite the intense scrutiny a president gets just after the inauguration, Obama managed to take all these actions with nary a mention from the White House press corps.
The moves escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site.
They came to light only because the official paperwork was transmitted to the Federal Register, a dense daily compendium of regulatory actions and other formal notices prepared by the National Archives. They were published there several days after the fact.
A Politico review of Federal Register issuances since Obama took office found three executive orders, one presidential memorandum, one presidential notice, and one proclamation that went unannounced by the White House.

Two of Obama's actions on regulatory reform were spotted by bloggers, lobbying groups and trade publications after they emerged in the Federal Register.
There was no apparent rhyme or reason to the omissions. A proclamation Obama issued on February 2 for African-American History Month was e-mailed to the press and posted on the White House web site. But another presidential proclamation the same day for American Heart Month slipped by.
Such notices were routinely released by the White House press office during prior administrations — making their omission all the more unusual given Obama’s oft-repeated pledges of openness.
Most of the documents were posted to the White House web site Tuesday night, after Politico inquired about their absence. “It was a simple oversight,” a spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said.
One order Obama signed Feb. 5 expanded the National Economic Council to 25 people by adding the Secretary of Health and Human Services; Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; senior adviser Valerie Jarrett; “climate czar” Carol Browner and two other officials.
Another order the president signed the same day added two slots to the Domestic Policy Council, bringing it to a total of 26 people. Some slots were reassigned. The chief technology officer was among those added to the panel, while “AIDS Policy Coordinator” was removed. It was unclear if that was a substantive change, simply reflected plans to keep the AIDS czar post at the State Department, or perhaps both.

Another Obama executive order, signed January 30, canceled two Bush-era executive orders relating to regulatory review. The White House did release chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s memo halting regulations in the works at federal agencies, but didn’t release another Obama memo setting a 100-day deadline for agency heads to recommend a new regulatory review process. The memo indicates that Obama may want to do some things differently on the regulatory front than the last Democrat in the White House, Bill Clinton.
Also waylaid was a notice Obama signed February 4 extending sanctions against some nationals of Cote D’Ivoire because of what he termed “the massacre of large numbers of civilians, widespread human rights abuses, significant political violence and unrest, and attacks against international peacekeeping forces leading to fatalities.”

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Ramos & Compean Released!!!!

This is a follow up to the previous article here http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/ramos-campean-are-going-home.html

Ex-Border Patrol agents convicted in shooting released from prison
By Ramon Bracamontes and Gustavo Reveles Acosta / El Paso Times
Posted: 02/17/2009 09:33:32 AM MST

EL PASO - Former U.S. border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were released from prison Tuesday, but will remain in a community confinement program until March 20, U.S. Bureau of Prison officials said.
The two agents had been in prison since 2007. President George W. Bush commuted their sentences before he left office.
Traci Billingsley, bureau of prisons spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the two men are out of prison and under the "supervision of the community corrections office for a period of community confinement."
Community confinement means the sentenced person has to spend the last phrase of their sentence either in a halfway house or in home confinement.
Ramos arrived in El Paso on a flight that arrived about 12:45 p.m. Tuesday. He was greeted by family and well-wishers and made no comment to the media. Compean arrived in El Paso on a flight that arrived about 3:50 p.m. Tuesday and also declined to speak to themedia.
Dallas criminal defense lawyer Ed Mason, who represented Compean in his appeal, said Tuesday morning that he had not yet talked to Compean but was awaiting his phone call.
"I think he might be on his way to El Paso," Mason said in a telephone interview. "We haven't been able to talk to him yet."
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, didn't know that Ramos and Compean had been released until the media told him during a news conference at Aoy Elementary Tuesday morning.
"This is great news for both Ramos and Compean, and obviously for their families. I'm happy for them," he said. "Had I had my druthers they should have been commuted with Scooter Libby. Certainly, if he deserved it, they deserved it."
Billingsley said she could not release where the two agents would spend the last month of their sentence, but it is possible they could spend it at home.
Compean had been in the Elkton Federal Prison in Elkton, Ohio. Ramos was at the Phoenix Federal Prison.
The two former agents were convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and then trying to cover it up. Compean was sentenced to 12 years and Ramos to 11 years in prison. Both agents were found guilty of civil-rights violations and discharging a firearm during the act of a crime, an offense that includes a mandatory 10-year sentence.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11721824

Muslim Honor Killing


Big Hat Tip from http://sweetness-light.com/ about a Muslim honor killing.

See also
http://www.thepoliticalcesspool.org/jamesedwards/2009/02/13/muzzammil-hassan-update/
and
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.2543/pub_detail.asp


Prominent Orchard Park man charged with beheading his wife
http://www.buffalonews.com/494/story/578644.html
By Gene Warner

Related Stories
Possibility of 'honor killing' mulled in Orchard Park slaying


Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.
Police identified the victim as Aasiya Z. Hassan, 37. Detectives have charged her husband, Muzzammil Hassan, 44, with second-degree murder.
"He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead," Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.
Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.
Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light.
The killing apparently occurred some time late Thursday afternoon. Detectives still are looking for the murder weapon.
"Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible," Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III said today.
Authorities say Aasiya Hassan recently had filed for divorce from her husband.
"She had an order of protection that had him out of the home as of Friday the 6th [of February]," Benz said.
Muzzammil Hassan was arraigned before Village Justice Deborah Chimes and sent to the Erie County Holding Center.
gwarner@buffnews.com

ADULT , not embroyonic, Stem Cell Usage!!!

Big hat tip to www.lifenews.com

Adult Stem Cell Research Reverses Effects of Parkinson's Disease in Human Trial


Email RSS Print
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Scientists have published a paper in a medical journal describing the results of the world's first clinical trial using autologous neural stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. A leading bioethics watchdog says the results show more money should be put behind adult stem cells.
UCLA researchers published their results in February issue of the Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal which outlines the long term results of the trial.
"We have documented the first successful adult neural stem cell transplantation to reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease and demonstrated the long term safety and therapeutic effects of this approach," says lead author Dr. Michel Levesque.
The paper describes how Levesque's team was able to isolate patient-derived neural stem cells, multiply them in vitro and ultimately differentiate them to produce mature neurons before they are reintroduced into the brain.
The team was able to inject the adult stem cells without the need for immunosuppressants. Unlike embryonic stem cells, adult stem cell injections don't cause a patient's immune system to reject the cells.
The adult stem cells were highly beneficial for the patient involved in the study.
"Of particular note are the striking results this study yielded -- for the five years following the procedure the patient's motor scales improved by over 80% for at least 36 months," Levesque wrote.
He said he hoped a larger clinical trial would replicate the findings.
Dr. David Prentice, a former biology professor at Indiana State University who is now a fellow with the Family Research Council, tells LifeNews.com that the results of the study are wonderful news for patients.
"This evidence had been presented previously, but we now have the peer-reviewed scientific evidence for the effectiveness of adult stem cells in alleviating Parkinson's symptoms," he said. "While the data show that the technique needs refinement, this patient went for several years with little to no symptoms of his disease, even with only half of the brain treated with his own adult stem cells."
Prentice says the results continue to prove that adult stem cells outpace their embryonic counterparts.
"People need to take notice that it is not embryonic stem cells that provide promise of treatments in the future, but rather it is adult stem cells that are already providing safe and effective therapies for patients now, without the problems of rejection or tumors," Prentice explains.
"We need to pour our resources, especially taxpayer dollars, into adult stem cell research to foster more and better treatments and put the patients first," he told LifeNews.com.
Levesque is a principal investigator for NeuroGeneration, a biotechnology company, and is affiliated with the UCLA School of Medicine and the Brain Research Institute.

Buzz up!

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
Daily Pro-Life News Report
Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research.
Sign up here.

Twice-Weekly Pro-Life News Report
Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research.
Sign up here.

Friday, February 13, 2009

***BUMPED & UPDATED***Arlen Specter Leading the Charge Toward Republican Capitulation

The first Part talks about doing everything possible to make the stimulus fail. The next part says, well if it's going to pass, here is what I want. If you want to do anything, here's how!!

A very important Tip from www.Redstate.com Seriously consider it!!!

Arlen Specter Leading the Charge Toward Republican Capitulation
Posted by Leon H. Wolf
We are hearing two things from reliable sources. The first is that Arlen Specter is the ringleader of a group of four Republican Senators (including Snowe, Collins, and Voinovich), that have struck a compromise with the Democrats to vote for a “stimulus” bill that is *even bigger than the ridiculous pork-fest that passed the House*.The second is that Pat Toomey’s office is being deluged with calls urging him to run once again as a primary opponent to Arlen Specter, since Bush will not be around to pull Specter out of the fire again.Time is running short right now. It is anticipated that the Democrats will soon offer the new, more pork-laden “stimulus” up as an amendment shortly and pass the whole thing and send it back to the house. Collins just got re-elected and therefore isn’t subject to much pressure. Voinovich is retiring and is also hopeless. Specter, on the other hand, has to face the voters in less than two years. There is one thing left to do. GET ON THE HORN TO ARLEN SPECTER’S OFFICE NOW.202-224-4254Tell him that a vote for this ridiculous pork bill is unacceptable. Let him know specifically what you will be willing to do to make sure that he is not re-elected if he continues to lead this ridiculous charge.

For other Senators, especially from Maine and Ohio, Read this:

Call them again
Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)
Call your Senator again today at 202-224-3121.Tell him not to vote for the stimulus plan.If your Senator is a Republican — even if in name only — remind him that when this passes, the GOP will not get credit anyway. And when it passes, it will hurt more than help. Your Senator shouldn’t want to be connected with it.The Democrats don’t need any help to own this thing. Let’s not given them any.

**For further reading look here http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/three-senators-analyse-stimulus.html


On the other hand...

Defend E-Verify!!!
www.fairus.org

There is still time to make a difference! Last night FAIR heard from sources on the Hill that Leaders in the House and Senate had deliberately stripped both E-Verify amendments from the Stimulus Bill (H.R.1). This means that the nearly trillion dollar spending bill will likely create as many as 300,000 jobs for illegal aliens using taxpayer money. It is outrageous that Congressional leaders would deliberately remove provisions that would protect American workers while unemployment is skyrocketing.
However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has just announced that the vote on the Stimulus Bill will be delayed until at least tomorrow (Friday). This gives us one more day to call House and Senate Leadership and demand that they include both E-Verify amendments in the Stimulus Bill. These amendments do the following: (1) reauthorize E-Verify for five years, and (2) require all businesses and contractors receiving taxpayer-funded stimulus money to use E-Verify.

THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE! Please call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and tell them:
Going after employers who hire illegal workers is the key to returning legitimacy to our immigration system.
E-Verify, a voluntary program, is one of the most effective tools employers have to help ensure their workforce is legal. This program is set to expire March 6th and must be reauthorized immediately as part of the Stimulus Bill.
It is completely outrageous and a betrayal of the American worker for Congress to pass a $1 trillion jobs bill without requiring employers who receive taxpayer money to use E-Verify. Congress must require that all recipients of stimulus money use E-Verify.

Please call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at 202.225.4965 and 202.225.0100
Please call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at 202.224.3542 and 202.224.5556
State Numbers for Harry Reid: 775.686.5750 or 775.882.7343 or 702.388.5020
District Number for Nancy Pelosi: 415.556.4862
Remember, there is still time to make a difference if you act NOW.

To learn more about E-Verify, read FAIR's talking points.
Contact Your Respresentativesand Senator
Learn More About FAIR
Join or Donate to FAIR

Choose one or the other, or call Republicans to do the first and Democrats to do the second. You know your district!!

***Bumped & Updated*** Nuclear Jihadist & Proliferator - A.Q. Khan - Released from Pakistan's Jail


This Book that you should read http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/144547830&tab=holdings?loc=79912 Nuclear Jihadist by Douglas Frantsz,and Catherine Collins.


talks about this person who Pakistan has released as mentioned here from http://www.jihadwatch.org/ who helped the spread of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Lybia, Pakistan, and North Korea


February 7, 2009"Pakistan may be giving Khan 'license to resume, perhaps directly, his past actions to aid, abet and profit from the spread of nuclear weapons.'"


Up to his old tricks again?There could be serious potential fallout from the freeing of A.Q. Khan, about which Robert wrote yesterday here.


But have no fear, since the "US wants assurance from Pak on AQ Khan's future role." That's the headline of this article from the Times of India, February 7:


WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama wants assurance from Islamabad that released Pakistani scientist Abdul Qader Khan, accused of leaking atomic secrets, isn't involved in any of the activity that led to his arrest. ( Watch )"Obviously the president and this government want assurances that Dr Khan is not engaged or involved in any of the activity that resulted in his house arrest earlier," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.A Pakistani court on Friday ordered the release of Khan, considered the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, who spent five years under house arrest after admitting selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya."We've seen the reports of the release but have yet to receive official word from the government," Gibbs said."Obviously, this president has made clear many times the great concern that he has about nuclear proliferation."


Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also expressed concern about the release of Khan. In the House, foreign affairs committee chairman Howard Berman suggested that US aid to Pakistan could suffer because of the development.Berman said he is "deeply concerned" that Pakistan may be giving Khan "license to resume, perhaps directly, his past actions to aid, abet and profit from the spread of nuclear weapons."Congress, Berman said, will take Pakistan's refusal to allow US officials to interview Khan "into account as we review and create legislation on US-Pakistan relations and the circumstances under which US assistance is provided to Islamabad."CIA spokesman George Little called Khan "one of the most dangerous proliferators in history" and praised the disruption of his smuggling network as "a genuine intelligence success."Earlier, state department spokesman Gordon Duguid describing Khan as "a serious proliferation risk" said in US view "it would be unfortunate if the court released him.""We believe AQ Khan remains a serious proliferation risk. The proliferation support that Khan and his associates provided to Iran and North Korea has had a harmful impact on international security, and will for years to come.""The Pakistanis are well aware of our position on this," he said. "This is not a new position."Asked if the US was anticipating Khan's release when it recently announced sanctions targeting him, the spokesman said: "The sanctions were announced to target the AQ Khan network, which we are actively pursuing and we are trying to roll up.""And the United States and its international partners have done a good job in tracking down this network. That should have no effect or influence on whether or not Mr. Khan is let out of his current status of detention," he said.
Posted by Raymond at February 7, 2009http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024753.php

Londonistan? No Geert Wilders in the U.K. !!!





First I would like to refer you to this book that you should get from your library or bookstore here http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/64595883&referer=brief_results






Next, see this relevant article that explains what is happening in London from http://www.jihadwatch.com/ . There is not even the opportunity for debate or discussion on this topic, but rather intimidation. This is very sad to see!!



Wilders detained, barred from entering Britain: "It is a very sad day, not only for me, but for freedom of speech"
He will be remembered also
The dhimmis turned Wilders away at Heathrow. "Dutch anti-Islam politician turned away from Britain," by Adrian Croft for Reuters, February 12 (thanks to all who sent this in):


LONDON (Reuters) - Right-wing Dutch legislator Geert Wilders, who is being prosecuted at home for anti-Islam remarks, said he was barred from entering Britain on Thursday after he landed in defiance of a government ban.
Wilders wanted to show his film "Fitna," which argues that the Koran incites violence, in the British parliament. But he was told by British authorities on Tuesday that he was being excluded. Despite that, he took a flight to London.
"I am in a detention centre at Heathrow ... I will not be allowed to enter the country. They will send me back within a few hours," Wilders told Reuters from the airport.
"It is a very sad day, not only for me, but for freedom of speech," he said.
The Home Office said he would not be allowed entry into the country, but gave no other details....
Wilders' exclusion caused a diplomatic spat between the Netherlands and Britain.
"It is highly regrettable that a Dutch MP (member of parliament) should be denied entry to another EU country," Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said in a statement on the Dutch Embassy's British web site.
It said Verhagen had telephoned David Miliband to "express his displeasure" that a Dutch member of parliament had been excluded.
Miliband defended the decision. "A hate-filled film designed to stir up religious and racial hatred in this country is contrary to our laws," he told the BBC....
Oh, yeah, Miliband? Not that there are any Islamic jihadists in the UK are trying to stir up religious hatred, eh wot? Oh no, only Wilders is doing that!
Of course, then there is this from Mark Steyn at The Corner (thanks to Pamela):
As to the judgment of the British Home Office, they have no problem admitting to the United Kingdom the likes of Dr Ijaz Mian, who preached as follows at the Ahl-e-Hadith mosque in Derby:
You cannot accept the rule of the kaffir. We have to rule ourselves and we have to rule the others... King, Queen, House of Commons: if you accept it, you are a part of it. If you don't accept it, you have to dismantle it. So you being a Muslim, you have to fix a target. From that White House to this Black House, we know we have to dismantle it. Muslims must grow in strength, then take over... You are in a situation in which you have to live like a state-within-a-state - until you take over.
And so it goes: Multiculti England will tolerate any intolerance, except the guy who points out the intolerance. We can't tolerate that.


Be sure to check out (and bookmark) Wilders's new English-language website.


Posted by Robert at February 12, 2009 Print this entry

Thursday, February 12, 2009

100 lashes for adultery if you are raped in Saudi Arabia!!!

Remember Jesus only received 39! Thanks www.jihadwatch.org!


Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for adultery
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/024798.php

The testimony of four male witnesses is the standard for establishing guilt in sexual offenses under Sharia law, per Qur'an 4:15, 24:4, 24:6, and 24:13.

Read it for yourself here http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020890.php

Four male Muslim witnesses who saw the act. The testimony of the woman involved is inadmissible. Therefore if those four male witnesses do not come forward and the victim becomes pregnant, her pregnancy becomes evidence that she has committed adultery.
This sentence is not something extreme. It's standard Islamic Sharia.
"Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for committing adultery," by Liz Hazelton for the Daily Mail, February 11 (thanks to Pamela):
A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.
The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.
He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.
She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.
According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah.
He ruled she had committed adultery - despite not even being married - and handed down a year's prison sentence, which she will serve in a prison just outside the city.
She is still pregnant and will be flogged once she has had the child.
Note the Daily Mail's dhimmitude:
The Saudi Arabian legal system practices a strict form of medieval law. Women have very few rights and are not even allowed to drive.
They are also banned from going out in public in the company of men other than male relatives.
This isn't "a strict form of medieval law." It isn't as if the Saudis plucked some twelfth century legal system out of the dustbin of history on a whim. This is Sharia. But the Daily Mail is apparently afraid to call it what it is.
Posted by Robert at February 11, 2009 6:45 AMPrint this entry

Welfare Moms & the Stimulus Bill

A big hat tip from Ann Coulter about how the stimulus bill will increase the amount of Welfare Moms!

Hello? GOPs? Your favorite wedge issue is coming back.
Shouldn't Republicans be making more of a fuss about the provision in the stimulus bill--both House and Senate versions, apparently--that spends $2-3 billion to the states for "temporary welfare payments"? I initially thought Charles Hurt of the N.Y. Post was being alarmist when he suggested the provision would "drastically undo two decades of welfare reforms." The essence of the 1996 reform was ending the individual legal entitlement to AFDC (cash aid to single mothers, basically) and replacing it with state-run programs that, in theory, require recipients to enter the work force. The stimulus bill doesn't rip up that basic deal, as I understand it. But it is part of a larger liberal campaign** to use the recession to weaken work requirements and let millions of non-working single mothers back on the welfare rolls. Specifically, it would apparently reward states that expand their welfare caseloads--even if the increase is only the product of loosened work requirements rather than a worsening local economy.
Nothing wrong with helping states avoid anti-stimulating cuts in a recession. Nothing wrong with targeting money to the poorest, who are most likely to spend it quickly. But why use the aid specifically to encourage expansion of welfare? This isn't "welfare" as only conservative Republicans would define it--i.e. any means-tested assistance. This is welfare as everyone would define it--cash assistance to able-bodied single mothers (or fathers) who may or may not be working, as in the old, despised AFDC program. Better to use the money (and more) to create public jobs*** for these would-be recipients if private sector jobs have dried up, even if that upsets municipal employee unions (which don't want welfare recipients doing jobs their members might do). Don't revive the old AFDC principle that if you have a child, you can count on the government to take care of you with cash aid even if you don't work.
At the very least the extra aid to the states shouldn't be triggered by caseload expansion. (You could, for example, give states aid in proportion to their local unemployment rate.)
You would think this would be a potential killer issue for the GOPs--"See, the Democrats already want to undo welfare reform"--and Obama, being sensitive to the charge, might quickly back down. It's easiest to whack the camel when only its nose is in the tent, no?
More tk, as I find out more. ...
**--See, for example, Peter Edelman's comments here.
***--These could either be "workfare" jobs (required once you are receiving welfare) or last-resort WPA-style jobs (which pay people for their work without ever signing them up for welfare). ...

Update: Thanks to Rob Neppell, here is the relevant provision in the House bill, and in the pre-compromise Senate bill. The Nelson/Collins compromise language does not seem to be available yet. ... Note that the extra federal money seems clearly tied to increased welfare caseloads, not increased unemployment or poverty or other measure of need:.
A State meets the requirement of this clause for a quarter if the average monthly assistance caseload of the State for the quarter exceeds the average monthly assistance caseload of the State for the corresponding quarter in the emergency fund base year of the State.
If a state somehow succeeds at placing would-be recipients in jobs, it's out of luck under this provision. To get the extra federal money, it has to get more people on welfare (though presumably it could count "workfare" participants if it happens to have a workfare program). ....2:52 P.M.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Compare: 19 Dead (Afghanistan) vs 21 Dead (Mexico)

Big hat tip to Hugh Hewitt for this!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
19 Dead v. 21 Dead
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt

An attack by Taliban rebels in Kabul leaves 19 dead, and is featured prominently by the New York Times. The "attacks in the capital underlined the severity of the challenge facing American policy-makers." No doubt about that. This sort of large scale assault conveys that the attacking force can menace the society for a long time to come.There was another attack reported in the Times yesterday. The episode got a paragraph, even though it left 21 dead, and occurred 80 miles from El Paso, in Mexico.

From the paragraph:
Soldiers in the state of Chihuahua chased and killed 14 armed men who had kidnapped nine people and killed six of them on Tuesday. One soldier was killed by the kidnappers, believed to be drug traffickers, bringing the death toll to 21. The gunmen took the hostages from the ranching town of Villa Ahumada and drove them to an isolated farm where six were killed, said Enrique Torres, a spokesman for the federal government’s antidrug operation in the state. A military convoy caught up with the kidnappers about 80 miles south of El Paso, killed seven of them and freed the remaining three hostages. Soldiers then pursued the other seven gunmen through heavy snow and killed them in a shootout.

Four other people were killed in Juarez as well, bringing the death toll near that part of the border to 25, according to the El Paso Times.

Frank Dowse of the the Agemus Group, an international security consulting firm based in San Diego, has been writing at American Sentry blog about Mexico's hidden civil war, but most of MSM isn't paying much attention to the rising instability on our doorstep.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

An analysis of the Stimulus Bill

If you have been following this in the news, this is a great article by John Hawkins which analysis the bill. Hat tip http://www.townhall.com/

The Top Six Problems With the Stimulus
John Hawkins
Tuesday, February 10, 2009

1) First of all, it's very debatable whether stimulus bills work at all. As Walter Williams has pointed out,
"In stimulus package language, if Congress taxes to hand out money, one person is stimulated at the expense of another, who pays the tax and is unstimulated. A visual representation of the stimulus package is: Imagine you see a person at work taking buckets of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping them into the shallow end in an attempt to make it deeper. You would deem him stupid. That scenario is equivalent to what Congress and the new President proposes for the economy." -- Walter Williams

2) According to the Wall Street Journal, there is very little actual "stimulus" in the stimulus bill,
"In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make 'dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy.' Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There's another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.
Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus."

3) Even if you set aside #1 and #2, a significant percentage of the spending in the stimulus bill doesn't occur for two years.
"Although the argument for quickly passing the $800-billion-plus stimulus bill now before Congress is that pumping money into the economy immediately will spur economic growth and create jobs, almost half of the new spending—as opposed to tax cuts—being proposed in the bill would not be spent until at least two years from now, according to an analysis published by the Congressional Budget Office."
How is spending that's not going to occur for two years supposed to stimulate the economy today and prevent those 500 million lost jobs per month that Nancy Pelosi told us about? If Barack Obama really believes what he says and thinks that, "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe," then why isn't the spending frontloaded into this bill?

4) Even the "non-partisan" Congressional Budget Office, which many Republicans consider to be tilted to the left, is saying that this bill is worse than doing nothing over the long-haul.
President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.
CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary.
How much sense does it make to push through a bill designed to "stimulate" our economy when we know that it will actually reduce economic growth?

5) Despite the initial claims that this bill would be "targeted, timely, and temporary," the Democrats have moved quite a few regular budget items into the stimulus package. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions says this was done in order to avoid the normal budgeting process and that the new baseline for these programs will be the amount that they were allocated in the last budget plus the amount the programs receive in the stimulus package.
In other words, the stimulus package seems likely to add hundreds of billions of dollars, every year going forward, to the budget deficit. No wonder Barack Obama is predicting that America will run "trillion-dollar deficits for years to come" under his "leadership."

6) The sheer cyclopean size of this stimulus package, which comes up to roughly 1.2 trillion dollars when you add in the interest over 10 years, is difficult for most people to comprehend. How big is it? As Mitch McConnell said,
"If you started spending the day that Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day, you still wouldn't have spent a trillion dollars."
Still having trouble wrapping your mind around it? Think of it like this: in today's dollars, the stimulus bill will cost more than the war in Korea and the war in Iraq -- combined! It will cost about the same amount as FDR's New Deal AND the war in Vietnam combined! It'll cost far more than the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, and putting a man on the moon -- combined!
Those were momentous events in our history. Going to the moon, rebuilding Europe, fighting wars -- meanwhile, ten years from now, we'll have very little to show from this stimulus plan other than a considerably larger national debt and slower economic growth. In other words, all hyperbole aside, this may very well be the single least effective, most wasteful, most costly piece of legislation in all of recorded human history.
http://townhall.com/Columnists/JohnHawkins/2009/02/10/the_top_six_problems_with_the_stimulus

A GOP win in blue liberal NY???

Here is an interesting article about a special election in upstate New York. Big hat tip to www.thenextright.com

Our First Win: Jim Tedisco

by ali February 10, 2009

Jim Tedisco in NY-20 is poised to win. He currently leads in polling and has a record of representing views contrary to that of big government.
I’m confident that our heavy hitters that have lined up in support of Tedisco, which include RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Guilliani, and Mitt Romney, will beat our opponent who happens to be a tax-cheating Venture Capitalist. His lineup includes the DCCC (1) (2), the Huffington Post, and Governor Paterson.
Like most Republicans, I want to hear about a candidate’s values, but I’m equally concerned with their ability to win. It is because of Tedisco’s ability as a candidate and the demographics of the 20th District that I have donated some of my time each week to assist the direction of New Media strategy for the campaign.
I know… they need improvements.
Today, in the spirit of the Party of Lincoln and just two days before his bicentennial, we launch an effort called: $20 for NY-20.
Equipping the grassroots with our case that will lead to victory and an energized rightroots, I believe we can surpass the 352 small donors who have contributed to our opponent through ActBlue. (accessed 2/10/09 12:06am)
Furthermore, this is the first win we’ll be able to take credit for in the 2010 cycle, sorry Saxby. This effort includes every aspect of the grassroots. Chairman Steele has officially brought in the RNC and asked State Parties to contribute $5,000 to this battle. College Republicans and online efforts like Rebuild the Party will organize, in an effort to turn online grunts into offline volunteers inside of the District. Bloggers will turn into activists and ask their readers to participate in a push to crowdsource this campaign.
This will be a New Media victory and one that can be taken to our Republican candidates across the country as a case study. We all have a stake in this.
Join in my friends and invest in this win.

$20 for NY-20.