op ed review 11/29

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/24/obama-shatters-spending-record-year-presidents/

The Rasmussen daily Presidential Tracking Poll now shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15. This is the lowest Approval Index rating yet measured for President Obama.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Newly released visitor logs show that more than two dozen of President Obama's top-tier campaign fundraisers visited the White House during his first nine months in office, providing more evidence of the administration's quiet effort to reward donors with VIP access including private briefings with presidential advisers. The records show that a Florida trial lawyer, a Hollywood music executive, and a Maryland health care executive scored meetings with the president.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/26/white-house-logs-point-to-donor-access/

The New York Times scales new heights of sycophancy in its report of the White House state dinner last night, which by their account was the most charming, imaginative, glittering – yet tasteful! – social event since Jackie Kennedy was Queen of Camelot.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100017885/sick-bags-at-the-ready-the-new-york-times-gushes-over-the-obamas-state-dinner/

Not that it matters politically because obviously she's a female Republican dunce and he's a male Democrat genius. But Sarah Palin's poll numbers are strengthening. And President Obama's are sliding. Guess what? They're about to meet in the 40s.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/not-that-it-matters-politically-because-shes-a-republican-idiot-and-hes-a-democrat-geniusbut-sarah-palins-poll-numbers-are-c.html

Unbelievable: Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four American security guards in Fallujah in 2004. The bodies of the security guards were burnt, hacked, hung for display on a bridge over the Euphrates river. But the SEALs are now facing criminal charges, for punching him in the face. “The military is sensitive to charges of detainee abuse highlighted in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576646,00.html

An SEIU union leader in Pennsylvania has resigned after he threatened legal action over an aspiring Eagle Scout's volunteer project. The resignations came one day after FoxNews.com reported that Balzano had said that the SEIU might file a grievance against the city of Allentown for allowing 17-year-old Kevin Anderson to voluntarily clear a walking trail in a local park, instead of paying union members to do the work.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576438,00.html

The SEIU members who beat up an African-American tea party protestor in St. Louis have been arrested.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/292B2FBC013D06A886257679007AA369?OpenDocument

Replacement of the Seattle 520 bridge: “officials could build 30 of the existing structures for the same amount they want to spend on its replacement…..but….it will not increase general-purpose lane capacity.”

http://washingtonpolicyblog.typepad.com/washington_policy_center_/2009/11/520-bridge.html

Here comes another tax: A House bill still being drafted aims to raise $150 billion each year on the sale and purchase of stocks, options, derivatives and futures.

http://thehill.com//homenews/house/69295-dems-push-wall-street-150b-stock-tax

Former Clinton advisor Dick Morris says that under-30 voters, once the most enthusiastic supporters of President Barack Obama’s far-reaching health care reform, are now its strongest opponents. National polling following a TV and Internet ad campaign in Arkansas, North Dakota and Maine found that 65 percent of the youngest voters are opposed to Obama’s healthcare initiative, compared to 55 percent opposition among senior citizens.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Youngest-voters-spurn-Obamacare-72880197.html

This won’t help Obamacare: “Howard Dean Admits Health Care Bill Costs Trillions, Delivers Little”

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/27/howard-dean-stop-obamacare-now/

You liked “Cash for Clunkers”? You’ll love “Cash for Appliances”. “California, which will receive $35 million, preliminarily estimated that it will create 350 jobs. This was based on the assumption that for every $92,000 expended, one job would be created.” ( Editor’s note: When’s the “Cash for Computers” program coming?)

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/27/get-ready-for-cash-for-appliances-sometime/

What conservatives are increasingly calling the “showcase Senate primary” of 2010 has already taken some early and very positive turns for their candidate. The latest Qunnipiac University poll among Florida Republicans showed Marco Rubio, former speaker of the state House and the conservative hopeful in the GOP Senate primary next year, gaining dramatically on the long-presumed front-runner, incumbent governor Charlie Crist.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34518

Rep. Patrick Kennedy says Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has barred him from receiving communion because of his support of abortion rights.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i4NIaJ-o5k6fIdytUkZ8lJiVLViQD9C4HI4O3

Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

Sen. Inhofe Says He Will Call for Investigation on "Climategate"

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2188feb3-802a-23ad-4de4-3fbc0a92e126&Issue_id

But Obama administration climate czar Carol Browner on Wednesday rejected the email evidence and says she still considers the science settled.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/26/browner-rejects-doctored-data-claims/?feat=home_headlines

Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in the unfolding scandal.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17183

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

A wealth of good columns this week:

Mark Alexander 11/25

You know the story of our First Thanksgiving, the three-day Pilgrim feast of 1621, after nearly half their company had died during the preceding winter. What you may not know, however, is that, in an effort to improve production at Plymouth Plantation, a collectivist policy was implemented in 1622 which almost destroyed the remainder of the settlement.

Plymouth Colony's governor, William Bradford, recorded in his history of the Colony that, to forestall another failed crop season, he would allot each family a plot of land, and mandate that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing, or any other means" must be forfeited to a common storehouse in order that "all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock." In theory, Bradford believed that this would be good for the Colony since each family would receive equal share of produce without regard to their contribution.

Unfortunately, then as now, collectivism works only in theory.

Bradford wrote that his plan failed because it undermined the incentive to produce, noting that it "was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort."

After the abysmal results in 1622, Bradford wrote that the Colony leaders contemplated "how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop." They then decided to trade their collectivist plan for a free market approach, and in 1623, Bradford wrote, "This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any other means the Governor or any other could use. ... Instead of famine now God gave them plenty and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many. ... Any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day." As a direct consequence, the Colony celebrated a much greater Day of Thanksgiving in 1623.

The conclusion was obvious. Given liberty and incentive to be industrious, their Colony thrived. Indeed, by 1624, production was so abundant that the Colony exported corn back to England. And for generations since, to the extent that men have been set at perfect liberty to establish free markets, to produce goods and services without having profits seized for redistribution, our nation has thrived.

http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2009/11/25/count-your-blessings/

Charles Krauthammer 11/26/09

The United States has the best health care in the world but, because of its inefficiencies, also the most expensive. The fundamental problem with the 2,074-page Senate health care bill (as with its 2,014-page House counterpart) is that it wildly compounds the complexity by adding hundreds of new provisions, regulations, mandates, committees and other arbitrary bureaucratic inventions.

Worse, they're packed into a monstrous package without any regard to each other. The only thing linking these changes — such as the 118 new boards, commissions and programs — is political expediency.

Each must be able to garner just enough votes to pass. There isn't even a pretense of a unifying vision or conceptual harmony. The result is an overregulated, overbureaucratized system of surpassing arbitrariness and inefficiency. Throw a dart at the Senate tome:

You'll find mandates with financial penalties — the amounts picked out of a hat.

You'll find insurance companies (who live and die by their actuarial skills) told exactly what weight to give risk factors, such as age. Currently insurance premiums for 20-somethings are about one-sixth the premiums for 60-somethings. The House bill dictates that the young shall now pay at minimum one-half; the Senate bill, one-third — numbers picked out of a hat.

You'll find sliding scales for health-insurance subsidies — randomly picked — that will radically raise marginal income-tax rates for middle-class recipients, among other crazy unintended consequences.

The bill is irredeemable. It should not only be defeated. It should be immolated, its ashes scattered over the Senate swimming pool. Then do health care the right way — one reform at a time, each simple and simplifying, aimed at reducing complexity, arbitrariness and inefficiency.

First, tort reform. This is money — the low-end estimate is about half a trillion per decade — wasted in two ways. Part is simply hemorrhaged into the legal system to benefit a few jackpot lawsuit winners and an army of extravagantly rich malpractice lawyers such as John Edwards.

The rest is wasted within the medical system in the millions of unnecessary tests, procedures and referrals undertaken solely to fend off lawsuits — resources wasted on patients who don't need them and which could be redirected to the uninsured who really do. In the 4,000-plus pages of the two bills, there is no tort reform.

Indeed, the House bill actually penalizes states that dare "limit attorneys' fees or impose caps on damages." Why? Because, as Howard Dean has openly admitted, Democrats don't want "to take on the trial lawyers."

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=513541

Another must read: David Horowitz: The Art of Political War for Tea Parties. “A movement without an effective strategy for defeating its opponents cannot succeed. Therefore it is important to reacquaint ourselves with the art of political war. While Democrats are morally bankrupt and clueless about policy – about what makes things work — they still win elections because they understand a simple fact: American politics is driven by the romance of the underdog, the story of the little guy who goes up against the system and triumphs in the end. It is a story about opportunity and fairness. To win the hearts and minds of the American voter, you have to tap the emotions the romance of the underdog evokes. Whoever does so has a winning edge…..at election time, it’s the political left and the Democratic Party who know how to wield it as a political weapon, and Republicans and conservatives generally who don’t. Of course the Tea Parties have changed all that. And that is another sign that we are in an extraordinary political moment. The Tea Parties draw on the heritage of America’s own revolution as an underdog nation and are the voice of the people, oppressed now by their own government which is out of control and determined to crush them.

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/26/the-art-of-political-war-for-tea-parties-by-david-horowitz/

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"By the time Obama came to office, KSM was ready to go before a military commission, plead guilty and be executed. It's Obama who blocked a process that would have yielded the swiftest and most certain justice. Indeed, the perfect justice. Whenever a jihadist volunteers for martyrdom, we should grant his wish. Instead, this one, the most murderous and unrepentant of all, gets to dance and declaim at the scene of his crime. [Attorney General Eric] Holder himself told The Washington Post that the coming New York trial will be 'the trial of the century.' The last such was the trial of O.J. Simpson."

-Charles Krauthammer

"Nidal Malik Hasan, was unimpressed by our diversity. In fact, it may have been diversity that set him off. Hasan and other Muslim extremists don't practice diversity. They mostly practice Sharia law, which backlashes against anyone who won't submit to their fundamentalist view of the world. ... Why do so many American leaders seem ashamed and apologetic about America? Holding to the view that America is unexceptional and that no idea, policy, belief, or practice is to be preferred over any other is not diversity. Rather, it is thin gruel; unappealing and unappetizing, and it robs us of our strength. Did diversity build and sustain America through world wars and economic challenges? No, it was a firm set of principles held by patriots of many races who were willing to pay the price in money and blood. These days, we seem to be increasingly confronted with people who are the political equivalent of shoplifters: they want the benefits without paying the price. ... I grow weary of having to tolerate everything when none of those making such demands seem willing to tolerate much of what I believe. Shouldn't diversity be a two-way street instead of a roadblock?"

-Cal Thomas

"The American people are hearing a call to arms -- not literal arms, for our system can self correct. But we have to out-organize and out-pressure the Left. They have called us 'the enemy' ever since Alinsky's little book radicalized the revolutionaries of the Boomer Left after the violent revolutionary groups were readily suppressed. When somebody really considers you their enemy you have no choice. Either you return the compliment, or you get overwhelmed by the new Chicago Mob in D.C. The Left has shown how to fight from a position of the minority and win. American conservatives by a recent poll have a two-to-one majority. They are constantly undermined by the political Left: Ridiculed in the media, demeaned in the schools and universities, out-maneuvered in politics at the state and national level by Leftists who are far nastier and far more ruthless than ordinary, decent Americans. This is a struggle for the country. We need to toughen up."

-James Lewis

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GLOBALONEY

“The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is The Obsession With 'Climate Change' Turning Out To Be The Most Costly Scientific Blunder In History?” by Christopher Booker Just imagine if we learned we were about to be landed with the biggest bill in the history of the world - simply on the say-so of a group of scientists. Would we not want to be absolutely sure that those scientists were 100 per cent dependable in what they were saying? Should we not then be extremely worried - and even very angry - if it emerged that those scientists had been conspiring among themselves to fiddle the evidence for what they were telling us? This is the extraordinary position in which we find ourselves thanks to news reported in Saturday's Daily Mail which has raised huge question marks over the reliability of the science behind the theory of global warming..”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1230113/The-devastating-book-debunks-climate-change.html

The impression left by (the emails) is that the climate-tracking game has been rigged from the start.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574559630382048494.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The New York Times is forced to concede that "the (email) documents will undoubtedly raise questions about the quality of research on some specific questions and the actions of some scientists." But apparently the paper's environmental blog, Dot Earth, is taking a pass on publishing any of the documents and emails that are now circulating. Andrew Revkin, the author of that blog, writes, The documents appear to have been acquired illegally and contain all manner of private information and statements that were never intended for the public eye, so they won’t be posted here. Of course, when the choice is between publishing classified information that might endanger the lives of U.S. troops in the field or intelligence programs vital to national security, that information is published without hesitation by the nation's paper of record. But in this case -- the documents were "never intended for the public eye," so the New York Times will take a pass.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/11/nytimes_we_wont_publish_statem.asp

Judge for yourself: Here’s a summary of the emails:

http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/20/climate-cuttings-33.html

Aren’t Nobel Prize winners supposed to be smart? Al Gore, on the Tonight Show told viewers, "….the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees…" Actually the temperature at the earth's core is about 5,000 degrees Celsius....If the temperature anywhere inside the earth was 'several million degrees,' we'd be a star.

http://www.examiner.com/x-14766-Charleston-Ron-Paul-Examiner~y2009m11d19-Al-Gore-turns-up-the-heat

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BOOKS

“Why Obama’s Government Takeover of Health Care Will Be a Disaster,” by David Grazer. If Barack Obama has his way, the American health care system is headed for a train wreck. In this vital expose, Dr. David Gratzer reveals how a government takeover by Washington will put a massive new bureaucracy between doctors and patients, create rationing, and kill the spirit of innovation that has made American high tech medicine a world leader in the treatment of cancer and other diseases. Dr. Gratzer, a first-hand witness of the failures of Canada’s healthcare system, shows why socialized medicine will make America sick.

http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/obamahealthcare/

Syndicated conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg, who authored the No. 1 best-seller Liberal Fascism, has made the leap into the big leagues of right-wing punditry. His second book, tentatively titled The Tyranny of Clichés, has just been sold for $1 million, according to publishing sources.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20091122/SUB/911229998

Sarah Palin appears well on her way to becoming a million-selling author. "Going Rogue" sold 700,000 copies — a number that includes pre-orders — in its first week of release, according to a publishing official close to the former Alaska governor.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlxDCO3o2Lipkwnit2WjvF0TCa5gD9C5KEL00

The news media's mad dash to highlight the inflammatory passages of Sarah Palin's new book largely misses the point. Many Americans see her as a vehicle for their anger and disgust at Washington, and the Palin phenomenon is part of a larger trend of turning against the Establishment across the board. There are many signs of voter resentment. And the result could be a tide of hostility that will turn Washington on its head in next year's midterm elections and maybe in 2012. "The American people have gone shopping, and they have purchased all the ingredients necessary for a political upheaval," says pollster Frank Luntz, author of What Americans Really Want . . . Really. "The question is: Are they going to cook the stew?"

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/obama/2009/11/25/trouble-is-brewing-for-obama-democrats-in-2010.html

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LEFTIST WATCH

"Climate change" and "health care" are different ends of the same stick: They're both all-purpose pretexts for regulating every aspect of your life. Don't take my word for it - listen to the (new EU President) “2009 is also the first year of global governance….” Did you get that memo? And, if you disagree, who do you call? Who do you vote out of office if you want a change in "global governance"? Previewing Copenhagen, global warm-monger Tim Flannery is entirely upfront about the end-game: “We think of them as being concerned with some sort of environmental treaty. That is far from the case... They deal with every aspect of our life and they will influence every aspect of our life, our economy, our society…”

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Mzc1MTkzNDc3NWE0ZDc2NzljOTZjZjU4YTAyYTE3YmE=

President Hugo Chávez is heaping praise on Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the Venezuelan better known as Carlos the Jackal and implicated in hijackings and terror attacks across Europe in the 1970s and ’80s, describing him in a speech here Friday night as a “revolutionary fighter.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/world/americas/22venezweb.html

Chavez has also praised former dictator Idi Amin. Chavez on Friday called the East African dictator a nationalist and a patriot.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWTsnsM0rYELrgPSOLNaBZm-wI4gD9C4HDEO0

"We even have blacks voting against the health care bill. You can't vote against health care and call yourself a black man." -Jesse Jackson

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ARTICLES

Four Tactical Steps That Will Defeat Obamacare

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34534

You might have missed it, but the Islamic Apology Police were on the case of the Republican governor-elect of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell this week. It seems that following the jihadist attack on Fort Hood, the Rev. Pat Robertson, a longtime ally of McDonnell's, criticized Islam on his television show. And no one in these not-just-politically-but-also-Islamically-correct times is permitted to do that -- not even, as we have learned to our horror, senior Army personnel when presented with incontrovertible evidence that a jihadist is in their ranks. Here's what we know: Islamic law (Shariah) punishes "leaving Islam" with death. Islam has a bloody history of expansionism. Almost exactly two-thirds of Muslims in four countries polled in a 2007 survey favored both Shariah and the caliphate. And the Muslim Brotherhood's manifesto for "a grand Jihad" in America calls for "destroying the Western civilization from within" so that Islam is "victorious over all other religions."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Political-Islam-is-bent-on-world-domination-8563358-70641137.html

“Major Hasan was the first mass murderer in U.S. history to give a PowerPoint presentation outlining the rationale for the crime he was about to commit. And he gave the presentation to a roomful of fellow army psychiatrists and doctors. Some of whom glanced queasily at their colleagues, but none of whom actually spoke up. And, when the question of whether then-Captain Hasan was, in fact, “psychotic,” the policy committee at Walter Reed Army Medical Center worried “how would it look if we kicked out one of the few Muslim residents.”

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/26/major-nidal-hasan-had-an-enabler/#more-93397

How do you spell hypocrisy? Try N-e-w-Y-o-r-k-T-i-m-e-s. Yep, the paper that triumphantly published everything from The Pentagon Papers to all types of highly classified documents on eavesdropping and wire tapping, compromising the safety and security of all Americans, especially those in the military and spies, while piously basking in the glory from the hate America first crowd for doing so, has suddenly become circumspect.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/more_weather_hypocrisy_at_the.html

Sarah Palin could expect a lot of support in Iowa’s Republican caucuses if she launched a campaign for the 2012 presidential nomination, according to The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll. “More than two-thirds of Republicans like what they see, making her a credible candidate for the 2012 caucuses should she decide to run for president, strategists say.”

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091122/NEWS/91122002/1001/NEWS/Iowa-Poll-State-Republicans-like-what-they-see-in-Sarah-Palin

Interesting take on the history of American politics: “Philosophically speaking, there are two Americas, each with a founding father…”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/which_america_do_americans_wan.html

The flap over breast cancer screening has provided a fascinating insight into the political future of ObamaCare. Specifically, the political left supports such medical rationing even as it disavows that any such thing is happening.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574552320222125990.html

A chart showing the true 10-year cost of the health care bill currently before the Senate. As the chart makes clear, the costs of this legislation do not kick in in any significant way until 2014, and so the real 10-year cost is $1.8 trillion for the 10-year period for 2014 to 2023. Let me spell that out: $1,800,000,000,000.

http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20091123_Senate_Bill_Cost_Chart.pdf

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try five 9/11 plotters by a civilian court in New York rather than a military tribunal at Gitmo is already paying dividends — for the terrorists. The five terror suspects want to use their "not guilty" pleas as a chance to voice their hate-filled beliefs and grievances against the West. In short, we're giving them a prime-time soapbox in the most important city on Earth from which to spout their hate and recruit new adherents to their murderous cause.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=513332

“A SAD END: Illegal Alien Scandal Hammers Final Nail In talk radio KVI's Coffin”

http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2009/11/seattle-talk-host-caught-employing.html

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

The Gatlin Bros on Fox & Friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f6IPRPuGyc

Saturday Night Live skit: “China wants its money back.” (Offensive material warning!!!)

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/china-cold-open/1178451/

What this means: “If Obama's Lost Saturday Night Live, He's Lost...”

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/025002.php

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WISE WORDS

"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare.... [G]iving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as they sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please."

-Thomas Jefferson

op ed review 11/22

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Here it comes: “Administration Lowers Bar for Success in Afghanistan War, Seeks Exit Strategy”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/15/administration-lowers-bar-success-afghanistan-war-seeks-exit-strategy/

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-saved-created-congressional-districts-exist/story?id=9097853

The nation's Catholic bishops approved a pastoral letter on marriage Tuesday as their pivotal effort in their battle to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. It is part of a multipronged effort to educate the nation's 67 million Catholic faithful that already includes a web site: ForYourMarriage.org, which was started in June 2007.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/18/bishops-letter-defines-marriage/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_more_news_carousel

The White House is on a collision course with Catholic bishops in an intractable dispute over abortion that could blow up the fragile political coalition behind President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091120/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_overhaul_abortion

Conservative members of America's largest Lutheran denomination announced that they are splitting from the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, making it the second mainline Protestant church to undergo a major schism over the issue of homosexuality and related matters of biblical authority.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/19/conservative-lutherans-to-leave-synod/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_headlines

Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama. Criminal arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent in the last year. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says “..Congress should now work on legalizing illegal immigrants.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/19/work-site-arrests-of-illegals-fall-dramatically/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_headlines

When the former Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor wrote her autobiography, the Associated Press found a copy before its release date and assigned 11 people to fact check all 432 pages.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/17/ap-turns-heads-devoting-reporters-palin-book-fact-check/

Al Gore's Current TV referred to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a "Gun-Ho" and a "TWILF." These disgraceful, sexually-charged epithets were part of an attack on prominent conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, and came in the form of a cartoon ironically titled "The Stupid Virus.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/11/15/al-gores-current-tv-bashes-limbaugh-beck-palin-fox-news

With Sarah Palin in the spotlight as she continues her nationwide media and book tour, the Democratic National Committee is suggesting to its supporters that the former GOP vice presidential candidate could pose a real threat to the Democratic agenda.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/20/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5723675.shtml

It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how President Obama’s healthcare reform plans would impact America’s huge fiscal deficit.. And they should be, since they own nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the currency of a country about to double its national debt over the next decade.

http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2009/11/16/china-questions-costs-of-us-healthcare-reform/

Improper payments by the U.S. government to people, firms and contractors rose sharply to $98 billion in fiscal 2009.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/34009267

The government paid more than $47 billion in questionable Medicare claims including medical treatment showing little relation to a patient's condition, wasting taxpayer dollars at a rate nearly three times the previous year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091114/ap_on_bi_ge/us_medicare_fraud

Newt Gingrich, author of the Contract With America, says GOP chairman Michael Steele has started work on a new framework for 2010 that he is calling "First principles.''

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/11/gingrich_contract_with_america.html

Rudy Giuliani is “very likely” going to run against appointed incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton’s Senate term in 2010.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Republicans-could-make-electoral-history-in-New-York-70624392.html

Saudi Arabia has been identified as the source of the growing Islamization in the U.S. military. A leading analyst asserted that Saudi Arabia spent millions of dollars in its effort to convert U.S. soldiers to Islam.

http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/11/15/top_stories/doc4b004a82b3897267062133.txt

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Diversity Has Jumped the Shark

Ann Coulter 11/19

It cannot be said often enough that the chief of staff of the United States Army, Gen. George Casey, responded to a massacre of 13 Americans in which the suspect is a Muslim by saying: "Our diversity ... is a strength."

As long as the general has brought it up: Never in recorded history has diversity been anything but a problem. Look at Ireland with its Protestant and Catholic populations, Canada with its French and English populations, Israel with its Jewish and Palestinian populations. Or consider the warring factions in India, Sri Lanka, China, Iraq, Czechoslovakia (until it happily split up), the Balkans and Chechnya. Also look at the festering hotbeds of tribal warfare -- I mean the beautiful mosaics -- in Third World hellholes like Afghanistan, Rwanda and South Central, L.A.

"Diversity" is a difficulty to be overcome, not an advantage to be sought. True, America does a better job than most at accommodating a diverse population. We also do a better job at curing cancer and containing pollution. But no one goes around mindlessly exclaiming: "Cancer is a strength!" "Pollution is our greatest asset!"….

Among the worst aspects of America's "diversity" is that liberals' reaction to a heterogeneous population is to create a pecking order based on alleged victimhood -- as described in electrifying detail in my book, Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America. In modern America, the guilty are sanctified, while the innocent never stop paying -- including with their lives, as they did at Fort Hood last week. Points are awarded to aspiring victims for angry self-righteousness, acts of violence and general unpleasantness. But liberals celebrate diversity only in the case of superficial characteristics like race, gender, sexual preference and country of origin. They reject diversity when we need it, such as in "diversity" of legal forums.

After conferring with everyone at Zabar's, Obama decided that if a standard civilian trial is good enough for Martha Stewart, then it's good enough for the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. So Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is coming to New York! Mohammed's military tribunal was already under way when Obama came into office, stopped the proceedings and, eight months later, announced that Mohammed would be tried in a federal court in New York.

In a liberal's reckoning, diversity is good when we have both Muslim jihadists and patriotic Americans serving in the U.S. military. But diversity is bad when Martha Stewart and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are subjected to different legal tribunals to adjudicate their transgressions. Terrorists tried in civilian courts will be entitled to the whole panoply of legal protections accorded Stewart or any American charged with a crime, such as the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial, the right to exclude evidence obtained in violation of Miranda rights, the right to a speedy trial, the right to confront one's accusers, the right to a change of venue, the right to examine the evidence against you, and the right to subpoena witnesses and evidence in one's defense.

Members of Congress have it in their power to put an end to this lunacy right now. If they don't, they are as complicit in Mohammed's civilian trial as the president. Article I, Section 8, and Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution give Congress the power to establish the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts and to create exceptions to that jurisdiction. Congress could pass a statute limiting federal court jurisdiction to individuals not subject to trial before a military tribunal. Any legislator who votes "nay" on a such a bill will be voting to give foreign terrorists the same legal rights as U.S. citizens -- and more legal rights than members of the U.S. military are entitled to.

In the case of legal proceedings, diversity actually is a strength.

Edited form a longer column, read it here:

http://townhall.com/columnists/AnnCoulter/2009/11/19/at_the_end_of_the_day,_diversity_has_jumped_the_shark?page=full&comments=true

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"As an American, I am embarrassed that the U.S. House of Representatives has 220 members who actually believe the government can successfully centrally plan the medical and insurance industries. I'm embarrassed that my representatives think that government can subsidize the consumption of medical care without increasing the budget deficit or interfering with free choice. It's a triumph of mindless wishful thinking over logic and experience. The 1,990-page bill is breathtaking in its bone-headed audacity. The notion that a small group of politicians can know enough to design something so complex and so personal is astounding. That they were advised by 'experts' means nothing since no one is expert enough to do that. There are too many tradeoffs faced by unique individuals with infinitely varying needs. Government cannot do simple things efficiently. The bureaucrats struggle to count votes correctly. They give subsidized loans to 'homeowners' who turn out to be 4-year-olds. Yet congressmen want government to manage our medicine and insurance."

-John Stossel

"In the late 1930s, the noted economist Friedrich Von Hayek wrote his landmark pamphlet 'Road to Serfdom,' laying bare the diseased skeleton of socialist/utopian thought that had permeated academia and the salons of his day. With an economy of words that showcased the significance of his conclusion, he pointed out the Achilles heel of collectivist dogma: for a planned economy to succeed, there must be central planners, who by necessity will insist on universal commitment to their plan. How do you attain total commitment to a goal from a free people? Well, you don't. Some percentage will always disagree, even if only for the sake of being contrary or out of a desire to be left alone. When considering a program as comprehensive as a government-planned economy, there are undoubtedly countless points of contention, such as how we will choose the planners, how we will order our priorities when assigning them importance within the plan, how we will allocate resources when competing interests have legitimate claims, who will make these decisions, and perhaps more pertinent to our discussion, how those decisions will be enforced. A rift forming on even one of these issues is enough to bring the gears of this progressive endeavor grinding to a halt. This fatal flaw in the collectivist design cannot be reengineered. It is an error so critical that the entire ideology must be scrapped."

-Joe Herring

"It is not Islamaphobia if they really are trying to kill you."

-Brian

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GLOBALONEY

Global warming appears to have stalled. “Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years.”

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,662092,00.html

Al Gore was introduced in Palm Beach FL as "president of the planet" when he returned here to deliver an environmental lecture. The former vice president spoke on climate change to a crowd of about 800. More than 200 protesters gathered across the street from the event, and their boos and chants could be heard inside the amphitheater as Gore began his presentation.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/gore-s-presentation-on-climate-change-draws-800-59205.html

A hacker has gotten into the computers at Hadley CRU, Britain's largest climate research institute and a proponent of global warming, and seems to have uncovered evidence of substantial fraud in reporting the "evidence" on global warming; the unlawful destruction of records to cover up this fraud ,conspiracy, and deceit in the entire operation.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/scientific_scandal_appears_to.html

“Only a while ago, greenies were people with woollen hats, gumboots and long hair. They hugged trees, drooled over flowers, and generally messed about on the very edge of polite society. They were on the fringe, like weird cults and folks who love to be frightened by conspiracies. Now, in the space of less than a decade, these same weird people have become the major, if not only, force driving society in every country in the West, though what they say is really insane and off the wall! Why is this? Why have the inmates taken over the asylum? And why do people follow?”

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16694

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BOOKS

Book review of "Going Rogue," the title of Sarah Palin's autobiography, refers to the snide remark of an anonymous McCain aide late in last year's presidential campaign. It was used to describe the vice-presidential candidate's move to break free of her media handlers and speak out against the campaign's decision to pull out of Michigan, a state that, in Mrs. Palin's view, was well worth contesting…”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704431804574537882681089404.html

Amazon has announced its 2009 best selling books, and Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" and Glenn Beck's "Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government" are number two and three respectively. This will certainly ruin Chris Matthews' day, as the MSNBCer back in September agonized over there being "so much right-wing crap on the best seller list these days."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/11/16/levin-beck-take-second-third-amazons-2009-bestsellers

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LEFTIST WATCH

The next crusade of the left: Polygamy. Polygamy has been embraced by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

http://townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2009/11/03/obama_makes_polygamy_a_21st-century_issue

Following on the heels of their macabre Afghan war protest at a White House Halloween party that targeted children of military families for psychological abuse, leftist Obama ally Code Pink issued a statement justifying the terrorist attack at Fort Hood as opposition to the war from officers and put out a Veterans Day appeal seeking to raise money off the Fort Hood terrorist attack.

http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/14/obama-ally-code-pink-justifies-fort-hood-terrorist-attack-cashes-in-on-massacre-in-veterans-day-fundraising-appeal/#more-31034

President Obama's 13 million-strong campaign e-mail list has been transformed into a mass political operation dedicated to enacting his agenda -- along with its apparent readiness to help elect Democratic candidates and eventually re-elect the president. Loyal to the Obama White House, Organizing for America serves as a kind of party within a party. Housed within and funded by the Democratic National Committee, its main purpose has been to serve Obama,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20091115/pl_cq_politics/politics3248073

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ARTICLES

An attorney explains: “Why try five in civilian court and five by military commission? Quite simply, the dynamic duo of Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder devised a way to put President Bush on trial after all…... The question of whether the confessions of Mohammed were illegally obtained is a question of law. In federal trial court the defense will file a pretrial motion to suppress the evidence based on confessions obtained by coercion. Actually, they have a stronger argument: The confessions were obtained by illegal torture. It doesn't get much better than that for the defense……the real craziness of the pending scenario is that Obama and Holder have been running around saying that waterboarding is illegal torture. In other words, they have already supported the defense of the man they now wish to prosecute in civilian court. A fiction novelist would be hard-pressed to come up with a story so ridiculous. Let's hope the bulk of the evidence connecting Mohammed to 9/11 comes from sources other than his confessions.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/obamas_nyc_show_starring_khali.html

Pat Buchanan: “Enemy soldiers who commit atrocities are not sent to the United States for trial. Under the Geneva Conventions, soldiers who commit atrocities are shot when caught. When and where did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed acquire his right to a trial by a jury of his peers in a U.S. court?”

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116268

The ideal GOP candidate would be intelligent, articulate, and debate-tested. The candidate, preferably with experience as a governor and not just as a legislative orator, would be able to unite social and fiscal conservatives and use wit and warmth to disarm media twits. Will Republicans have such a candidate for 2012? Maybe…But you can be the first on your block to know the name of a strong candidate for 2020. He fits the specifications and, as frosting on the cake, has the last name of Cruz, a big plus for a political party that needs to capture the Hispanic vote to offset the Democrats' lock on African-Americans. Meet Ted Cruz, the Republican Obama.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MarvinOlasky/2009/10/29/candidate_of_the_future

The Wal-Mart strategy: “What's notable about Sarah Palin's book tour, which starts midweek, is where she's not going. She's not going to L.A. or New York, Boston or San Francisco. She's going smack dab to the middle of the country. Fly-over country, liberals call it. And it's a shrewd move, not only in selling books, but positioning herself for a presidential run in 2012, if she chooses. It's a strategy right out of the late Sam Walton's playbook: go where there's demand and the competition ain’t.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/sarah_palins_walmart_strategy.html

Update on Kirby Wilbur: (Kirby) added that he will miss his time with KVI and all the great work he was able to accomplish over the past sixteen years. "Ranting about the governor is nice but the thing I loved most was helping local people, raising money for Operation Support Our Troops and Toys for Tots, getting people out to Tea Parties and rallying listeners to local causes, like raising money to pay for the Medal of Honor Memorial at the UW." He thanks all of you who have sent him messages over the past few days. He's received so many he's not sure he'll be able to respond to each one individually but will try. He said he even received a call from former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich…”

http://soundpolitics.com/archives/013540.html

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

This week the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Center for American Progress, and the American Enterprise Institute released a report called “Leaders and Laggards” evaluating the “innovation gap” in America’s schools. They call results “deeply troubling.” Washington’s ranking: number 37.

http://www.libertylive.org/blog_main/post.php?post_id=1712

Here’s an interactive map:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/11/leaders_laggards/index.html

Comparison pictures of how other world leaders greeted the Emperor of Japan and avoided hitting their heads on the floor.

http://hotairpundit.blogspot.com/2009/11/president-obama-vs-rest-of-world.html

Milton Friedman on greed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A

A Hilarious Anti-Harry-Reid Ad That Probably Won't Last Long….see it now.

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2FmNzA2ODI5ZGY2M2E2NWQwYTI0YjFkZmEzYmE2NTE=

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WISE WORDS

"The difference between the path toward greater freedom or bigger government is the difference between success and failure; between opportunity and coercion; between faith in a glorious future and fear of mediocrity and despair; between respecting people as adults, each with a spark of greatness, and treating them as helpless children to be forever dependent; between a drab, materialistic world where Big Brother rules by promises to special interest groups, and a world of adventure where everyday people set their sights on impossible dreams, distant stars, and the Kingdom of God. We have the true message of hope for America."

-Ronald Reagan

op ed review 11/15

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

The Obama administration has made a decision to try the soldiers of al-Qaeda as civilians – Rep Pete King (R-NY) says it “may be the worst decision by a U.S. president in history.” - It sends a signal to terrorists everywhere to attack civilians. The decision to try the jihadists in a civilian court is also a decision which will divulge America’s security secrets to the enemy since civilian courts afford defendants the right of discovery. It is also a propaganda gift to Islamic murderers who will turn the courtroom into a media circus to promote their hatred against the Great Satan.

http://frontpagemag.com/2009/11/13/the-worst-decision-by-a-us-president-in-history-by-david-horowitz/

President Obama's victory dance for the House-passed health-care bill came as Senate foes pronounced the measure mortally wounded, if not outright DOA.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/obamacare_legislation_in_trouble_n12JvzOZLO36ngE5VaFVmI

Senator Joe Lieberman said he has "no other choice" but to filibuster a health care bill that contains a government-run health insurance option.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/56948

The official $1.1 trillion price tag for the health care bill excludes dozens of unfunded programs that could drive up costs when future congresses look to fund them. Republicans said the health care bill includes two dozen programs whose funding is listed as "such sums as may be necessary." That amounts to legislative jargon, they said, for "We'll bill you later."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/10/fuzzy-math-could-boost-health-care-bills-hefty-cos/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_headlines

Republicans have moved ahead of Democrats by 48% to 44% among registered voters in the latest update on Gallup's generic congressional ballot for the 2010 House elections, after trailing by six points in July and two points last month.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/124226/Republicans-Edge-Ahead-Democrats-2010-Vote.aspx

The victories by Republicans in two Governors races appear to have lifted the party's prospects in 2010 and in 2012 in the minds of voters with 58% of those surveyed by Rasmussen now believe the next President will be Republican

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/sinking_numbers_for_obama_demo.html

Though Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn into Congress last week, the routine recanvassing of votes shows Owens' lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted. The special election last week for the 23rd Congressional District seat in New York may not be over after all.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/12/democrats-winning-margin-upstate-new-york-house-race-doubt/

President Obama's first federal court nominee was Judge David Hamilton of Indiana. Among Hamilton's "qualifications" is the fact that he is a former fund raiser for ACORN.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/ACORN-fund-raiser-gets-Obama-judicia-nomination-Yes-you-read-that-right-69962232.html

In the next few weeks we'll be relentlessly scrubbed with eyewash, brainwash and hogwash, all designed to cleanse us of any doubts that global warming is a proven menace to mother Earth.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped1110byrnenov10,0,3012538.column

British spies have foiled a terrorist plot by a suspected al Qaeda operative to blow up the New York subway. The plan, which reportedly would have been the biggest attack on America since 9/11, was uncovered after Scotland Yard intercepted an email.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6529436/British-spies-help-prevent-al-Qaeda-inspired-attack-on-New-York-subway.html

“There was one world leader absent for today’s commemorations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Surprisingly enough, it’s President Barack Obama, who found time last year to give a campaign speech there last year, which Der Spiegel summed up as “People of the World, Look at Me”.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100016207/not-enough-about-him-barack-obama-skips-berlin-wall-ceremonies/

The FBI failed to intercede against Fort Hood terrorist Maj. Hasan as a result of its politically correct strategy of reaching out to suspect Islamic groups and clerics instead of combating head-on the Muslim radicalization movement in the United States. Hasan grew more radical -- and devout -- this decade, attending a Mosque where an al Qaeda-friendly cleric preached, posting extremist blogs and spreading anti-Americanism.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34345

Maj. Hasan attended a Virginia mosque at the same time as two of the 9/11 hijackers.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/link_in_ft_hood_slay_spree_DxTQPcEWvdr8WBocxSgNUI

Maj. Hasan called himself a "soldier of Allah" on business cards found in his apartment.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,574546,00.html

Seattle Times editors are now experts on The Religion of Peace: “Do not slander Islam after Fort Hood: There is a rush to link Maj. Hasan with Islamic extremists and generally defame his faith by association….Little time was spent exploring Timothy McVeigh's Catholic and Republican connections after he slaughtered 168 men, women and children and wounded hundreds more with a truck bomb.” Huh??

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2010244799_edit11labels.html

After the attack, Army Chief of Staff General Casey said on Meet The Press, "Our diversity….is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse (than the massacre)."

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/general_caseys_diverse_army.html

The Taliban declares Maj. Hasan a "hero".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6541177/Taliban-promises-repeat-of-Fort-Hood-massacre-report.html

Why wasn’t Maj. Hasan neutralized sooner? Apparently soldiers on military bases within the United States generally are not allowed to carry guns.

http://reason.com/archives/2009/11/11/the-folly-of-unilateral-disarm

After the Fort Hood shooting, the mainstream media were reluctant to report on the Islam connection but did see one part of the story they liked. Unfortunately, they got it wrong. “The confusion over what happened and the quickness of the military to label someone a hero seemed reminiscent of the case of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in 2003, when the Army initially reported Private Lynch had been captured in Iraq after a Rambo-like performance in which she emptied her weapon and was wounded in battle. It was later learned she had been badly hurt in a vehicle accident during an ambush and was being well cared for by the Iraqis.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/us/12hood.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1258038454-aWXloV95QTWdA44g2BK85g

Supporters of R-71 told us it wasn’t about gay marriage. That was then, this is now. “This morning marked the beginning of the next stage of the fight. "We cannot stop working until we achieve full marriage equality for gays and lesbians in this great nation," State Senator Ed Murray declared to a victory breakfast which included Washington Governor Christine Gregoire, Rep. Jim McDermott, several state legislators, King County Executive-elect Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor-elect Mike McGinn.”

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/11/gays_to_conservatives_okay_you.php

When asked where specifically the Constitution authorized Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance, Sen. Jack Reed (D.-R.I.) said that he “would have to check the specific sections” but said that it was like making people “sign up for the draft.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/56971

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN(S)

Daniel Henninger WSJ 11/12

Why Fort Hood Really Happened

The only good news out of the Fort Hood massacre is that U.S. electronic surveillance technology was able to pick up Major Hasan's phone calls to an al Qaeda-loving imam in Yemen. The bad news is the people and agencies listening to Hasan didn't know what to do about it. Other than nothing.

Next week, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) will convene the Homeland Security Committee to find out if someone in the Army or FBI dropped the ball on Hasan. At Ford Hood itself, grief has been turning to anger as news of possible dropped balls has emerged….

The problem is confusion. The combatants at each end of the spectrum in the war over the war on terror know exactly what they think about surveilling suspected terrorists. But if you are an intel officer or FBI agent tasked with providing the protection, what are you supposed to make of all this bitter public argument? What you make of it is that when you get a judgment call, like Maj. Hasan, you hesitate. You blink.

Now everyone thinks the call was obvious. But it wasn't so obvious before the tragedy. Not if for years you have watched a country and its political class in rancorous confusion about the enemy, the legal standing of the enemy, or the legal status and scope of the methods it wants to use to fight the enemy.

In war, uncertainty gets you killed. It just did.

Everyone has seen the pictures of inconsolable grief amid the coffins of Fort Hood. Only one person can resolve the confusion that let this happen: the president.

This is the president who told his attorney general to decide if the CIA officers who water-boarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should be held criminally liable.

But two weeks ago, Mr. Obama met 18 coffins returned from Afghanistan. Whatever he decides about the Afghan troop deployment, what won't change is that over there or here at home, they will keep trying to kill us.

To give us better odds of protection than we had last week, President Obama should do two things: Call off the CIA investigation. Then call in the guys who didn't make the right call on Hasan and ask why not. Then, whatever set the bar too high, lower it. His "base" won't like it. So what? What he saw in Texas was worse.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704576204574529844037896738.html

Investor’s Business Daily

Suicide by PC

War On Terror: The No. 1 lesson of the Fort Hood massacre is that political correctness kills. But instead of learning this lesson, the Pentagon is repeating the mistake, putting more soldiers at risk. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey warns that making the connection between Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's terrorist act and his Islamic faith could "cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers."

Yet ignoring that connection, despite one red flag after another, is what allowed Hasan allegedly to carry out his own violent backlash against non-Muslim soldiers.

Just a few months ago, Hasan was promoted to major. He passed a security clearance despite evidence he openly engaged in anti-American rants, and even discussed cutting the throats of infidels during a PowerPoint presentation. Now there are reports that U.S. intelligence intercepted contacts between Hasan and al-Qaida.

But shhh! This isn't about Islam. Close your eyes. Look the other way. Do not make the connection.

The prize for digging up the most imaginative excuse for Hasan's actions goes to ABC News. The network speculated he may have suffered from "second-hand trauma" — "like second-hand smoke" — from counseling soldiers with post traumatic stress disorder.

You see, Hasan had never actually been deployed, never seen combat, as first assumed. So the initial spin that he suffered PTSD no longer worked. Unless he suffered combat stress by proxy. So now it's "second-hand trauma." Anything but jihad.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=511805

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"Does the U.S. Constitution stand for anything in an era of government excess? Can that founding document, which is supposed to restrain the power and reach of a centralized federal government, slow down the juggernaut of czars, health insurance overhaul and anything else this administration and Congress wish to do that is not in the Constitution? The Framers created a limited government, thus ensuring individuals would have the opportunity to become all that their talents and persistence would allow. The Left has put aside the original Constitution in favor of a 'living document' that they believe allows them to do whatever they want and demand more tax dollars with which to do it. Can they be stopped? Some constitutional scholars think the Tenth Amendment offers the best opportunity…….Americans who believe their government should not be a giant ATM, dispensing money and benefits to people who have not earned them, and who want their country returned to its founding principles, must now exercise that power before it is taken from them. The Tenth Amendment is one place to begin."

-Cal Thomas

"One of the strongest talking points of those who want a government-run medical care system is that we simply cannot afford the high and rising costs of medical care under the current system. First of all, what we can afford has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of producing anything. We will either pay those costs or not get the benefits. Moreover, if we cannot afford the quantity and quality of medical care that we want now, the government has no miraculous way of enabling us to afford it in the future. If you think the government can lower medical costs by eliminating 'waste, fraud and abuse,' as some Washington politicians claim, the logical question is: Why haven't they done that already? Over the years, scandal after scandal has shown waste, fraud and abuse to be rampant in Medicare and Medicaid. Why would anyone imagine that a new government medical program will do what existing government medical programs have clearly failed to do? If we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs now, how can we afford to pay for doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical drugs, in addition to a new federal bureaucracy to administer a government-run medical system.”

-Thomas Sowell

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GLOBALONEY

The World Council of Churches called on churches around the world to ring their bells 350 times during the Copenhagen climate change summit on December 13 as “a call to action on global warming.”

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5c89ef2b65e54705267dd3c67d9f1199.121&show_article=1

So where’s this going? “If the United Nations has its way, Jesus won’t be found in church anymore. With the approval of pious priests and ministers, Jesus is being squeezed out of the House of God to make way for global warming/climate change proselytizing..”

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16809

Meanwhile, it was the third coolest October on record.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=national&year=2009&month=10&submitted=Get+Report

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a natural phenomenon caused by volcanoes and is not responsible for climate change, one scientist says..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6553592/Climate-change-sceptic-Ian-Plimer-argues-CO2-is-not-causing-global-warming.html

Environmental bureaucrats in the UK say everyone in Britain should have an annual carbon ration and be penalized if they use too much fuel. “….some have criticized the move as "Orwellian" and say it will have a detrimental impact on business.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/carbon/6527970/Everyone-in-Britain-could-be-given-a-personal-carbon-allowance.html

The Dutch government said it wants to introduce a "green" road tax. "Each vehicle will be equipped with a GPS device that tracks how many kilometres are driven and when and where. This data will be then be sent to a collection agency that will send out the bill," the transport ministry said in a statement. (They’ll also keep track where you’ve been driving.)

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.244057bd1b30448115575c2187e68681.141&show_article=1

The cap-and-trade energy bill just okayed by Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Democrats (Republicans boycotted the vote) contains an obscure but nasty bureaucratic provision that gives President Obama dictatorial powers in the case of a “climate emergency”.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Climate-bills-emergency-provision-gives-Obama-strong-man-powers--69646037.html

NBC gives new meaning to the phrase "green screen" next week, spreading a pro-environmental message across five of its prime-time entertainment programs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_en_tv/us_tv_green_nbc

Latest environmental concern: lost golf balls are contaminating the planet; they take 100s of years to biodegrade; “humanity’s signature litter”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/11/04/littering.golf.balls/index.html

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BOOKS

“Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law” by Nonie Darwish. “…. presents an insider's look at Sharia and examines how radical Muslim laws are destroying the Western world from within.’

http://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Usual-Punishment-Terrifying-Implications/dp/1595551611/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258140603&sr=8-1

Mark Steyn reports on her book tour: “In Toronto this week, the brave ex-Muslim Nonie Darwish mentioned en passant that, on flying from the US to Canada, she was questioned at length about the purpose of her visit by an apparently Muslim border official. When she revealed that she was giving a speech about Islamic law, he rebuked her: “We are not to question Sharia.” That’s the guy manning the airport security desk…….”

http://dakotabeacon.com/entry/mark_steyn_multicultural_illusions_kill_-_no_strategy_to_defend_against_ide/

“United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror” by Jamie Glazov. “Both the radical Left and radical Islam possess a profound hatred for Western culture, for a capitalist economic structure that recognizes individual achievement, and for the Judeo-Christian heritage of the United States. Both seek to establish a new world order: leftists in the form of a classless communist society, and Islamists in the form of a caliphate ruled by sharia law. To achieve these goals, both are willing to "wipe the slate clean" by means of limitless carnage, with the ultimate goal of erecting their utopia upon the ruins of the system they have destroyed.”

http://www.amazon.com/United-Hate-Romance-Tyranny-Terror/dp/1935071602/ref=pd_sim_b_6

Are the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks really about nothing more than hammering out a world-wide agreement about carbon emissions to curb warming? Not according to martial arts professional and actor Chuck Norris. Norris appeared on the Fox News Channel to promote his new book, "The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book: 101 of Chuck's Favorite Facts and Stories."

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/11/12/chuck-norris-obama-wants-create-one-world-order-copenhagen-climate-talks

Matt Drudge sidekick-turned-media-entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart has signed a deal to write a how-to book for "non-leftists" who want to better represent themselves in the media. Breitbart, who owns the conservative Web sites Big Hollywood and Big Government, says he plans to offer a mixture of "memoirish" elements and perspective on how conservatives can challenge what he calls the "Democrat media complex.”

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/11/drudge-protege-andrew-breitbart-writing-media-how-to-book/

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LEFTIST WATCH

The American left is unparalleled at wriggling out of deadly cul-de-sacs of its own creation. Consider how many times since the Vietnam War this country's left has involved itself in activities that in saner epochs would have resulted in lengthy jail sentences. Support for the Sandinistas and the Salvadoran FMLN, the Nuclear Freeze movement (a KGB operation from start to finish), cooperation with Palestinian and related terrorist groups. In each case, the left continued its involvement until the bitter end; and in each case skipped off with no consequences. This offhand attitude toward sedition has its roots in the excesses of the witch-hunt era. The aura of martyrdom donned by the left since the early 50s has bought them a free pass for over half a century.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/the_left_and_terror.html

Three Cuban bloggers on their way to a peaceful march in Havana were forcibly detained and beaten last week by Cuban secret police.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iWLstLM2LcNBdVbx6EU7z5KgQFIA

It's come to this in Hugo Chávez's Venezuela: The president is pleading with people to save water by limiting their daily cleansing routine to a 3-minute ""communist shower.'' Really. This is just the latest indication of how badly Mr. Chávez continues to mismanage the economy of energy-rich Venezuela, which should be one of the most prosperous nations in the world to judge from its vast hydrocarbon reserves.

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/1330902.html

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ACTIVISM

Kirby Wilbur, a longtime conservative talk radio host in the Pacific Northwest, has had his show shut down by KVI-AM radio, sending his listeners to chat boards and other outlets to express their dismay. Wilbur has been a fixture in state Republican politics for two decades. He joined KVI back in the early 1990s, when conservative talk radio was just getting off the ground in the Seattle area and in other markets around the country. At Sound Politics, a blogger suggested listeners contact Fisher Broadcaster about their dissatisfaction with the decision. "I'd also encourage you all to call every local business that advertises on KVI. After all, they're the ones with the power of the purse," he suggested. The general manager is Jim Clayton. The program manager is Dennis Kelly. “As many people as possible need to call them and email them and let them know that we are not pleased. The email address and phone numbers they give on the website are listed below.” 570kvi@fisherradio.com 206-404-3010 206-404-4000 FAX: 206-404-3648 MAIL ADDRESS: KVI Talk Radio 570, 140 Fourth Ave. N., Suite 340, Seattle, WA 98109

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116027

http://www.kvi.com/

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ARTICLES

Saturday's vote to create a massive government-run health-insurance program is to Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats what the Battle of Gettysburg was to the South. It will be remembered as the high point of their unswerving efforts to demand government solutions to every big problem. It was their most daring stab, deepest into enemy territory. And the creeks will fill with the political blood of the dead who charged blindly into the angry enemy fire.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/with_this_victory_dems_might_as_tGJPDn8DVfjGPNDklfi0YN

Last week was the trifecta that may have sealed health care's fate: 1) GOP wins Virginia and New Jersey (!) governor's races. 2) Business comes out swinging. 3) Unemployment over 10. To make matters worse, they force Blue Dogs and front-liners to walk the plank on the Pelosi Plan that exceeds the symbolically important $1 trillion mark, includes the public plan and a big tax increase on small business--all of which are dead-on-arrival in the Senate…The attack ads make themselves. Now Gallup finds a sudden and massive shift among Indies. And let's be honest, it's not that Indies have fallen in love with the GOP agenda, whatever that is. Far from it. They want to put a hard brake on the spending and the borrowing, and they don't want Washington messing with their health care at a time of intense economic anxiety….”

http://thepage.time.com/anonymous%E2%80%99s-take-on-what-happens-next-with-health-care/

It must have been just coincidence that the day before the Fort Hood shootings, an al-Qaeda leader on a website called for jihadists to conduct easy attacks on targets "at war with Islam." They were to use easily accessible weapons and explosives and to not "waste a lot of time finding the materials."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/a_more_likely_scenario_1.html

For the purposes of argument, let's accept the media's insistence that Major Hasan is a lone crazy. So who's nuttier? The guy who gives a lecture to other military doctors in which he says non-Muslims should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats? Or the guys who say "Hey, let's have this fellow counsel our traumatized veterans and then promote him to major and put him on a Homeland Security panel?”…..In a nutshell: The real enemy — in the sense of the most important enemy — isn’t a bunch of flea-bitten jihadis sitting in a cave somewhere. It’s Western civilization’s craziness. We are setting our hair on fire and putting it out with a hammer.”

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTg2NjkyOGE1OTY2YjhhOTI0NWU3MjA5OWU0YTI4ZDg=

The very next paragraph is going to make the nut jobs on the far left excitable beyond belief. I am not referring to all Democrats or even a majority of liberals. I am singling out the "they've-lost-all-touch-with-reality" crowd. This includes Media Matters for America led by the admitted hit-and-run, drunk-driving serial liar. The group includes the unshaven, bathrobe-clad unemployed who live in their mother's basement and are devout followers of MoveOn.Org. It is also the bitter, aging spinster working at the New York Times, the morbidly obese documentary film maker, and cable TV news' resident drama queen who hosts MSNBC's Countdown. They are about to simultaneously suffer from brain aneurisms. So without further delay, I'll say it……

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/11/11/the-man-who-despises-america

The Misfits: Eight Politicians Who Really Ought to Switch

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/12/the-misfits-eight-politicians-who-really-ought-to-switch/

As the 2010 campaign cycle begins in earnest, the central question in the House of Representatives is how many seats will Republicans win? Few political observers or elected officials doubt that an energized GOP has a headwind at its back. Despite two Democratic special election victories last week, election night 2009 suggested that the Republican base is excited and independents are disenchanted with Democrats.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29353.html

10 Senate seats most likely to flip

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29343.html

John Lott: The administration's "job creation" programs will not only leave us with a massive debt, they will continue to increase unemployment and leave us much poorer as a country. This wasn't supposed to happen. At the end of February, after the $787 billion stimulus was approved, the Obama administration predicted that unemployment would average only 8.1 percent this year. Indeed, in February the unemployment rate stood at 8.1 percent. Yet,

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/11/10/john-lott-obama-high-unemployment-economy/

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Must see: Trace Adkins and the West Point Glee club. You’ll watch this over and over.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz-3BruPdEo&feature=related

And this one needs a Kleenex warning: The happy dog reunion.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/40324

Sarah’s unofficial events calendar

http://www.usatoday.com/news/mapxmlfiles/palinbooktourstops.htm?loc=interstitialskip

How low will the new American president go for the world's royalty?. “Very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/obama-emperor-akihito-japan.html

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HUMOR FROM SCRAPPLEFACE

“Journalists across the nation, moved by the plight of a troubled Muslim psychiatrist whose "understandable emotional turmoil" broke out in gunfire last week at Fort Hood, Texas, will hold a major fundraising event in the coming weeks in honor of the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. News coverage of the tragedy sparked reporters and anchors in the mainstream media to "reach out to Hasan in love and brotherhood because his righteous indignation at the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led him to express his outrage in the only avenue open to a non-journalist," according to an unnamed organizer of the upcoming charity event.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Journalists-raise-funds-for-troubled-Fort-Hood-shooter-8506842.html

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WISE WORDS

"Great nations which fail to meet their responsibilities are consigned to the dust bin of history. We grew from that small, weak republic which had as its assets spirit, optimism, faith in God and an unshakeable belief that free men and women could govern themselves wisely. We became the leader of the free world, an example for all those who cherish freedom. If we are to continue to be that example -- if we are to preserve our own freedom -- we must understand those who would dominate us and deal with them with determination."

-Ronald Reagan