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912 Patriots of Lower Bucks - Your Daily Updates ALL in ONE Place!
September 19, 2011
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Quote:
"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."
~ Abraham Lincoln
"The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself."
~ Benjamin Franklin |
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Have Alinsky Political Operatives Infiltrated Cleveland's Christian, Jewish & Muslim Faith Communities?
The Blaze | by Billy Hallowell | Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:15am
 A new faith coalition out in Cleveland, Ohio, raises some interesting questions about the intermingling of organized religion and leftist politics.
The founding of the Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC), a group that describes itself as "a non-partisan coalition of faith communities and partner organizations in Cuyahoga County working together to build power for social justice," claims that its focus is uniting the masses to improve local neighborhoods.
While many would see this as a worthy endeavor, others - mainly those with fears about the use of faith to progress the liberal agenda - are questioning the GCC's motivations.
Read More . . .
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California City Fines Couple for Holding Bible Study in Their Home
The Blaze | by Madeleine Morgenstern | Posted on September 19, 2011 at 1:36am
 A southern California couple has been fined $300 dollars for holding Christian Bible study sessions in their home, and could face another $500 for each additional gathering.
City officials in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. say Chuck and Stephanie Fromm are in violation of municipal code 9-3.301, which prohibits "religious, fraternal or non-profit" organizations in residential neighborhoods without a permit.
Read More . . .
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Senator Lieberman Conferene Call September 2011
You are invited to join an emergency conference call with Senator Joseph Lieberman on Tuesday, September 20th at 12:00 PM Eastern (11:00 AM Central, 10:00 AM Mountain, 9:00 AM Pacific). Senator Lieberman will brief us on Israel's latest challenges in the UN and the Middle East.
So far, September has been a disastrous month for Israel. Israel's former ally, Turkey, expelled Israel's ambassador and has seriously downgraded relations. And in Egypt, Israel's first Arab peace partner, a violent mob broke into the Israeli Embassy and came close to capturing six Israelis trapped inside.
And September isn't over. Later this month, the Palestinians are expected to seek unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state from the United Nations. At this critical hour, it's crucial that you know the facts and know what you can do to support Israel. Join us on Tuesday to get an insightful briefing from one of Israel's most important friends in Washington.
We are only able to reserve a limited number of lines for this conference call. Please click here now to sign up before the call is filled. We are providing access to this call on a first-come first-serve basis.
May God Bless You and Those That You Love,
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Pastor John Hagee
Chairman
CUFI |
David Brog
Executive Director
CUFI |
Join The Conference Call with Senator Lieberman
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 Sunday, September 25th at 3PM: Akhil Reed Amar, "America's Unwritten Constitution." Akhil Reed Amar is a leading Constitutional scholar and the author of America's Constitution: A Biography and The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. He has been a member of the Yale Law School faculty since 1985, and is frequently seen on television and heard on the radio commenting on Constitutional issues in the news. In his third lecture at the David Library, Prof. Amar will provide an overview of the lingering problems left unaddressed by the Constitution.
Thursday, October 13th at 7:30PM: David G. Post, "The Continuing Saga of Thomas Jefferson and the Internet." David G. Post is the I. Herman Stern Professor of Law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. He is also a Fellow of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, and a Fellow at the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. He is the author of In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace, a book that recreates Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia for the Internet. Prof. Post's lecture will examine Thomas Jefferson's views on the First Amendment, the Copyright Clause of Article One, and how those views impact our use of the Internet today.
Thursday, October 20th at 7:30PM: Kenneth C. Davis, "Why A President?" At the Philadelphia Convention, the nature of the Presidency was a subject of hot debate. What did the framers of the Constitution want the "chief magistrate" to be? What changes have been made to the Constitution that directly relate to Presidential powers and elections? What would the Framers think of the modern American Presidency? These are some of the questions that author Kenneth C. Davis will address. He is the author of the popular Don't Know Much About... book series as well as America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation and A Nation Rising: Untold Tales of Flawed Founders, Fallen Heroes, and Forgotten Fighters from America's Hidden History.
Thursday, November 3rd at 7:30PM: John Fea, "Was American Founded as a Christian Nation? How Did the Founders Understand the Relationship Between Church and State?" John Fea, Associate Professor of American History at Messiah College and a David Library Fellow, will investigate the role of religion in shaping the Constitution. Professor Fea is the author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? and The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America. Thursday, December 1st at 7:30PM: Paul Finkelman, "America's Covenant With Death: Slavery and the Founding." Paul Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy, and Senior Fellow in the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. His lecture will explore the relationship of slavery to the American founding, and will examine how slavery was written into the original Constitution, and protected by it.
Thursday, December 8th at 7:30PM: George W. Boudreau, "'A Republic, If You Can Keep It': Benjamin Franklin and the Crafting of the Constitution." The series closes with a talk by an audience favorite, George W. Boudreau, Associate Professor of Humanities and History at the University of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. Professor Boudreau is Project Director of the "Teaching Franklin" website (http://harrisburg.psu.edu/teachingfranklin/). His lecture will explore Franklin's role in the creation of the Constitution. David Library lectures are free and open to the public, but reservations are necessary. Please call (215)493-6776 ext. 100 or email rsvp@dlar.org to make a reservation. Lectures are held in Stone Hall in the Feinstone Conference Center adjacent to the Library, 1201 River Road, Washington Crossing, PA 18977. Books by the lecturers will be available for purchase at post-lecture receptions.
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Judical Watch is Demanding Answers Earlier this month, Judicial Watch, a government/judicial watchdog group based out of Washington, DC, hosted a Voter Fraud panel discussion featuring John Fund, Christian Adams, and King Street/True the Vote leader Catherine Engelbrecht. Here's video from a portion of the event:
 | | "The Voter Fraud Threat to Free and Fair Elections" - Part 2 |
But wait, there's more! The really exciting thing Judicial Watch is doing happened just last week when they filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DOJ to obtain records of communications between the Department of Justice and Project Vote Official/former ACORN attorney Estelle Rogers. You can read more about it here. Bottom line..."Judicial Watch is convinced that Project Vote's activities remain a threat to the integrity of our elections. The fact that Project Vote is bullying states to attack election security reforms in order to register Obama's 'Food Stamp Army' comes as no surprise. But it appears that the Obama Justice Department is using the same playbook as Project Vote - to the detriment of clean elections. The American people deserve to know if the nation's highest law enforcement agency has become nothing more than a political tool to help this scandalous ACORN-front group re-elect Barack Obama. Again, this Justice Department can't seem to be bothered to comply with basic open records FOIA law," stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Be assured, we will be closely watching for any new developments in this case....but in the meantime, if you haven't already volunteered to help uphold free and fair elections by working at the polls WE NEED YOU! There is a critical shortage of polling place workers. We wonder why Project Vote and ACORN get away with their flagrant abuses of our system...it's because we as citizens are allowing it to happen. WE MUST ENGAGE IN THE PROCESS OF OUR ELECTIONS. One way you can engage is by volunteering to work as a poll watcher on Election Day. Please, it is going to take all of us to uphold the integrity of our elections in the days ahead. Get involved now.
We need TTV volunteers for poll watching - Free and fair elections do not happen without citizen involvement. Want to stand up and take action? True the Vote will provide training and support - you just need to take the first step. For more information email info@truethevote.org or go HERE to sign up now! |
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LISTEN LIVE TO REPATRIOT RADIO
"BETTER THAN EVER"
(all times are eastern)
Monday 3-4pm "Bordering on Insanity" - Rabbi Nachum Shifren and Garry Miller
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Awareness of Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development is racing across the nation as citizens in community after community are learning what their city planners are actually up to. As awareness grows, I am receiving more and more calls for tools to help activists fight back. Many complain that elected officials just won't read detailed reports or watch long videos. "Can you give us something that is quick, and easy to read that we can hand out," I'm asked.
So here it is. A one page, quick description of Agenda 21 that fits on one page. I've also included for the back side of your hand out a list of quotes for the perpetrators of Agenda 21 that should back up my brief descriptions.
A word of caution, use this as a starter kit, but do not allow it to be your only knowledge of this very complex subject. To kill it you have to know the facts. Research, know your details; discover the NGO players in your community; identify who is victimized by the policies and recruit them to your fight; and then kill Agenda 21. That's how it must be done. The information below is only your first step. Happy hunting.
What is Sustainable Development?
Read more:
 | | Agenda 21 Creeps Into California Land Use Policy |
There will be weekly meetings every Wednesday at P J Ryan's, 231 Bridge Street, Phoenixville - 6pm - downstairs We will be discussing UN Agenda 21 & Sustainable Development, as well as other topics relevant with today's problems like the NWO, Congress, debt, how to be prepared for the future disasters, etc.... At this weeks meeting will start with sending some people over to sit in on the meeting below. We need to know what our opposition is doing . . . If you have any questions please feel free to email me back or contact Maggie at www.theunsolicitedopinion.com or Maggie@theunsolicitedopinion.com If you would like to join the Green Team or volunteer for a sub-committee, please email us CONTACT Diane about this email at : uncanney2@verizon.net |
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Dear Patriot,
Please join Americans for Prosperity Foundation and thousands of grassroots activists for the 5th annual Defending the American Dream Summiton Friday and Saturday, November 4-5 at the Washington Convention Center in downtown Washington, DC.
Last year, more than 2,600 of our best activists descended on Washington for the Summit to demonstrate to elected officials, government bureaucrats, and the national media that the grassroots movement is alive and well. We focused on reining in out-of-control spending and taxation, advancing sound free market public policy, and in a very real way, defending the American Dream.
Special bus packages are running from PA and for only this week you can register for an additional $70 off those all-inclusive bus packages. Sign up now to take advantage of this great opportunity! Use the code "Bus70" when registering.
Bus packages from PA include round trip transportation and hotel accommodations on top of all the other benefits of the Defending the American Dream Summit.
Summit Highlights Include:
... and much more!
Don't forget, receive $70 off a bus package until midnight on August 14th! Click here to register today and help defend the American dream! Use the code "Bus70" when registering.
Defending liberty and promoting prosperity is a family affair. Give your children the gift of freedom and bring the whole family to the Defending the American Dream Summit this year. In fact, we're offering a discount for families and small groups! Click here for more information about our special packages.
Join us and thousands of fellow freedom fighters and send a message that the American Dream is alive and well in this great country!
Sincerely,
Tim Phillips
President
Americans for Prosperity Foundation
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The Doctrine of Abrogation: Open the Koran Day
It's time to sign up!
Earlier this year we announced a major event for this fall, "The Doctrine of Abrogation: Open the Koran Day."
We have scheduled this event for the weekend of October 28 - 30, 2011, which is close to the two year anniversary of the Ft. Hood jihadist massacre perpetrated by Major Nidal Hasan (pictured at right).
If you would like to learn more about this national event, or would like to host a local venue, please click here.
Please read the description of the event and the sign-up instructions carefully, and then access the sign-up form at the bottom of the page.
Also, if you would like to study the Koran, we have a resource to recommend. The Qur'an Dilemma is an accurate, readable English translation that contains commentaries and analysis, including commentaries on the doctrine of abrogation, the history of the codification of the Koran, chronological sequence of the Koran, and the status of women in the Koran. To find out more visit here.
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2012 Presidential Candidate Selector
or Obama, His Allies & Critics Matching Quiz
Politicians have already indicated their 2012 presidential aspirations. This matching quiz includes President Obama, top members of his administration, Obama's most vocal critics (Boehner, Cantor, etc.) and likely White House prospects (Palin, Pawlenty, Jindal, etc.). You may select a position for every issue, or just select issues important to you. The political figures' positions are based upon their voting records, special interest group ratings and their statements in the public record. In cases where there is no known public record or statement, these politicos are not given a score on that issue. We add candidates, revise their views and include new issues as they become known or change. Check back often for updates.
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RedState Morning Briefing
For September 19, 2011
1. Is The Administration Going to Use GM to Distract from Solyndra?
Many people call it Government Motors these days. General Motors has been a government slush fund to reward unions and other Democratic loyalists since the Obama Administration arrived in Washington. Now there are signs the Obama campaign and DNC intend to use GM to distract from Solyndra.
If you'll remember back in 2010, General Motors rushed out an ad campaign that claimed it had paid back all of its government loans before the November 2010 election. But a freedom of information act request filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute found that (A) General Motors had not actually paid back its loans and (B) had coordinated the ad campaign with the Obama Administration.
According to CEI at the time, "Documents released last week by the U.S. Treasury Department indicate that General Motors and the Obama administration coordinated their PR strategy regarding GM's much criticized 2010 ad campaign, in which the car maker misleadingly claimed to have repaid all its government loans."
The advertisement campaign GM ran with included the "Chevy Runs Deep" series of commercials portraying a feel good attitude toward GM and its essential "American-ness". Just in time for the 2012 election season, GM wants to rev back up that ad campaign as it did before the November 2010 elections.
You will not be surprised to learn that there is a series of coordinated efforts between the Obama Administration and General Motors.
2. #OccupyWallSt: Just A Saturday Stroll Through The Park...
"On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months."
Instead, as they say about the best laid plans, it was something entirely different. It was, frankly, a stroll through a park-Zuccotti Park, in lower Manhattan, to be exact.
A Non-Union Non-Event
Over the summer, on the heels of Arab Spring, an anti-capitalist group called adbusters established a campaign to occupy Wall Street, beginning on September 17th. Whether coincidental or not, September 17th also happened to be Constitution Day. While there had been some unfounded unfounded speculation a few weeks ago that the SEIU's Stephen Lerner and ACORN founder Wade Rathke were behind the OccupyWallSt movement, there were never any signs that the Marxist-Anarchist protesters had any formal union backing-nor has there been anything posted on union websites about the occupation of Wall St.
On Sunday morning, the protestors did, however, call for "revolution".
3. Hubbert's Peak or Yergin's Plateau?
In 1956, Shell geologist M. King Hubbert correctly predicted that oil production in the United States would reach a peak around 1970. Since his Peak Oil theory fits so well with the Malthusian worldview of "Progressives", anti-capitalists and anarchists, Hubbert has become a posthumous hero to the Left, an unusual role for a scientist polluted by the filthy lucre of the oil industry.
Peak Oil's fundamental assumption is that the supply of oil is finite and fixed. The peak of the oil production curve is reached when half of the total resource base has been produced, so rate vs time exhibits a symmetric bell-shaped curve. Post peak, rate declines rapidly. Hubbert demonstrated a peak for oil production in Texas, and he extended his theory to correctly predict the time (but not the rate) of the peak for the U.S. World oil production is supposed to have peaked in the last five years or so.
But Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, argues in a WSJ.com Saturday Essay that Peak Oil theory has a fatal flaw, which is rooted in Hubbert's blind spot: economics. (H/T to Mark J. Perry and his excellent Carpe Diem blog.)
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On Columbus Day, loudly express your gratitude that America was taken away from backward, cruel, and bloodthirsty Indian tribes and given over to Christian European civilization.
Go further and tell your liberal friends that you've always admired how Cortez and his small band of men conquered the Aztec empire, abolishing a culture based on human sacrifice. As they stand there spluttering, you can rub it in: "You have a problem with that?"
Praise the marvelous "inclusivity" and "diversity" of the United Nations Human Rights Council,
whose membership includes such bastions of free speech, fair play, and democracy as Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China, and Burkina Faso. Praise also the great sense of humor the organization has demonstrated in the past, like the time in 2002 when-under its old name the United Nations Human Rights Commission-forty of its members (including Zimbabwe and Sudan) passed a resolution affirming the "right" of the Palestinians to fight Israel by "all available means including armed struggle."
Say to a liberal, "You remember the Reagan era, when Ronald Reagan was President, and Bob Hope and Johnny Cash were still with us?
Well, now we have Obama, no hope, and no cash."
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Ann Curry, is far worse than I previously thought. She's not incompetent. She's competently glorifying Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and taking cheap shots at America's foreign policy. She's obviously in bed with CIRCA, the radical group at Columbia University that is embracing Ahmadinejad for yet a second time, via Columbia.
See a day in the life of Iran's President here: |
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Shalom ZOA Members, Friends and Supporters of Israel,
Please take a few minutes and take the appropriate action on behalf of Israel:
ACTION ALERT Update
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren has identified several nations to contact, urging them to vote against the Palestinian Authority's efforts to seek state recognition at both the United Nations Security Council and the UN General Assembly. These nations are France, Spain, Belgium, and the Caribbean Nations. Contact information provided below. He also suggests that we express our appreciations to those nations that have already declared opposition to the Palestinian-Authority unilateral attempt to for state recognition through the UN. These nations include the United States, Canada and Italy. Contact information for these nation are also below.
Meanwhile, there is legislation in the House of Representatives, H.R.2829, known as the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011 which places conditions on U.S. funding to the UN in order to achieve long awaited reform at that body and to help ensure that U.S. funding is directed only towards programs that further U.S. interests.
Among other things, the legislation: "Directs the Secretary [of State] to withhold U.S. contributions from any U.N. entity that recognizes a Palestinian state or upgrades the status of the Palestinian observer mission at the U.N., the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian Authority (PA), or any other Palestinian administrative organization or governing entity prior to the achievement of a final peace agreement with Israel."
ACTION:
Call or email the Embassies of the nations below and ask them to urge their respective countries to please vote "No" on the issue of a Palestinian state. A Palestinian state declared unilaterally will subvert peace and threaten Israel. It also goes against the Oslo Accords, U.N. Security Council resolutions and international standards.
Also please contact the Embassies of Canada and Italy, as well as our State Department, to thank them for publicly opposing the Palestinian Authority initiative.
Meanwhile, please call your House member to express your support for and urge them to co-sponsor the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act (H.R.2829), introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).
Please be courteous with whomever you speak with or email.
BACKGROUND:
· The root of this initiative by the Palestinian Authority is to avoid a negotiated settlement with Israel. A unilateral declaration by the Palestinian Authority demonstrates they are not interested in a negotiated peace with Israel.
· The Palestinian Authority refuses to recognize Israel as the Jewish State and does not accept the formula of "two states for two peoples."
· The Palestinian Authority has entered into a unity agreement with Hamas, recognized by the State Department as a terrorist organization that openly calls for genocide against Jews.
· PA President Mahmoud Abbas and other leading PA officials have declared that no Jews will be allowed to live in a "state of Palestine."
· The Palestinian Authority does not meet the widely accepted criteria for statehood.
· A broad spectrum of Jewish organizations, from the ADL to the ZOA, oppose this UN vote and unilateral declaration and see it as a danger to Israel.
Embassies:
France
Telephone: (202) 944-6000
E-mail: info@ambafrance-us.org
URL: http://www.info-france-usa.org/
Spain
Telephone: (202) 452-0100
E-mail: embespus@mail.mae.es
URL: http://www.spainemb.org/ingles/indexing.htm
The Commonwealth of the Bahamas
Telephone: (202) 319-2660
Belgium
Telephone: (202) 333-6900
URL: http://www.diplobel.us/
Antigua and Barbuda
Telephone: (202) 362-5122
E-mail: embantbar@aol.com
Barbados
Telephone: (202) 939-9200
E-mail: washington@foreign.gov.bb
The Dominican Republic
Telephone: (202) 332-6280
URL: http://www.domrep.org/
Grenada
Telephone: (202) 265-2561
URL: http://www.grenadaembassyusa.org
The Republic of Haiti
Telephone: (202) 332-4090
E-mail: embassy@haiti.org
URL: http://www.haiti.org/
Jamaica
Telephone: (202) 452-0660
E-mail: dcm@jamaicaembassy.org
URL: http://www.embassyofjamaica.org/
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Telephone: (202) 686-2636
E-mail: info@embskn.com
URL: http://www.embassy.gov.kn
Saint Lucia
Telephone: (202) 364-6792/93/94/95
The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Telephone: (202) 467-6490
E-mail: info@ttembwash.com
URL: http://www.ttembassy.org
Canada
Telephone: (202) 682-1740
URL: http://www.canadianembassy.org
Italy
Telephone: (202) 612-4400
URL: http://www.ambwashingtondc.esteri.it/ambasciata_washington
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000
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Area House Members:
Robert A. Brady
Pennsylvania-1st, Democrat
102 Cannon HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4731
Charles W. Dent
Pennsylvania-15th, Republican (Lehigh Valley)
1009 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6411
Chaka Fattah
Pennsylvania-2nd, Democrat
2301 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4001
Mike Fitzpatrick
Pennsylvania-8th, Republican
1224 Longworth HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4276 -9511
Jim Gerlach
Pennsylvania-6th, Republican
2442 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4315
Patrick Meehan
Pennsylvania-7th, Republican
513 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225- 2011
Joseph R. Pitts
Pennsylvania-16th, Republican
420 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-3801
Phone: (202) 225-2411
Allyson Y. Schwartz
Pennsylvania-13th, Democrat
1227 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC, 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6111
Rob Andrews
New Jersey-1st, Democrat
2265 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225 - 6501
Jon Runyan
New Jersey-3rd, Republican
1239 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-3802
Phone: (202) 225-4765
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The Jewish people's historic and religious connection to Jerusalem and Israel are widely acknowledged, but what about their legal rights?
Opponents of Israel repeatedly refer to Israel's "illegal occupation" of territories and to "Palestinian east Jerusalem," but are these terms accurate in law?
A group of academics and legal scholars gathered in Basel, Switzerland, two weeks ago to discuss those issues and to affirm "their support for the recognition of the international legal rights of the State of Israel and the Jewish people in respect to the whole city of Jerusalem." They issued a declaration stating just that, along with their support of "a unified Jerusalem" as the capital of Israel.
Organized by the Alliance for International Justice in Jerusalem, the conference met on dates corresponding to the first Zionist Congress in 1897 and in the same location, the Musiksaal.
The conference issued a...
Read the whole entry »
Assyrian International News Agency 15 September 2011
The recently released report "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America," from the George Soros-funded Center for American Progress (CAP), purports to expose a sinister network of American "Islamophobes" funded by a "flood of cash" who manufacture conspiracy theories about Islam, spread hate and bigotry against all Muslim-Americans, and inspire violence toward them, all for financial and political gain. But in fact, the very concept of Islamophobia is manufactured propaganda used by the subversive Muslim Brotherhood and their leftist support network to demonize and silence critics of Islamic fundamentalism.
The authors of "Fear, Inc." are counting on its impressive length (138 pages), cascades of footnotes, a few three-color graphics, and professionally glossy cover to convince readers that it is thoroughly sourced, unbiased and undeniable proof of their...
Read the whole entry »
By Clifford May, NRO
A refugee from the Muslim world sees it taking shape.
For more than 30 years, Bat Ye'or, a refugee from Egypt, has been writing about dhimmis - Christians and Jews living under oppression in Muslim lands. Now, she has a new book, Europe, Globalization, and the Coming Universal Caliphate, that looks at Muslims living in lands that once were Christian but today call themselves multicultural. She predicts Europe will not remain multicultural for long. She is convinced that Europe, sooner rather than later, will be dominated by Islamic extremists and transformed into "Eurabia" - a term first used in the mid-1970s by a French publication pressing for common European-Arab policies.
Immigrants can enrich a nation. But there is a difference between immigrants and colonists. The former are eager to learn the ways of their adopted home, to integrate and perhaps assimilate - which does not require relinquishing their heritage or forgetting their roots....
Read the whole entry »
By Ted Belman
The intrepid Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Founder of Israel Law Forum, has many victories in her fight against terror and its enablers. Recently, she was instrumental in ending the Flotilla headed for Gaza merely by sending a "lawyer's letter" to its insurers.
Last week she sent a similar "lawyer's letter" to the Universities and Colleges in the US demanding that they protect Jewish students from antisemitism and harassment which has become endemic especially during Israel Apartheid Week. I have no doubt it will have its desired effect at least to a measurable degree.
And now, in advance of Columbia U hosting Ahmadinejad to a dinner, she has sent its President, Lee Bollinger another "lawyer's letter" which reads in part;
Hosting Ahmadinejad at a banquet is not merely morally repulsive: it is illegal and will expose Columbia University and its officers to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to American...
Read the whole entry »
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, INN
The Palestinian Authority's growth has been fueled by handouts, but the World Bank reports that dry financial wells may cause an "acute fiscal crisis."
The latest report, which contradicts previous glowing accounts of how the Palestinian Authority (PA) can maintain itself as stable country, warns of an economic slowdown in the PA, primarily due to the lack of donor countries fulfilling their pledges to fork over billions of dollars to Ramallah.
The World Bank also cited Israel's security checkpoints as a reason for the PA's financial problems, but unlike previous reports, the security measures were mentioned as a secondary problem.
Foreign donors, particularly the European Union, have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars to pay Arabs to take over land that had been under Israeli control until the mid-90s. Thousands of Arabs living in Judea and Samaria have received new vehicles to help them criss-cross the country, often skirting Israeli...
Read the whole entry »
By Ted Belman
Islamists' Growing Sway Raises Questions for Libya says the NYT. And so it does but for the West also.
The growing influence of Islamists in Libya raises hard questions about the ultimate character of the government and society that will rise in place of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's autocracy. The United States and Libya's new leaders say the Islamists, a well-organized group in a mostly moderate country, are sending signals that they are dedicated to democratic pluralism. They say there is no reason to doubt the Islamists' sincerity.
But as in Egypt and Tunisia, the latest upheaval of the Arab Spring deposed a dictator who had suppressed hard-core Islamists, and there are some worrisome signs about what kind of government will follow.
For an uprising that presented a liberal, Westernized face to the world, the growing sway of Islamists - activists with fundamentalist Islamic views, who want a society governed by Islamic principles - is being...
Read the whole entry »
by Dan Senor, Wall Street Journal
Why Obama Is Losing the Jewish Vote
A Public Policy Poll taken days before the election found a plurality of voters saying that Israel was "very important" in determining their votes. Among those voters, Republican candidate Robert Turner was winning by a 71-22 margin. Only 22% of Jewish voters approved of President Obama's handling of Israel. Ed Koch, the Democrat and former New York mayor, endorsed Mr. Turner because he said he wanted to send a message to the president about his anti-Israel policies.
[Bill Levinson: The National Jewish Democratic Council meanwhile whistles past the graveyard.]
Laura:Australia, like every other western country is under threat of islamic terrorism. So the big debate going on amongst Australian senators is whether or not to boycott..... Israel. Lest we be accused of paranoia, we surely musn't consider that singling out Israel for boycott has anything to do with anti-Semitism, it's just an expression of "criticism" of Israeli policies. However I don't suppose those pushing for a boycott of Israeli products have any qualms about doing business with the world's most horrific regimes. I don't suppose they've considered boycotts of China, saudi arabia, Pakistan, Egypt or any of the other numerous sharia states and tyrannical dictatorships.
Australian chamber debates boycott of Israeli products
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Federal senators engage in heated political debate with conflicting views of anti-Israeli boycott movement; Green party condemned for support.
Australian politicians engaged in...
Read the whole entry »
Militant Islamic Awareness Week continues
posted by Bill Levinson
Ann Barnhardt's excellent contribution to awareness of Islam as practiced in the less advanced parts of the world, and in Sharia-compliant enclaves in Europe.
"Islam is Not a Religion. Islam is a Political System."
"Mohammad created Islam to enrich Mohammad, raise an army, and facilitate and legalize Mohammad's sexual perversions" (note the part about consummation of a marriage to a 9 year old girl)
"Sharia law is sedition"
Barnhardt adds that Hitler tried to morph Nazism into a religion as a substitute for religion, and throws in the torchlight rallies at Nuremberg:
All that are missing are the torches and the swastikas. Barnhardt goes on to compare militant Muslims in the U.S. to the German-American Bund.
Part 2 (We do not however agree with the exclusion of loyal Muslims from our Armed Forces.) The video defines militant Islamic sexuality as "pure...
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Guy Bechor, YNET Some refer to him as "the Middle East's new sultan in a neo-Ottoman empire" - yet the truth about Erdogan's kingdom is utterly different. We are not facing an economic power, but rather, a state whose credit bubble will be exploding any moment now and bringing down its economy. The budget deficit of the collapsing Greece compared to its GDP stands at some 10%, and the world is alarmed. At the same time, Turkey's deficit is at 9.5%, yet some members of the financial media describe the Turkish economy as a success story (for comparison's sake, Israel's deficit stands at some 3% and is expected to decline to 2% this year.) While Turkey's economy grew by some 10% this year, this was merely the result of financial manipulation. So how does the system work? The banks in Erdogan's Turkey handed out loans and mortgages to any seeker in recent years, offering very low interest rates; this was in fact a gift. As the interest rate was so low, Turkish... Read the whole entry »
By EDWARD ALEXANDER, JPOST As the international noose grows ever tighter about Israel's throat, the learned classes of Diaspora Jewry are not asking themselves the right questions. 'Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen. 4:9). "And Moses said unto the children of Gad and the children of Reuben: 'Shall your brethren go to the war, and shall ye sit here?'" (Numbers 32:6). These should have been the besetting questions for American- Jewish intellectuals during Hitler's twelve-year war against European Jewry; but generally they were not. They should be the pressing ones for the learned classes of Diaspora Jewry today, as the international noose grows ever tighter about Israel's throat; but they are not.
Long after World War II had ended, William Phillips, co-founder of Partisan Review, recalled that Irving Howe, the most astute political mind among the Jewish intellectuals, "was haunted by the question of why our intellectual community ... had paid so... Read the whole entry »
By Ted Belman The next session of the United Nations opens in a week. Everyone is scurrying around trying to negotiate a deal that avoids the recognition of a Palestinian state. In the meantime Abbas is threatening to go to the Security Council hoping to put pressure on the US who doesn't want to have to veto the resolution. Netanyahu has offered to accept a GA resolution that offers the PA an upgrade but short of state recognition. His main concern is if the PA is recognized as a state, it will have the right to charge Israel with war crimes in the ICC. Evidently they will claim that the building of settlements are a war crime.
Apparently Abbas doesn't actually want to go through with it because he fears that US and EU funds will be withheld thereby putting the PA into bankruptcy. He desperately wants a lifeline so he can abandon ship. Some face saving concession. If he were to simply drop it, the sharks that surround him in Fatah would devour him. Read the whole entry »
Israel and Greece have invoked the mutual defense pact they signed secretly only 12 days ago in the light of heavy Turkish sea and air movements in the eastern Mediterranean. debkafile's sources report that this was decided in a long nocturnal phone conversation Wednesday night Sept. 14 between the Israeli and Greek prime ministers, Binyamin Netanyahu and George Papandreou, and at Israel's expanded cabinet of eight, which was called into session over the Turkish threat to its off-shore oil and gas rigs. The Greek Prime Minister added to the information recorded so far on Turkish fleet movements in the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. He was particularly concerned by the observation flights suddenly increased in the past 48 hours over the Greek island of Kastelorizo in the southeast Mediterranean just two kilometers from the Turkish coast. Those flights are escorted by Turkish combat jets.
Athens fears a Turkish attack on... Read the whole entry »
Another Question comes to mind. Palestine could decide to bring all these refugees to Palestine in order to create bigger problems for Israel. Palestine would be harder to contain and the idea of annexation will be not an option. The pressure on Israel would mount. Imagine if all these refugees attempted to cross the fence along its entire length. So why is the PA so against this? You decide. Ted Belman Fresno Zionism The very first thing Israel did as a state was to do its absolute best to bring Jewish refugees everywhere home. European refugees from the Holocaust, Jews expelled from Arab countries with little more than the clothes on their backs, Jews in danger in Ethiopia - every Jew who needed a home was given one, despite the enormous cost, the lack of food and housing, and the precarious existence of the Jewish state. Now that the Palestinian Arabs are, or think they are, on the verge of statehood, what do they plan to do for the 4.5 million or so people who claim Palestinian... Read the whole entry »
Militant Islamic Awareness Week Continues with the Center for American Progress
by Bill Levinson The Center for American Progress, a tentacle of international financier and convicted inside trader George Soros, posted "Fear, Inc. The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America." We sent the Center for American Progress an E-mail in which we objected to being left off the group's list of Islamophobia misinformation experts. Let's take a look at what the DHIMMIs (Dupes, Helpful Idiots, and Misguided Morons for Islamofascism) Center for American Progress call "Islamophobia." Islamophobia? Phobias are IRRATIONAL fears. Mapping the anti-Sharia bill says, "Twenty-three states have some kind of legislation or law that would ban the nonexistent threat of Sharia law being used in their courtrooms." Is this what the Center for American Progress DHIMMIs call "nonexistent?" "Defendant forced plaintiff to have sex with him... Read the whole entry »
Laura: Added to the list of those attending the UN's Durban III freak show will be qaddafi associates. That any western nation would even consider attending this gathering of depraved Jew-haters, haters of freedom and practitioners of oppression and genocide, shows that much of the free world lacks a moral compass. U.N. Allows Qaddafi Associates to Attend Durban III This article by Anne Bayefsky appears on The Weekly Standard The U.N. has quietly released the list of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that will be allowed to attend its "anti-racism" conference on September 22, 2011 in New York. All NGOs that requested credentials to attend the so-called "Durban III" conference were granted permission, except for four groups. Excluded are organizations from Denmark and Nepal that represent the Dalits (sometimes referred to as "outcasts" or "untouchables"), one little-known group dealing with human rights in Iraq, and the Swiss-based U.N. Watch, despite its... Read the whole entry »
By: Howard Galganov On October 30, 2008 . . . prior to the Presidential election, I wrote the following: "PRESIDENT Barack Obama will be the worst thing for the USA and the entire world. And he will be poison for Israel". I wrote a great deal more about my fears for an Obama victory prior to and just after the November 2008 election, which you can find in my Archives, but this one statement is enough to establish how far back I REALLY worried for Israel's safety under this Narcissistic Demagogue, whose most important past associations screamed Israel-Hater. And I wasn't the only one who rang warning bells before and after the vote. Conservative Talk Show Hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and a great many others also did everything they could to warn the people.
ALL TO NO AVAIL. What bothered me even MORE than Obama's victory . . . was whom it was who not only voted for him, but were amongst his NUMBER ONE SUPPORTERS. OBAMA SET THE STAGE: ... Read the whole entry »
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A non-Jewish Scottish professor responds to his Israel-boycotting students
 Scotland is known to have a slight problem with sectarianism, but the focus is invariably on Celtic-Rangers spats with the occasional demand to outlaw the singing of the Hokey-Cokey. Meanwhile, Scottish councils and universities pass their anti-Semitic motions with impunity. The following letter was written to the Edinburgh University Student Association following their vote to boycott Israel and all Israeli goods because it is an 'apartheid regime'. Dr Denis MacEoin (a non-Jew) is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs. He is senior editor of the Middle East Quarterly, and runs his own blog ' A Liberal Defence of Israel'. This letter merits dissemination far and wide, and certainly to every university in the country. The Committee
Edinburgh University Student Association
May I be permitted to say a few words to members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain's great Middle East experts in their day. I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University. Naturally, I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field.
I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote. I am shocked for a simple reason: there is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to visit Israel to see for themselves.
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Africa's Shameful Secret
Posted by Stephen Brown on Sep 2nd, 2011
It is a story the left hates to see and loves to ignore. While leftists and other "humanitarians" in the United States and Europe are in a perpetual state of moral outrage concerning Israel's alleged mistreatment of Palestinians, the savagery of modern-day Arab enslavement of black Africans elicits almost no reaction.
The most recent case highlighting this leftist hypocrisy concerns four anti-slavery activists in Mauritania, who were sentenced last week to six months in jail for protesting the enslavement of a ten-year-old girl earlier in August in Nouakchott, the country's capital. According to a report by Amnesty International, the convicted men belong to the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania (IRA), an anti-slavery NGO. Others who took part in the protest said they were beaten by police and imprisoned but let go after a few days.
"The draconian response to the work of these activists suggests that the Mauritanian authorities are still trying to cover up the fact that slavery takes place in the country," said an Amnesty International official.
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THE INTERFAITH TASKFORCE FOR AMERICA AND ISRAEL (ITAI)
123 S. Broad Street, Suite 1832, Philadelphia, PA 19109
Friday, September 16, 2011
Dear ITAI Members and Donors:
ITAI ON THE MOVE...Joseph Puder met on Thursday September 15, 2011 with Israel Member of Knesset Professor Arieh Eldad (leader of the National Union party) in New York, to discuss meeting with Syrian Democratic Council (SDC). Puder discussed on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 with Fran Tagmire, Chief-of-Staff to U.S. Representative Rob Andrews (D-NJ) a meeting of the SDC and ITAI leaders with Rep. Andrews, to spearhead a campaign against the State department meeting with Syrian opposition figures associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Story of the Week titled Islamic Hatred Motivates Actions Against Israel reflects on the actions taken by Turkey and Egypt against Israel. Israel has no territorial dispute with neither of the two, and yet Ankara and Cairo displayed openly their hatred for the Jewish State last week.
The Arab-Israeli conflict has had little to do with territory or "occupation," and everything to do with Islamic hatred of Jews and Israel (Christians and America as well). Israeli must therefore realize that only a strong conviction in the justice of its cause will triumph against Arab and Muslim hatred, and parenthetically, no territorial concession will satisfy anti-Semites...
ISLAMIC HATRED MOTIVATES ACTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL
The Expulsion of Israeli Diplomats from Ankara and the Cairo attack on Israeli embassy were both motivated by Islamic intolerance.
By: Joseph Puder
According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, "Islam these past two weeks has definitely been closing in on the Jewish state, with Israel's ambassadors in the two major Middle Eastern states with which it had good relations, Turkey and Egypt, being sent packing." Morris added, "It was Islam which gradually eroded secularism and brought down pragmatic, prudent governments in the region, which drove diplomats from their posts."
As Morris sees it, the Arab Spring and the accompanying demonstrations in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East are to be opposed, and not supported as the Europeans and Americans governments have done.
As long as the current Islamic teachings prevail, in which Jews are portrayed as "devils" that must be eradicated, and Israel is considered "an enemy of God," the talk about peace between Israel and the Arab-Muslim world in general, and the Palestinians in particular is premature if not futile. The efforts by the Obama administration and the Europeans at peace-making which compel Israel to make unilateral concessions to the Palestinians can be best described as appeasement of the Arab-Muslim world.
No Israeli concessions however will satisfy the open aspirations of the Palestinians and for that matter the Arab world, to see Israel replaced by an Arab-Muslim entity which resembles their own arbitrary and oppressive regimes. Peace is meaningless in a climate among the Arabs that is driven by religious hatred, which uses the Koran and the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" to justify their genocidal hatred. That hatred is pervasive in today's Egypt as well is in Erdogan's Turkey as noted by recent actions in their capitals.
Hate for Israel has been kept alive even while Egypt was regarded by world powers as "honoring" its commitment under the Camp David Peace Accords, which expressly called for an end to "hostile propaganda." During the reigns of Sadat and Mubarak, Egyptian newspapers were replete with the most audacious charges against Israel including the accusation of Israel being behind the blowing up of the Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland (Al-Masa'a 12/11/1991) or that Israel was exporting radiation contaminated food to Egypt (al-Ahram, 6/8/1987) or that Israel introduced most of the plagues that afflict agriculture and animal health (Al-Jumhuriah, 9/13/1988), and in Richard Landes' book Heaven on Earth (Oxford University Press, 2011) he quoted an Islamic intellectual who explained why it is important to keep Muslim hatred of Jews alive: "The role of the Islamic stream is to keep the flame of hatred towards Zionism burning in their souls."
The new "hero" of the Egyptian and Arab masses is a 23-year old named Ahmed al-Shahat, who climbed up the Israeli embassy building in Cairo last week, and removed the Israeli flag, and replaced it with the Egyptian flag to the cheers of thousands of Egyptian demonstrators who burned the Israeli flag while chanting Allahu Akbar.
Ahmed al-Shahat is a by-product of the hate-filled anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Egyptian propaganda campaign conducted by Mubarak and his predecessors, which infected homes, the media, mosques, and schools. And with the Muslim Brotherhood now fully legitimized, physical attacks on Israeli (gas pipeline to Israel, and Israeli embassy) targets can be expected.
Palestinian Media Watch translated a book by Mustafa Mashhur leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (1996-2002) titled Jihad Is The Way, which appeared in the Jerusalem Post on 2/9/2011. In it Mashhur writes: "The problems of the Islamic world - such as in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea or the Philippines - are not issues of territories and nations, but of faith and religion. They are the problems of Islam and all Muslims, and their resolution cannot be negotiated and bargained by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole, and therefore there is no other option but jihad for Allah, and this is why jihad is the way."
Columnist Richard Cohen wrote in the Washington Post 10/30/2001 that, "The Arab world is the last bastion of unbridled, unashamed, unhidden and unbelievable anti-Semitism. Hitlerian myths get published in the popular press as incontrovertible truth. The Holocaust gets minimized or denied...How the Arab world will ever come to terms with Israel when Israelis are portrayed as the devil incarnate is hard to figure out."
The so-called "moderate" imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual guide to the Muslim Brotherhood, and a frequent commentator on Al-Jazeera, prayed during a January 2009 "Gaza Victory Rally" in Doha, Qatar, for the opportunity to kill a Jew before his death. "The only thing that I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah."
It is apparent that the secular West does not comprehend the triumphalist nature of resurgent Islam and its aggressive nature, which calls for jihad and the creation of a universal Islamic State governed by Sharia law. Not even the blatant and popular incitement against Israel by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which prompted hate-filled and incited demonstrators to storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo-in itself an act of war - and the actions of Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan that included expelling the Israeli ambassador, has made western capitals realize that neither Turkey nor Egypt can be relied upon. Islam and Islamists are driving the agenda in both Ankara and Cairo.
Benny Morris has concluded that what the Arab Spring or tumult has delivered is the "ruination of responsible government, chaos, and a surge in, and possibly...a takeover by radical Islamism." He added, "Unfortunately, the events in Egypt are part of a wider pattern, one episode feeding the next. In large measure it was set in train in 1979 with the Islamist Revolution's victory in Teheran (ironically, the year Israel and Egypt signed their peace treaty). Since then, most of the anti-Israel fury and operations in the region have been orchestrated if not supported in one way or another by Teheran."
Israel might be the first victim of Islamist hatred but not its last. American and European policymakers should recognize that appeasement of an Islamist Middle East will not stop its quest for dominance, just as Nazism killed the Jews first then proceeded to kill millions of Christians in the name of an intolerant ideology.
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September 16, 2011
BLACK PANTHER PREZ INCITES HARLEM
Blaze Original Video shows the President of the New Black Panthers, Malik Shabazz telling a crowd in Harlem to prepare for war... But not war in Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya. See this shocking video HERE.
OBAMA STILL WANTS TO AVOID CONGRESS
In July, President Obama told a Hispanic group that he would like to circumvent Congress and make his plans for Imigration reform the law of the land. On Wednesday, while speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, he went back to the well. Watch the clip HERE.
ATHEIST WANTS CHRISTIANS ERADICATED
The leader of an American Atheist group in Georgia has released a statement linking Christians and Muslims and saying that both groups "must, must, must be eradicated." Get the details HERE.
THE TALIBAN'S ON TWITTER, MORE STIMULUS FAILURES, BOEHNER WANTS TAX REFORM
Just because the weekend is fast approaching, doesn't mean that we are not paying attention to all of the critical stories swirling on the web. For your enjoyment, Friday morning's Must-Reads are HERE.
MARINE SARGEANT DAKOTA MEYER RECEIVES THE MEDAL OF HONOR
SGT Meyer defied orders and charged into a fierce firefight in Afghanistan. He is credited with saving thirty-six lives. Yesterday, President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to Dakota Meyer. Read the details HERE.
VIRAL VIDEO DU JOUR - THE CRAZIEST EXPLANATION OF A CAR CRASH EVER
There is no video of the actual car crash, but we do have a captivating clip of the driver who caused it. Watch the man one local news anchor described as the reincarnation of "Chris Farley" HERE.
DAVID BARTON CELEBRATES THE CONSTITUTION TONIGHT ON GBTV
Tomorrow is Consitution Day, so tonight's Glenn Beck program will spotlight the great document created by our Founding Fathers. Join historian David Barton, and don't forget you can get a free, two week trial of GBTV HERE.
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September 16, 2011 Ground Zero mosque imam's latest "Information warfare" at its best!
For a great example of "information warfare" check out the recent column penned by the Ground Zero Mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and carried in The Wall Street Journal (highlights added). It's worth the two minutes it takes to read it.
Remember, this is the man who started a sharia index to measure how sufficiently governments comply with sharia law, a central doctrine of which is jihad. This is the man who said governments that don't practice sharia are "unjust."
Now he's claiming, "I hope that people of all faiths will accept my assertion that those who kill innocents in the name of Allah are not true Muslims."
Our question for Imam Rauf: "If your assertion is true, what does that make Muhammad?"
After all, the prophet Muhammad, in the name of Allah, led, organized or ordered dozens of raids, attacks, and assassinations, and thousands died as a result. Perhaps his most brutal act was his order to behead approximately 800 Jews in Medina who had surrendered to him.
Maybe, according to Rauf, Muhammad was not a true Muslim. Well, we know that can't be the case.
So maybe, in Muhammad's eyes and Rauf's eyes, those people Muhammad killed weren't "innocent." Note that Rauf doesn't say "those who kill PEOPLE are not true Muslims." He says "those who kill INNOCENTS." So maybe it depends on how Rauf defines an "innocent."
Information warfare folks. With your help we can continue to expose it.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2011
A Call to All Religious Moderates
Building a global coalition will not be easy. Moderation is a dangerous place to be.
By FEISAL ABDUL RAUF
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly was right when he insisted that Abders Behring Breivik, who committed mass murders in Norway in July, is not a Christian. Even though Breivik referred to himself often as a Christian, Mr. O'Reilly noted, no one who slaughters innocents can be a follower of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
The Bible says "Thou shall Not Kill." The Bible says we should love our neighbor as ourselves. Those are the values of a true Christian.
Now I hope that people of all faiths will accept my assertion that those who kill innocents in the name of Allah are not true Muslims. That's a much harder thing for Christians and Westerners to accept. In the immediate aftermath of the horror in Norway, Western news media leapt to the assumption it was the work of Muslim terrorists.
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** VIDEOS * TODAY'S HOT PICKS **
1. VIDEO: Impact of Teachers' Unions on Education and Schools...good or bad? 2. VIDEO: Israeli Foreign Minister Explains 'The Truth' About Peace Process
3. VIDEO: Sgt. Dakota L. Meyer becomes first living Marine to receive Medal of Honor in 38 years 4. VIDEO: Attack Watch, new Obama campaign site to 'fight smears,' becomes laughing stock of conservatives 5. VIDEO: President to Latino rights group: He Can't Change Laws 'On His Own'
6. VIDEO: Solyndra Employee: You Wonder Where All the Money Went 7. VIDEO: Rep. Paul Ryan Schools Rep. Jan Schakowsky on How Much Americans Should Be Allowed To Keep
8. VIDEO: President's Jobs Act DOA? Plan Gets Little Support 9. VIDEO: Press Secretary discussing what the President knows about Solyndra investigation: "There's nothing much to brief him on."
10. VIDEO: Motorcyclist Rescued From Underneath Burning Car Speaks Out, Praises Good Samaritans Who Rescued Him
Iran's Nuclear Aims and Apocalyptic Prophecy Lt. Colonel James Zumwalt, USMC (ret) Iran is intent upon gaining a nuclear weapon, and to use it to fulfill Messianic prophecy. This is the only way to bring the Shias' 12th Imam back to Earth.
Now Is the Time Frank Salvato Wouldn't it make more sense to completely scrap the income-based tax system, replacing it with a consumer driven tax system?
How Did the Media Cover 9/11? Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman According to the media, what in America's response to 9/11 was not our most glorious moment?
Overstaying Visa Holders Targeted by Feds Immigration News Update Gingrich claims long-term illegal immigrants should become "legal," Senator says Massachusetts should act forcefully on deporting illegal immigrants who commit crime. Sea Change in the Mediterranean Darlene Casella New political bedfellows: Israel, Cyprus and Greece join in a menage a trois while Turkey and Iran plight their troth.
The Cash-for-Visas Program Michelle Malkin The EB-5 immigrant investor program allows 10,000 wealthy foreigners a year to purchase green cards by investing between $500,000 and $1 million in U.S. businesses.
Colombia's Intelligence Director Facing 25 Years in Prison Jim Kouri, CPP In a country where lawless drug cartels have power, is it any wonder that Colombia's head of security is now implicated in crimes, including murder
Report Card on the 9/11 Commission's Recommendations Peter Gadiel, Patrick Dunleavy Family Security Matters and 9/11 Families for a Secure America check key recommendations from the 9/11 Commission to see if they have been implemented. The news is not good.
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What is Hadith?
Hadith is the collection of the Prophet Mohammed's statements and actions coupled with the statements and actions of his companions.
Hadith is believed to have been collected beginning 150 years after Mohammed's death in 632 C.E. and it is the basis of jurisprudence for Islamic law, or Sharia law.
To begin to understand Islam, one must understand what parts make up hadith, how hadith is classified, and how hadith is legitimized to mold Sharia.
Hadith has two parts. The first part is matn, which is the specific content or text of the statements and actions of Mohammed and his companions.
The second part is isnad, which is the record of the chain of transmitters all the way back to Mohammed, similar to a family tree. Although an isnad containing Mohammed's bloodline carries more weight, one does not have to be related to Mohammed to be a transmitter.
Muslims classify hadith in four different categories.
The first three categories refer specifically to Mohammed. Awl are the transmissions of Mohammed's statements, fi'li are the transmission of Mohammed's deeds or actions, and taqrir are the actions or deeds of the Prophet's companions or others that Mohammed has approved of.
The fourth category of classification is qudsi which are the Prophet's words, inspired by Allah, that are not recorded in the Quran.
Once hadith undergoes critical analysis, it becomes authenticated, lending legitimacy to Sharia by offering legal proof.
The process begins when Muslim scholars complete a thorough examination of the isnad. They look for information about the transmitters and the transmissions and examine the matn in historical context.
Once the analysis is complete, the hadith is given a rating as sahih (authentic), hasan (good), da'if (weak), and mawdu or batil (forged).
If a hadith is found to be sahih or hasan, it is admissible as Sharia.
In addition to offering legal proof for Sharia, the authentication and interpretation of hadith has had significant influences on the different sects of Islam.
Each sect of Islam views different collections of hadith to be the legitimate collection. They decide which hadith to trust and which hadith is unreliable. Hadith is also examined against the Quran and any hadith that conflicts with the Quran is thrown out.
Muslims consider the Quran the Divine Word of Allah, and it is above all else in Islam.
Hadith is second with believers trusting the words and deeds of Mohammed, so it helps to provide supplementation and clarification to the Quran.
Hadith provides to Muslims a window to look at the Prophet's way of life and offer examples of what he did or said so they may follow in his footsteps.
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 | | Tear Drop "A Gift From the People of Russia to the USA" |
The Russians Put Up a Beautiful 150-Ton "Tear Drop" Memorial, in New Jersey in 2006, to Those Who Died in the 9/11 Tragedy. It's Beautiful. Everyone Should be Aware of it. This is the First I've Heard of it.
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Solyndra Scandal Ends Green Jobs Myth
President Barack Obama's solution for America's unemployment woes has been a stubborn campaign to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on economic "stimulus"--much of it on so-called "green jobs." Report after report has shown the approach to be a total failure. And now, a new scandal involving Solyndra, a bankrupt solar panel company in California, should be the final nail in the coffin for the government's meddling in the free market.
"[W]e can see the positive impacts [of the stimulus] right here at Solyndra," Obama claimed when he spoke at the company's newly unveiled factory in May of last year. He was correct that the results of his stimulus would be on display at that factory. But he was wrong that those results would be positive. Little more than a year later, the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to lay off more than 1,000 employees.
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U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy: Sticks and Carrots
How Think Tanks Are Reshaping Journalism
Census Numbers: The Trend Toward Government Coverage Continues
QUICK HITS
The White House is warning Israeli and Palestianian leaders that a diplomatic clash at the United Nations over the creation of a Palestinian state could further destabilize the Middle East.
The U.S. Supreme Court has halted the Texas execution of Duane Edward Buck for a double killing in 1995 over claims that trial testimony regarding his race marred his sentence.
Syrian security forces are continuing their violent campaign against protesters. New reports say that the forces shot and killed at least four people during a raid on Friday.
Tomorrow is Constitution Day. Take a short quiz about what is written in the Founding document and see how you score, and then share it with friends. Click here.
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Monday, September 19, 2011 |
The TRAIN ACT is expected to come before the full U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, September 22nd. This bill would push back against the EPA's unconstitutional, outrageous rules and regulations that raise energy prices for consumers, destroy jobs and increase our dependence on foreign sources of energy. Tell your Representative to vote YES>>Please take a minute to talk with your congressman about why he or she should support the TRAIN ACT when it comes up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. The TRAIN ACT would: - Fight back against EPA regulations that would raise energy prices for consumers and destroy jobs - Reject the EPA's attempt to shut down coal as one key source of our energy needs - Ensure that America continues to be able to use its own natural resources for energy, as opposed to relying more on foreign sources of energy Read More >> | |
 Solyndra is the latest in the long list of "green energy" companies that have failed after being artificially propped up by the Obama administration. The solar panel manufacturer that received more than $500 million in federal "stimulus" loans declared bankruptcy a couple weeks ago. The highly publicized scandal further confirms that the Obama's "stimulus" and "green energy" agenda are boondoggles that reward his cronies at the expense of taxpayers. The Solyndra scandal is a prime example of political favoritism. Obama singled out the solar panel manufacturer for merely self-interested reasons. The $535 million loan to Solyndra in the "stimulus" law appears to be nothing more than a political kickback. As the Examiner's Timothy Carney writes, "this company's short life was dependent on government connections." Read More >> | |
A trove of just-released internal Obama Administration documents reveals that the President's top health care advisors were fully aware that a key component of ObamaCare presented a massive taxpayer bailout risk, but they chose to suppress the information in their frenzy to push the controversial legislation through Congress. The documents, quoted extensively in a report released yesterday by the House Energy & Commerce Committee, reveal a shocking level of cynicism by the President's team -- cynicism that will cost Americans hundreds of billions unless the unpopular ObamaCare law is repealed. The 185 internal HHS emails make for disturbing reading. Read More >> |
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How our PA senators votes compare to the Constitution
Susan Love of the Valley Forge Patriots Tea Party is distributing these charts of our two senators' voting records, vis a vis the Constitution.
A quick glance shows instantly how they measure up (or down!).
Lou Flanagan
Casey Accountability 2011
Toomey Accountability 2011
Read the full Freedom Index for 110 Congress Here . . .
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Fellow Patriots,
Today, Sept. 17, 2011, marks the 224th anniversary of the signing of our Constitution at the Philadelphia (Constitution) Convention in 1787. In recognition of this day, we are asking you to join with The Patriot Post and Essential Liberty Project in a legal battle to reinstate the Rule of Law enshrined in our Constitution. This legal action, unlike others before it, regards Breach of Oath -- breach of contract established by our Constitution between the elected and appointed members of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of our government, and We, the People. It seeks remedy for the lack of any proscription against, and penalty for such breach.
If you are a United States citizen and subject to federal taxes, you are eligible to join this action, and we encourage you, and everyone you know, to do just that. The success of this legal action depends on a large number of members signing on.
If you have not already done so, please register your support for the Oath Accountability Civil Action, to determine if we can restore the integrity of our Constitution by enforcing compliance with oath of office, or if we are condemned to the abuse previously characterized in American history as "Taxation Without Representation."
On behalf of The Patriot Post Team,
Christy Chesterton
Director of Advancement
The Patriot Post
The Foundation
"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions." --James Madison
Government & Politics
The Social Security Debate
Romney vs. Perry
The GOP presidential race this week boiled down to two words: Social Security. Specifically, which candidates have said what about the public retirement program set up by socialist Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The kindling has long been there for a fiery debate about the government's massive obligations to an aging population, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry's previous comments about Social Security being a "monstrous lie" and a "Ponzi scheme" lit the spark in Monday's Republican debate when several other candidates took issue with his position. So, is Social Security a Ponzi scheme?
Mitt Romney says no, and he seized the opportunity to cast the rhetoric of his main Republican rival as "over the top" and "frightful to many people." Romney warned, "If we nominate someone who the Democrats can correctly characterize as being opposed to Social Security, we would be obliterated as a party."
Frankly, both men have a point, though Romney used similar language in his own book to describe the program. Numerous figures on the Left have also over the years, dating back at least to a 1967 Newsweek column by liberal economist and Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson.
Strictly speaking, Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme, in part because it's not against the law. Indeed, it is the law. (Try not paying payroll taxes -- i.e., "investing" in the system.) But it is structured exactly like a Ponzi scheme, and it will eventually fail for the same reasons. Today's workers are paying for the checks of today's retirees, and it has always been that way. From the start, politicians have raided the Social Security "trust fund" and spent the money on other general fund projects. What was left were worthless IOUs. Now that benefits paid exceed taxes collected, that problem has become acute. According to the Social Security board of trustees, in 1945, there were 42 workers for every retiree; the current ratio of three workers to every retiree is unsustainable.
Perry later wrote a USA Today op-ed to clarify his position. He thinks Social Security must be reformed so that it can both be saved for those in and nearing retirement, as well as for younger workers. Still, Perry's problem is exactly as Romney indicated: Democrats (and apparently other Republicans) will demonize him for wanting to "destroy" Social Security. The program is still popular, and if voters think that a politician is going to take away their money, they will object vehemently. (Of course, their money has already been taken away, but that seems to escape the notice of far too many people.) Republicans have to walk the tightrope of calling for reform without being successfully demagogued.
The GOP candidates are shying away from any mention of Medicare, however, which is in far worse fiscal condition than Social Security. Annual spending on Medicare and Medicaid is now 5.5 percent of GDP, and by 2030, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that it will reach nearly 10 percent. Medicare by itself is already the biggest spender on medical services in the U.S., and that $525 billion in 2010 is influencing the market for everyone else.
Perhaps Herman Cain said it best: "I don't care what you call it, it's broken." He's right. And no matter what we call these programs, the important thing is to recognize that they will cause the nation to go broke if we don't fix them. But they can't be fixed unless conservatives win elections, and winning elections might require a more tactful approach.
Is Social Security a Ponzi scheme? Share your thoughts
Open Query
"A healthy 30-year-old young man" without health insurance ends up in the hospital. "Who's going to ... pay for that? ... Are you saying that society should just let him die?" --CNN's Wolf Blitzer with a "gotcha" question for Rep. Ron Paul in Monday's GOP debate
Paul's answer is here and it's excellent.
News From the Swamp: Stimulus Jr.
Barack Obama gave details of his "jobs" proposal Monday, and then quickly hit the road, urging everyone at every appearance he made to support its quick and complete passage. "If you love me," he crooned, "you've got to help me pass this bill." Obama maintains that his $447 billion plan will fix America's unemployment problem, which has grown increasingly worse under his watch. The bill will create 1.9 million jobs, he says, and reduce unemployment by a full percentage point. Yet Stimulus Jr. merely repeats many of the proposals that didn't work when they were passed in 2009.
For instance, the employee payroll tax would be expanded. There is also a $49 billion extension of unemployment benefits. The current maximum for the unemployed to draw benefits is 99 weeks (just three weeks short of two whole years), and when that line in the sand was drawn in 2009, Democrats said they would never have to cross it. They now support the extension, however, because they claim the added money will flow back into the economy through consumer spending -- despite all evidence to the contrary. Also, $60 billion will be dedicated to infrastructure spending and the creation of an infrastructure bank to finance projects when and if they become shovel-ready.
Obama maintains that this plan "is fully paid for." How, you ask? Well, the president has rolled out the same solutions for that, too. Tax increases to the tune of $467 billion -- over 10 years. Remember, the spending would occur this year. Tax rates would go up for families making over $250,000 per year, and some deductions such as charitable donations would be limited. (We can all watch charitable giving plummet if that happens.) Obama would also end tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jet owners, and raise the tax paid by hedge funds and investment partnerships. Republicans and some Democrats have previously rejected these proposals because they would hit precisely the small business job creators that are needed to jumpstart the economy. Besides, if wealthy leftists feel guilty about their prosperity and want to give more to the government, they're perfectly free to do so.
House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor have both stated publicly that they won't support any elements of the program that call for more stimulus spending -- and rightly so. Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Manhattan Institute said in her House testimony on the subject this week, "Those who believe that the 2009 stimulus simply was not enough ... should admit that if $1 trillion did not work in 2009, then $447 billion is unlikely to solve an even larger problem in 2011." Furthermore, conservatives and far-left Democrats reject the idea of an extended payroll tax cut because it will reduce the amount of money paid into an already fragile Social Security system.
It's hard to imagine that Obama has much of a chance of passing his jobs plan intact with such an array of Republicans and Democrats aligned against him. In fact, that's exactly what he wants, because he can then run against the "do-nothing Congress" in 2012. Indeed, it's a rerun of Harry Truman's 1948 campaign. Obama says, "This Congress, they are accustomed to doing nothing, and they're comfortable with doing nothing, and they keep on doing nothing."
A final note: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) snagged the name Obama had chosen for his boondoggle -- The American Jobs Act -- for his own piece of legislation, H.R. 2911, which proposes a tax cut to stimulate the economy. Tellingly, no Democrat had yet submitted the president's latest emergency, pass-it-right-away bill. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has said that other bills will receive attention first -- such as one on bike trails.
This Week's 'Braying Jenny' Award
"I'll put it this way, you don't deserve to keep all of [your money]. It's not a question of deserving, because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together." --Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) pontificating about the money you earn
On Cross-Examination
Obama has a little work to do to gain support for Stimulus Jr. -- from his own party.
"I have serious questions about the level of spending that President Obama proposed." --Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
"I am not supporting a repeal of tax cuts for the oil industry unless there are other industries that contribute. ... That offset is not going to fly, and he should know that. Maybe it's just for his election." --Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
"When you start singling out certain industries [oil and gas], there's an unfairness to it. On the pay-fors, I have a problem." --Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK)
"Every dollar that is spent on the jobs bill ... is not going to be available to Congress to deal with the debt. And to me, the top priority of ours should be long-term major debt reduction." --Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
Constitution Day 2011
Tomorrow, Sept. 17, 2011, marks the 224th anniversary of the signing of our Constitution at the Philadelphia (Constitution) Convention in 1787. Of course, these days, Memorial Day may be a more apt description.
Share your thoughts
Hope 'n' Change: ObamaCare in CourtU.S. District Judge Christopher Conner ruled this week that the individual mandate in ObamaCare is unconstitutional. Conner, appointed by George W. Bush, wrote that the mandate extends Congress's power under the Constitution too far. At this point, the law has several rulings in its favor and several against it. Why, again, did the Supreme Court insist that, before they take it up, the law must run its course through the lower courts? New & Notable LegislationThe House passed H.R. 2587 by a 238-186 vote Thursday. The legislation prohibits the National Labor Relations Board from dictating where corporations may establish factories. The law is a response to the NLRB's decision earlier this summer to sue Boeing for opening a manufacturing plant for the 787 Dreamliner in right-to-work South Carolina instead of union-shop Washington state. Unions, predictably, didn't like the move, regardless of how many jobs it might create. The bill is unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate. Special Election Win for GOP in Blue TerritoryRepublican Bob Turner shook the political world this week by winning a special House election in deep-blue New York District 9. Turner, a retired businessman, defeated New York State Assemblyman David Weprin 54-46. Weprin, a machine Democrat whose family has been a mainstay in New York politics for years, was initially expected to handily win the seat recently vacated by scandal-plagued Anthony Weiner. The district, which straddles the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, is predominantly Jewish, and Democrats enjoy a 3-to-1 voter registration advantage there. Voters in the district have not sent a Republican to Washington since 1923, and Weprin and members of his family have served several terms in local and statewide office in the area. These advantages ended up meaning nothing, as Weprin's fortunes diminished rapidly in the closing weeks of the campaign. Democrats even pulled out the big guns in an attempt to save him, but to no avail. The upset spoke volumes about the current state of affairs for Democrats, but they are unlikely to learn any lessons judging by their response to the outcome. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz provided the most laughable excuse when she claimed, "It's a very difficult district for Democrats." The White House, of course, rejected the idea that it was a referendum on the administration, though they used the opposite spin on the special election victory House Democrats won in upstate New York earlier this year. The fact is that the race was precisely a referendum on the Obama presidency, and particularly his ghastly economic record. Obama's poor treatment of Israel on the international stage also angered many Jewish voters in the district, and they expressed their sentiment at the ballot box. Turner may not serve long, however, since District 9 is targeted for elimination when redistricting takes place next year, but his victory has sent a clear message as the crucial 2012 campaign season approaches. National SecurityWarfront With Jihadistan: 9/11 Remembrance Omits Key ElementThe victims of 9/11 were appropriately remembered and honored in ceremonies across the country last Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the jihadi attacks on America. Yet if you were listening for information about their murders and what motivated them, there was only silence. Even though we're still at war with Jihadistan, political correctness invaded most ceremonies, and any mention of the dreaded "I" word, Islam, was strictly verboten. Indeed, about the only mention of Islam came from the Left, where some did their best to make it seem as if Muslims were actually the main victims of 9/11. Other leftists reported on how benign Sharia law really is, and argued that "jihad" is actually just a nonviolent struggle. It's doubtful that the Americans on Flight 93, or the New York City police and firemen of the World Trade Center, would agree with that definition. One had to leave the U.S. to find sources that would dare speak the truth. In London, Tony Blair pointed to all of the Middle Eastern countries that harbor terrorist ideologies, saying, "It's completely wrong to think the struggle to defeat extremist ideology is won." Israeli sources were even more blunt, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying, "Therefore, the struggle against radical Islamic terrorism, which is, in effect, a description of the past decade, is at its peak; it is not yet over. We must all unite, countries that aspire to life, certainly the democracies that cherish life, and act in concert against this blight." Al-Qa'ida certainly noted the anniversary. Its new leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, claimed credit for this year's Arab uprisings, saying the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. paved the way for the "Arab volcano" that is sweeping through the Middle East. A stretch, to be sure, but also an indication that the radical Islamists of al-Qa'ida are still in the game, even if American politicians and the press are afraid to say so. Testimony Under PressureU.S. Air Force Gen. William Shelton dropped a bomb this week when he alleged that the White House had pressured him to modify testimony before Congress to make it more favorable toward a company that made donations to Democrats. The four-star Air Force general oversees U.S. Space Command, and he was scheduled to testify before a House committee on Aug. 3 regarding a new wireless project of a satellite broadband company in Virginia called LightSquared. Shelton's testimony was leaked in advance, revealing that he was prepared to tell the committee that LightSquared's project would interfere with the military's sensitive Global Positioning Satellite capabilities. The majority owner of LightSquared, however, is an investment fund run by Democrat donor Philip Falcone. The company saw that the testimony could damage their business, and the White House intervened. Shelton says the White House requested that he alter his testimony to voice support for the administration's policy of adding more broadband for commercial use and to say that the Pentagon would work to resolve questions regarding LightSquared with testing in only 90 days. It seems that this administration will stop at nothing to politicize any issue in favor of their donors. Congress has a duty to investigate and find out just who pressured Shelton, and from whom those orders came. U.S. Air Force BirthdayRelentlessly committed to the defense of liberty, the United States Air Force celebrates its 64th birthday Sunday, Sept. 18. The Air Force began life as the Army Air Corps but became a separate Armed Services Branch when the National Security Act of 1947 created the Department of the Air Force. As the U.S. Air Force continues its critical mission "to fly, fight and win ... in air, space and cyberspace," we ask that you pray for these brave Patriots prosecuting the Long War against Jihadistan, and for their families awaiting their safe return.
Profiles of Valor: U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota MeyerFormer U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota Meyer Thursday became the first living Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, Meyer struggled for words, saying, "It's hard, it's ... you know ... getting recognized for the worst day of your life, so it's ... it's a really tough thing." It was his worst day because of the friends he lost. On Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer and his platoon were on patrol in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, when they were ambushed. When several team members were cut off from the main group, Meyer sought to rescue them. According to the official citation, "With a fellow Marine driving, Corporal Meyer took the exposed gunner's position in a gun-truck as they drove down the steeply terraced terrain in a daring attempt to disrupt the enemy attack and locate the trapped U.S. team. Disregarding intense enemy fire now concentrated on their lone vehicle, Corporal Meyer killed a number of enemy fighters with the mounted machine guns and his rifle, some at near point blank range, as he and his driver made three solo trips into the ambush area." Despite a shrapnel wound in his arm, Meyer led a total of five trips into the kill zone to "recover more wounded Afghan soldiers and search for the missing U.S. team members." Meyer's final trip was on foot, and he recovered the bodies of four of his friends -- Marine 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, Marine Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Johnson, and Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class James Layton. Two of Meyer's fellow Marines, Capt. Ademola Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, the driver, were awarded the Navy Cross. Voice your support for Cpl. Meyer Business & EconomyIncome Redistribution: Some Energy Bleeds GreenSolyndra is becoming a household name, but not for the intended reasons. Despite being given a 2009 "stimulus" loan of $535 million, the solar panel maker filed for bankruptcy last week -- and it's not the only one, either. Joe Biden spoke at the groundbreaking of the company's new factory and said "renewable energy" is "exactly what the Recovery Act is all about." Barack Obama also praised the company last May at an on-site visit, saying, "companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future." Solyndra CEO and founder, Dr. Chris Gronet, called Barack Obama "instrumental" in securing the loan. With that high-profile backing, the fallout from the firm's collapse isn't pretty. Congress and the Treasury Department are both investigating what the White House knew and why so much money was invested in a failing operation. There were warnings months before the loan and Obama's photo-op at Solyndra headquarters, including from accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers, who indicated "substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern." Internal administration emails reveal that some people worried about default -- primarily over how it would affect Obama's re-election campaign. Yet Energy Department officials sat in on the company's meetings and concluded that the loan was worth it. No doubt more will be revealed in the coming days and weeks, but what is perhaps even more galling is that, despite the malfeasance in the Solyndra case, the Department of Energy is set to issue another $1.2 billion loan to Mojave Solar for a 250-megawatt solar generation project in San Bernardino County, California. Aside from Solyndra, this new move comes after a Washington Post report saying, "A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began..." While only $17.2 billion has been spent to date, just 3,545 new jobs have been created, at a cost of nearly $5 million per job. Even if all 65,000 jobs had materialized, though, the cost per job is obscene. Perhaps that's still better than $19 billion in erroneous unemployment payments. Some lessons, it seems, are never learned. What should happen as a result of Solyndra? Regulatory Commissars: Turn on the Jobs Spigot, PleaseOver the last few months Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil have each announced the finding of vast oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. It's an opportunity to create thousands of real jobs and perhaps begin to dent the persistently high fuel prices and unemployment plaguing the nation. All told, the new discoveries in deep water areas of over 4,000 feet in depth have the potential of producing billions of barrels of oil, and helping our nation achieve a degree of energy independence while at the same time adding to the 9.2 million domestic jobs already provided by the oil and natural gas industry. If only these companies were free to determine areas in which to drill and build up the infrastructure for safe extraction and transport. Yet an unsustainable pace of regulatory approvals since the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill may force U.S. oil rigs out of the Gulf. As many as 20 rigs could be relocated to other oil hotspots around the globe such as Brazil or Nigeria. We realize that some jobs in the energy industry may not be the "green" jobs Barack Obama desires, but in an era where solar power companies go belly-up and take millions of taxpayer dollars with them, why not speed up the regulatory process and let the oil industry use its own private funding to create lasting employment for thousands of Americans? Seems like a no-brainer to us. Bank of America to Cut 30,000 JobsIf you limit the amount of income a service provider can receive, it follows that they will have less money to invest in retaining staff. Over the next three years, 30,000 Bank of America employees will learn this truism the hard way as they're downsized out of the company. An amendment to the 2009 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill will cost the financial giant $475 million in just one quarter this year once the rule takes effect in October, so as part of a makeover to slash an overall $5 billion in corporate expenses, these workers must go. The Dodd-Frank rule cuts the amount banks can charge retailers in transaction fees by roughly half. While populists from both parties chortled about "exorbitant" debit card transaction fees, they didn't realize this income stream was what kept other fees, such as fees for checking accounts or interest rates on credit cards, lower. A look at recent history shows this is nothing new for a beleaguered banking industry. Once the boom times of the Bush years went bust and consumers slipped into unsustainable debt, along came federal regulators to stick companies (and responsible credit card holders) with the bill. Beginning with the 2009 Credit CARD Act, which led to general interest rate increases for most creditworthy consumers, the trend of recent federal regulations has served to make the credit card business less lucrative for banks. While average Americans fall prey to the class envy aspect of regulating bank fees, it may be their neighbor who loses his job thanks to the new rules.
Around the Nation: Poverty IncreasesEverywhere we turn, we hear grim news about the economic health of this country. In 2010, income in the U.S. was at a 10-year low and poverty was at a 17-year high. The Census Bureau now reports that one in six Americans is now considered poor. In the midst of this economic turmoil, Obama is asking us to spend another $447 billion, in part to help the "disadvantaged youth" by giving their low-income parents "ladders out of poverty." This poverty, however, is the hallmark of Obamanomics. On the other hand, when most of us hear the word "poverty," we think of hunger and homelessness, a life starved of even basic needs. Yet according to a recent Heritage Foundation report, "Understanding Poverty in the United States," that is not as prevalent as we are often led to believe. The report's authors, Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield, found the following: According to the Department of Agriculture's 2009 statistics, 96 percent of low-income parents reported that their children were never hungry due to lack of money, and 83 percent of poor families have enough to eat. Also, while 4 percent of the poor were temporarily homeless, 42 percent own their own homes. Car, computer and TV ownership is even higher. The report also speaks to the causes of poverty, and a lack of government aid is not among them. In fact, the government only makes things worse. As blogger Ed Morrissey quipped, "It seems that Obama loves the poor so much that he's going out of his way to create more of them." Culture & PolicySecond Amendment: The Right to CarryU.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel ruled this week that issuance of concealed carry permits is a matter of discretion for state authorities and isn't an individual right. Furthermore, guns are scary. "The underlying activity of possessing or transporting an accessible and loaded weapon is itself dangerous and undesirable, regardless of the intent of the bearer since it may lead to the endangerment of public safety," Seibel wrote, quoting a previous decision on the case. Carrying a loaded weapon on a public street, she said, "creates a volatile situation vulnerable to spontaneous lethal aggression in the event of road rage or any other disagreement or dispute. For all these reasons, I hold that the state has an important government interest in promoting public safety and preventing crime." Declaring that people intent on committing a crime don't have legal access to a gun is not going to stop them -- it will only disarm their victims. In related news, Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and Heath Shuler (D-NC) have introduced H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. The bill would ensure that all state-issued concealed carry permits are recognized by all other states. Illinois is the only state that still maintains that the Second Amendment doesn't exist. Are guns themselves an endangerment to public safety? Climate Change This Week: Gore's 24Continuing his quest to rid the world of global-warming skeptics, Al "It's Not Easy Being Green" Gore has announced that he will air 24 straight hours of global warming television this week. "24 Hours of Reality" will play on Current TV, which Gore co-founded (after all, what other channel would give Gore 24 hours of airtime?). According to Trewin Restorick, chief executive of Global Action Plan, the broadcast's UK partner, "There will be a full-on assault on climate skeptics, exploring where they get their funding from." This approach is hardly surprising, as "assault" is the only option available to the crusade that is steadily losing in the court of public opinion. A recent opinion poll, for example, showed that concern over climate change has dropped in the U.S. from 62 percent in 2007 to 48 percent this year. All that aside, let's assume for a minute that man-made climate change is real. Does Gore really think his leftist partisan approach is going to turn the masses in his favor? If he hasn't been able to convince the world through three decades of scare tactics and selective science, 24 hours of hot air isn't going to do the job. Just in case you're thinking of tuning into Gore's production, though, you should probably know that the broadcast has been rated "U" for "Unsubstantiated."
And Last...In an effort to help supporters "get the facts" and "fight the smears," the Obama campaign has launched a new website called AttackWatch. Arrayed in warning colors of red and white, with a black background for added eeriness, the goal is for people to rat out their neighbors for saying naughty things about the Obama administration. For example, saying, "The stimulus was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent; it's now over 9 percent," could get you reported. "ObamaCare is a regulatory nightmare that is already costing jobs," is another reportable smear. Various charges are countered with the same old platitudes regurgitated at every teleprompter recitation. We're not alone, however, in getting a good laugh out of the Obama campaign's paranoia. Even The Washington Post called the site a "laughingstock." Meanwhile, Misfitpolitics came up with a hilarious parody, and others are lining up to mock the effort. For our part, we're just hoping that we'll get reported. Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
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It's Another "Us" Crisis
"The great fundamental issue now before the Republican party and before our people can be stated briefly. It is: Are the American people fit to govern themselves, to rule themselves, to control themselves?" Theodore Roosevelt
"We can't just leave it up to the parents," Michelle Obama
We live in a golden age. A wondrous era where the government compels us to buy health insurance, whether we need it or not. And whether we want to or not. Where the First Lady is no longer in charge of the White House's meals, but of our meals. Where wise and generous czars in the nation's capital ponder day and night how to stop the flow of free information that's rotting our minds and filling our heads with critical thoughts about the government. Previous generations had to do it the hard way. They had to buy a home, find a job, marry and have children-- without anyone from the government coming to their doorstep to tell them how to do it all. Few of our nation's youth born in this golden time can believe what savages we once were. How can they comprehend an America in which anyone could walk into a store and leave with a package of lawn darts a few minutes later? An America where people had to decide for themselves what to order in a restaurant that could sell any type of food at all regardless of its salt and calorie content. A maddening chaotic society in which ordinary citizens could place items on the ballot and they would become state laws. And all the states had different laws. Think of it.
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WALNUTS AND PEANUTS What conclusions can we draw from the shellacking in NY-9? 1. The Reagan Democrats are back in a big way, while the media is trying to spin this as a single issue vote about gay marriage or Israel, and while those were certainly factors, it was very much a backlash about the whole Obama package. 2. The Jewish vote is in play. Not as much as people think, the Democrats don't have to worry too much about losing the Upper West Side, but Brooklyn and Queens are in play. This was widely ignored by people who like to toss off the 76 percent figure, but working class Jews in Brooklyn came out for Bush in 2004 and to a lesser degree for McCain in 2008. There's a major gap between the limousine liberal and the poorer and more traditional Jews who kicked Weprin to the curb. Read more:
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In spite of the prominence of black Tea Party conservatives, the Republicans remain clueless.
September 17, 2011 by Duane Lester
In 2008, 96 percent of black voters pulled the lever for Barack Obama. His current approval rating in the black community shows a possible, albeit slim, vulnerability - one that Florida Congressman Allen West is ready to exploit.
On a recent episode of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, West said Democrats have had black voters sequestered on a modern day plantation, and they are upset because "they have been disregarded, disrespected and their concerns are not cared about."
West claims to be "the modern day Harriet Tubman to kind of lead people on the Underground Railroad away from that plantation...." The problem is, as West notes, the Republican Party's outreach "has not done very well in reaching out."
To some black conservatives, that's an understatement of epic proportions
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By Quin Hillyer on 9.15.11
Americans should get furious, and fast, about the abuses.
Start rattling the chains. Start ratcheting up the hue and cry. Fire up the masses. It's long past time to force mass resignations at, and possible prosecutions of members of, the Obama Justice Department -- and, more broadly, of the West Wing itself.
Forgive all the links, but the scope of the corruption is so large as to defy adequate descriptions, in a single column, of each abomination. The reality is that these Obama/Holder minions at DoJ are dangerous to the very heart of constitutional, republican (small 'r') government. Last fall in the Spectator's print edition I did a broad overview of the problems. In the September issue of The New Criterion, Andy McCarthy does a wonderful job outlining the problems with the Holder department and with other examples of Obamite executive overreach. Of course the Black Panther case, the dismissal of which I (on the Washington Times editorial page) and the Times' ace reporter Jerry Seper on the news side were the first to report in print (I later discovered that the fabulous Michelle Malkin wrote on it online a day or two earlier), still hasn't been adequately handled. And the outrageous DoJ blocking of non-partisan elections in Kinston, N.C., solely to benefit the Democratic Party , is now being examined in the courts, with the administration having lost, big, in the latest round.
More recently, the burgeoning scandal of the "Fast and Furious" gun-running blow-up, already a huge embarrassment for the Justice Department, keeps moving closer to the White House. Read more: |
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Breaking: A Power Line DC Bureau Exclusive! "Operation Chaos" Exposed!!
Posted: 16 Sep 2011 11:15 AM PDT
(Steven Hayward)
Power Line's Washington Bureau has obtained a secret recording of the latest double-secret central committee meeting of Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos." The thick cigar smoke in the room degraded the recording quality, and our voice-print analysis software can't confirm that the Ouija board pronouncements really are the voice of the late Lee Atwater, but we can confirm the rest of the participants. We pick up right from the opening puff:
Rush: Gentlemen, I'm really starting to worry that our plan of placing our hand-picked, CIA-groomed Manchurian candidate Obama in the White House to unravel liberalism from within is working too well and too fast. We're in danger of repeating 1968, when, having failed to keep Bobby Kennedy in the cabinet and not foreseeing that that nobody Gene McCarthy would knock out LBJ, we almost blew the election when the Democrats changed horses.
Karl: Yeah, but at least we still have Hillary locked safely away in the Cabinet. Surely she needs to head off to Libya or somewhere for the next few months? And Russ Feingold and Howard Dean are total wimps and won't dare step forward to challenge our guy.
Roger: Shut up, Rove. You're part of the problem here. Your American Crossroads spent too much on the two House special elections this week, turning them into blowouts. I thought we agreed that we only wanted very narrow wins so as not to alarm the Democrats too much. Now they're starting to panic for real, and look around for a way to get Obama out without upsetting black voters and starting a civil war inside the Democratic Party.
Rupert: Yes, but don't worry my trusty lieutenant. Carville is moving the stanch the damage with his wild ideas of having Obama purge his staff and Eric Holder indict bankers. Clearly our agent Mary Matalin's wiles are finally starting to work on that guy. Just keep your eyes on my broadcast news network, Roger, and we'll get through this.
Karl: Wait a minute Rupert. It could be that Carville is playing the outside game, hoping Obama will do something so crazy and self-destructive that he decides himself to step aside, while some insiders quietly urge Obama to be a one-termer. Never forget that Carville's loyalties are still with the Clintons. I'm not so sure our agent Matalin can be relied upon. I've always suspected she might be a double.
Voice From the Ether by Ouija Board: Hey, y'all. I'm wondering whose bright idea it was to have the Administration cancel the new EPA greenhouse gas rules this week? I know you wanted to stomp on Al Gore's global warming telethon, but wasn't canceling the ozone regs a couple weeks ago enough to get the enviros all demoralized? (Now where'd I put my Gibson blues guitar??)
Karl: I think Charles and David ordered this.
Rush: No, no it was me! Think of the sheer entertainment value if Gore suits up and comes out of retirement to challenge Obama. I'll have to go to four hours a day on the air to keep up. I keep hearing that Obama may be depressed, just like Jimmy at Camp David in July 1979-he barely avoided a complete nervous breakdown. Gore is my insurance policy in case Obama is about to crack. Seeing Al-the-Mortician-Gore in his rearview mirror would bring him back up to a 9.5 on the Couric Perkiness Scale overnight. We really need him to hang on, like Jimmy in 1980. That was a close shave with Kennedy-too close. I'm seeing real danger signs here, folks. When Obama starts saying, "If you love me-. . ."
At this point the tape breaks off. . .
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The Daily Hayek
Posted: 16 Sep 2011 09:57 AM PDT
(Steven Hayward)
Not to worry, I don't propose actually to do daily posts on Hayek, but since I'm doing a close reading of Hayek with my Ashland students, and since there is so much in his work that is hard to get your head around all at once, it might be useful to digest small chunks from time to time-especially when their relevance to current issues is so clear.
So in chapter 2 of The Constitution of Liberty ("The Creative Powers of a Free Society"), Hayek takes aim at the important distinction modern liberals make that turns out to be a contradiction-namely, that freedom of thought should be absolute, but freedom of action (i.e., economic freedom) should be tightly regulated by the state:
Because we are more aware that our advances in the intellectual sphere often spring from the unforeseen and undesigned, we tend to overstress the importance of freedom in this field and to ignore the importance of the freedom of doing things. But the freedom of research and belief and the freedom of speech and discussion, the importance of which is widely understood, are significant only in the last stage of the process in which new truths are discovered. To extol the value of intellectual liberty at the expense of the value of the liberty of doing things would be like treating the crowning part of an edifice as the whole. We have new ideas to discuss, different views to adjust, because those ideas and views arise from the efforts of individuals in ever new circumstances, who avail themselves in their concrete tasks of the new tools and forms of action they have learned.
Two pages later (p. 87 if you have the new University of Chicago edition) Hayek makes plain the most important implication of this:
It has become a common practice to disparage freedom of action by calling it "economic liberty." But the concept of freedom of action is much wider than that of economic liberty, which it includes; and, what is more important, it is very questionable whether there are any actions which can be called merely "economic" and whether any restrictions on liberty can be confined to what are merely called "economic" aspects.
If you really want to have fun and play around with this analysis, by all means find the essay by another Nobel Prize winning economist, Ronald Coase, from the May 1974 American Economic Review, "The Market for Goods and the Market for Ideas." Coase mischievously picks up from Hayek and says, essentially, why shouldn't the logic of why we regulate the market for goods be applied to the market for ideas, since ideas can be as dangerous to people as many tangible products in the marketplace? After spinning out the case for this at length, Coase comes around to his ironic point:
We have to decide whether the government is as incompetent as is generally assumed in the market for ideas, in which case we would want to decrease government intervention in the market for goods, or whether it is as efficient as it is generally assumed to be in the market for goods, in which case we would want to increase government regulation in the market for ideas.
Great argument, except that liberals will never get it. Case in point: the Federal Election Commission, and the Left's reaction to the Citizens United decision. Recall that Coase wrote his piece in 1974. Hence the ultimate irony is this sentence:
Yet a proposal to set up a Federal Press Commission or a Federal Political Commission modeled on the Federal Trade Commission would be dismissed out of hand.
Um. . .
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The mission behind the Medal
Posted: 16 Sep 2011 07:09 AM PDT
(Scott Johnson)
Bing West's Wall Street Journal column on the Medal of Honor awarded to then Marine Corporal (now Sergeant) Dakota Meyer provides context and detail lacking in most of the news accounts occasioned by yesterday's White House ceremony. Sergeant Meyer was awarded the Medal for his day-long heroics during a September 2009 ambush in Afghanistan rescuing a group "abandoned by their chain of command," according to West. West spoke with Sergeant Meyer within a few days of the incident, as one can tell from this excerpt of the column:
21-year-old Cpl. Meyer listened to radio calls for artillery fire that were refused by officers at higher headquarters due to concern for endangering villagers. Cpl. Meyer hopped into the gun turret of a Humvee and persuaded a fellow adviser, Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, to drive him straight into the battle.
When the Humvee lurched into the wash, Cpl. Meyer saw the bodies of roughly a dozen Afghan soldiers strewn across the terrain, some dead and others crying. With bullets striking his truck, he leaped out, stuffed five wounded Afghans inside, and then hopped back up behind the machine gun and hammered away as the pulverized vehicle crawled out of the wash.
Leaving the wounded in the rear, Cpl. Meyer and Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez swapped Humvees. This time the enemy was waiting in a dry streambed. Rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun bullets followed Cpl. Meyer as he repeatedly left his armored turret to load the truck with wounded Afghan soldiers. At one point, he shot a tall man with a black beard. When another leapt forward under the barrel of his machine gun, Cpl. Meyer grabbed his M4 rifle and shot him in the head.
"You'll have to kill me," he shouted in the rage of battle (he had expected to be killed, he told me a few days later at his outpost in Afghanistan), "because that's the only way you'll stop me."
Please read the whole thing, as well as the Journal article by Julian Barnes, both of which can be accessed in full with a little effort.
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Al Gore in Cartoons
Posted: 16 Sep 2011 05:33 AM PDT
(Steven Hayward)
Anthony Watt's WattsUpWithThat site has a panel of cartoons by "Josh" that summarize Al Gore's telethon. This is just too good to be missed.
UPDATE: Our friends at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow offer us their own cartoon rendering of Gore's status. (But wait! Aren't sharks endangered by global warming too?)
UPDATE 2: Apparently most of Gore's fellow green-weenies don't think much of his telethon. Marc Morano has the details.
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Waxman Doubles Down
Posted: 15 Sep 2011 06:26 PM PDT
(Steven Hayward)
Not content with winning Power Line's "Quote of the Day" award yesterday, Henry Waxman is quoted today in the press saying that Jewish voters in NY-9 voted Republican because "they want to protect their wealth." Looking at Waxman and Obama, don't we all. Here's the complete quote, just to show it doesn't get any better "in context":
"But there's no question the Jewish community is much more bipartisan than it has been in previous years. There are Jews who are trending toward the Republican Party, some of it because of their misunderstanding of Obama's policies in the Middle East, and some of it, quite frankly, for economic reasons. They feel they want to protect their wealth, which is why a lot of well-off voters vote for Republicans."
Yeah, we get the picture: Waxman looks at your bank account and thinks, "My precious!"
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Friday, September 16, 2011
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer
The Great Debate
Yesterday House Speaker John Boehner delivered an address before the Economic Club of Washington. In his remarks, Speaker Boehner reiterated the conservative view that the joint committee on deficit reduction should meet its goals by cutting spending and not by raising taxes. Here is an excerpt of Boehner's remarks:
"Tax increases... are not a viable option for the Joint Committee. It's a very simple equation. Tax increases destroy jobs. ...When it comes to producing savings to reach its $1.5 trillion deficit reduction target, the Joint Select Committee has only one option: spending cuts and entitlement reform."
Speaker Boehner's remarks not only encouraged conservatives, they also reignited the great debate that has dominated America since the rise of the Tea Party Movement: The problem is not that we are taxed too little, the problem is that the feds spend too much!
Regarding Obama's latest stimulus bill, Boehner said, "Some of the president's proposals offer opportunities for common ground. But let's be honest with ourselves. The president's proposals are a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation in America. ... If we want job growth, we need to recognize who really creates jobs in America. It's the private-sector."
Boehner gets it. Obama does not. There is little in Obama's plan that will create private sector jobs. The payroll tax cut will help some, but it expires in a year. The major thrust of the bill is more money for teachers, firefighters and police, as well as government-funded construction projects.
Now don't get me wrong -- teachers, firefighters and police officers are good people. These are noble professions. I grew up with teachers, firefighters and police officers in the blue collar neighborhoods of Newport, Kentucky. But these are all government jobs, which were bailed out in the first round of stimulus spending in 2009. In addition, these jobs are funded by state and local governments -- not Washington, D.C.
And while many of these good folks are now losing their jobs in the Obama recession, there are millions of real estate agents, small business owners, white collar workers, salesmen, bank tellers, home builders, electricians and others, who have been out of work for years. There is little if anything in Obama's stimulus bill that will help them. But there are a lot of tax increases that could make things in the private sector even worse.
My point is simply this: The public sector cannot exist without a thriving private sector creating jobs and tax revenues. Obama has it backwards. He seems to think that Big Government creates jobs.
In his 1981 inaugural address, Ronald Reagan said, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem." It was true then, and as we suffer through Jimmy Carter's second term, it is still true today.
I Told You So
Last Friday I reported that nearly two-thirds of the readers of this daily report thought it was a tactical mistake for Texas Governor Rick Perry to refer to Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme" and a "monstrous lie" -- rhetoric that will surely be exploited by Obama, big media and the left to scare seniors.
The latest data provide proof of just how damaging the issue could be to Perry. Two weeks ago, a Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters found Perry leading President Obama 44%-to-41%. A Rasmussen poll released yesterday found Obama leading Perry 46%-to-39%.
That's a 10-point swing in two weeks. Obama's ratings have declined during those two weeks, but he is suddenly ahead of Perry. Why? I suspect it is because of the controversy over Social Security.
It is worth noting that Rasmussen is one of the most accurate and "Republican-friendly" pollsters, because he almost always polls likely voters, as he did in this instance.
Other polls also suggest the issue could be problematic. For example, a CNN poll found that while 83% of Americans believe Social Security needed reform, 72% felt Perry's description of the program was inaccurate, including 69% of Republicans, 68% of independents, and 67% of self-identified conservatives. Even 59% of Tea Party supporters felt Perry's description of Social Security was not accurate. And among those 50 and older, the largest demographic of the most reliable voters, the number skyrocketed to 81%.
A Gallup poll found that Perry's comments didn't impact his support much among Republicans. But independent voters were nearly three times less likely to support him. (And there are a number of states that allow independent voters to cast ballots in the primaries.)
Where the issue could really hurt Perry is on the question of electability. Nearly 4 out of 10 Republicans said it could hurt his ability to win the White House. If Republican primary voters begin to think that Perry is unelectable, unable to defeat Obama, his campaign could unravel.
To his credit, Governor Perry has begun to address this issue. He recently authored an op-ed in USA Today in which he clearly stated his desire to preserve Social Security for current recipients and those nearing retirement. But one op-ed won't suffice. Again, I urge the Perry campaign to aggressively address the issue while the voters are still listening to him. Reform Social Security -- yes! Abolish it -- no.
Day Of Rage?
Tomorrow as many as 20,000 radical activists are expected to descend on Wall Street and other locations in major cities for a "Day of Rage." The Day of Rage is being promoted by groups that are funded by the usual suspects -- George Soros, the Tides Foundation, ACORN, etc.
Some in this movement appear to have embraced the "Cloward/Piven" strategy and hope to instigate a crisis that will disrupt the elections and lead to "big time transformative change," as one radical activist put it. After Wall Street, this group plans to take over Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., next month. And after that, I'm sure they will enlist in the Obama reelection campaign!
Join Me In D.C.
The 2011 Values Voter Summit will be held next month -- October 7th through the 9th -- at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum will all be there! Will you? Register now at www.valuesvotersummit.org.
In addition to these presidential candidates, you will also hear from House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Bill Bennett, Gen. William Boykin, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Erick Erickson, Mark Levin, Phyllis Schlafly and many others. This year's summit will feature a gala dinner honoring former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese.
There will be educational sessions on a wide range of issues, including secularism and the future of America, the welfare state and the family, the Tea Party movement and much more. My public policy group, American Values, will host a lunch on Saturday, October 8th.
Seats are going fast. Reserve yours now at www.valuesvotersummit.org. I look forward to seeing you there!
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Does the Constitution still matter today?
For years, liberals have benefited from Americans' limited knowledge of the Constitution - and now is the time to put a stop to it and restore respect now.
Take this short quiz and see if you can answer questions about what is written in the Founding Document. Then pass it on to your friends and family.
As President Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, I have seen firsthand how activist judges, the mainstream media and even elected officials attempt to make our Founding Document irrelevant in order to usher in their big government social welfare state.
Today is Constitution Day. It's the perfect time to remind our fellow citizens that one of the surest ways to protect our freedoms is to restore respect for one of the most important documents ever written. Let's send a message loud and clear that the Constitution still matters in America.
It's time to stop the Left's assault on the Constitution and our freedoms. Take the quiz now.
I hope you will stand with me and help restore respect now for the Constitution.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Edwin Meese, III
Former United States Attorney General,
Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy,
Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies,
The Heritage Foundation
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FBI raids Solyndra to bury evidence of Obama's criminal dealings
Sep 16, 2011 06:13 am | Coach Collins
By Doug Book, staff writer
When it comes to cronyism, fraud and conspiratorial criminality, Barack Hussein Obama has no peer. Having learned his trade in the city of Chicago, where the theft and divvying up of taxpayer dollars among the politically connected is an art form, Obama's new gig as President finds him performing the same scams, just on a larger, more lucrative playing field.
In 2010, solar panel manufacturer Solyndra Inc. received $535 million in government backed loan guarantees from Barack's 2009 stimulus fund.
Of course, according to a Price Waterhouse audit filed earlier that year with the SEC, Solyndra had lost $558 million during its first 5 years in business, boasted negative cash flow, no profitable years and featured a "seriously flawed" business model.
But the company did have one very important attribute, a far greater asset than any operating report or profit history-Texas billionaire George Kaiser.
Kaiser was a major Solyndra investor who had personally ... Continue Reading:FBI raids Solyndra to bury evidence of Obama's criminal dealings
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Pakistan Again
Sep 17, 2011 06:13 am | Coach Collins
By Jim Emerson, staff writer
Last week Taliban terrorists dressed in burkas infiltrated a construction site in Kubal. In a 20 hour attack 11 armed militant and 4 suicide bombers killed 16 Afghans including 6 children. The terrorist attacked three different areas of Kubal in a coordinated effort. Most likely the attack was to show that the Taliban's ability to terrify the population and conducting a "Tet" style attack for the main stream media's reporting. This action came on the heels of a suicide truck attack on aU.S.compound in the Wardak province killing four Afghans and wounding 77 American troops.
This was a suicide mission to disrupt the daily routine of the capital city and create doubt in the current government ofAfghanistan. Somewhere in the tribal regions Taliban terrorist are probably telling the locals that Allah will ensure their victory.
Haqqani network
NATO commander, Gen. John R. Allen has identified the Haqqani network as being behind the attacks. ... Continue Reading:Pakistan Again
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Got Rage?
Sep 16, 2011 02:02 pm | Coach Collins
By Emma K. Emmett, staff writer
When I was assigned to write about tomorrow's "Day of Rage," organized by the likes of ACORN Founder Wade Rathke and SEIU's Stephen Lerner I resisted it mightily. I heard a grumble in my lower intestine and a silent yell, "Nooooooooo, don't make me, puhleeeeeze!"
I knew the cognitive dissonance and just plain idiocy of a group that regularly claims to be more "tolerant" and "compassionate" than the rest of us and then incites hatred and chaos in order to declare themselves entitled to what other people earn, would put me dangerously close to head-exploding territory.
Then, I settled down enough to read and hear what they're saying and planning to do tomorrow, just a week after the tenth anniversary of 9-11 and only blocks from Ground Zero.
They want to "occupy" Wall Street, they say, and hope to persuade 20,000 people to set ... Continue Reading:Got Rage?
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Al Gore wangled $529 million taxpayer loan for electric cars made in Finland
Sep 18, 2011 06:13 am | Coach Collins
By Doug Book, staff writer
Just when you thought crony handouts of taxpayer millions couldn't get much worse than the White House managed Solyndra debacle, along comes the story of global warming shyster Al Gore and fledgling, plug-in hybrid car maker Fisker Automotive, Inc.
In 2009, Gore happened to be at an event hosted by the California venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers. Of course, Al happened to be there because he is a PARTNER in the firm.
Well low and behold, Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker just happened to be there too and pitched Gore on the virtues of his 50 mile-per-battery-charged, $89,500 Karma luxury sedan. And Al, we are told, immediately handed Fisker a deposit for a new Karma motor car...green, probably.
For as we all know, Gore believes that "...a global shift of the automobile fleet toward electric vehicles, accompanying a shift toward renewable-energy generation, represents an important part of a sensible ... Continue Reading:Al Gore wangled $529 million taxpayer loan for electric cars made in Finland
comments | read more
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 | | Hitler Discovers ATTACKWATCH is a Joke! |
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E-Verify Markup Underway; Pro-Amnesty Groups Protest its Passage
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Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee began its markup of Chairman Lamar Smith's national E-Verify bill, the Legal Workforce Act. The Committee will continue its work next week ultimately ending with a vote on the bill late Wednesday or Thursday.
In his opening statement, Chairman Smith explained why passing this legislation is so critical.
"Twenty-three million Americans are unemployed or can't find full-time work. At the same time, seven million people are working illegally. These jobs should go to American citizens and legal workers. ... The Legal Workforce Act could open up millions of jobs for unemployed Americans by requiring employers to use E-Verify."
Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Elton Gallegly, who is an original cosponsor of the legislation, discussed the impact H.R.2885 would have on ending the jobs magnet.
"In my view, this bill by making E-Verify employment verification system mandatory represents the single most important step Congress can take in significantly eliminating the number of illegal immigrants to enter and work in our country."
Rep. Steve King talked about how the I-9 requirements contained in the 1986 amnesty bill failed and why national E-Verify is now necessary.
"I was required as an employer [in 1986] to begin collecting I-9 forms for the applicants that came to my construction company to apply for work. I lived in fear that there would be an agent of the INS at the time that would show up at my office and check my compliance with the '86 immigration act. Did I have the I-9 documents and did I make a reasonable judgment that their identification documents conformed with the application and was it reasonable to believe that they were lawfully present in the United States and could lawfully work in the United States?
"We have seen the litigation erode the principle of the '86 immigration act substantially. That is part of what has brought us here today and been a big part of the reason for the foundation of the E-Verify legislation."
Groups that support amnesty and open borders are terrified of Chairman Smith's bill and the possibility that it could pass through Congress and get signed into law by Pres. Obama. Earlier this week, the Center for American Progress, which is funded by the pro-amnesty Carnegie and Ford Foundations, published a blog listing the 10 things wrong with E-Verify. America's Voice promoted the blog and declared Wednesday "National Day of Action Against E-Verify" while doing its best to discredit the system.
In her opening statement on Thursday, Rep. Linda Sanchez described E-Verify as broken.
"The system is riddled with errors and doesn't work. It doesn't flag the workers it's supposed to flag, and it snags too many citizens and legal workers in its net. The job market is tough enough. It makes no sense for Congress to pass a law that makes it more difficult for legal workers to find work."
Why are the pro-amnesty groups so scared of Chairman Smith's bill? Because they know it would take away any leverage they have for passing a mass amnesty, and more importantly, it would successfully remove illegal aliens from the workforce.
"Every attempt since 2005 to reform our nation's immigration system has included an electronic verification system, but it can't be done alone," said Immigration Subcommittee Ranking Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren. "Our system has been broken for far too long, and we don't now need a one-sided solution."
"I could not start this markup without noting the importance of a theme we've used over and over again, and that's comprehensive immigration reform," said Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee. "It might be the better legs to stand on."
During the markup, we expect about 40 amendments will be offered to the Legal Workforce Act. Some will deal with exempting Ag workers from E-Verify, some amendments will try to take out the enforcement provisions of the bill, and others will try to create bureaucratic roadblocks that gut the E-Verify's effectiveness.
I urge you to check your Action Board and email inbox regularly for any possible actions that may arise.
Thanks,
Chris Chmielenski
Director, Content & Activism
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Our Grid Compares Immigration Enforcement Under Current Law With H.R. 2885
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By Roy Beck, Thursday, September 15, 2011
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In one glance at our easy, colorful enforcement comparison Grid, you can see how the climate for illegal aliens in your state would get really tough if Congress passes U.S. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith's H.R. 2885 (the Legal Workforce Act). Take a look at the Grid and see the 30 ways that H.R. 2885 would ensure that only legal workers get payroll jobs.
Read Full Entry
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New York Special Election a Victory for E-Verify Legislation
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By Andrew Good, Wednesday, September 14, 2011
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Though yesterday's special election in New York's 9th Congressional District was not focused specifically on immigration issues, the results are still quite positive for proponents of mandatory E-Verify, reduced immigration, and secure borders. Gone is the abysmal, F- career graded, open borders Anthony Weiner. We welcome Bob Turner, true reformer. With his arrival, the House of Representatives will be a friendlier place for immigration reduction.
Read Full Entry
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Rep. Ed Royce Joins NumbersUSA's 5-for-5 Club!
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Monday, September 12, 2011
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Rep. Ed Royce has joined NumbersUSA's 5-for-5 Club after cosponsoring the SAFE for America Act, which would end the Visa Lottery. Rep. Royce has now cosponsored at least one bill in each of our 5 Great Immigration-Reduction categories and joins 10 other Members of Congress to cosponsor a bill in each of the categories.
Read Full Entry
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Perry, Huntsman Have Immigration Records Challenged During GOP Debate
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011
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For the first time in three debates, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to sign the Texas DREAM Act was challenged by the debate moderator and the other GOP Presidential Hopefuls. During Monday night's Tea Party Express debate in Tampa, Fla., Gov. Perry was forced to defend signing an in-state tuition bill for illegal aliens, while former Utah Gov. John Huntsman had to defend his decision to sign a bill allowing illegal aliens access to driver's licenses.
Read Full Entry
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Sheriff Arpaio's posse to review Obama birth certificate
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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona has constituted a special law enforcement posse to investigate allegations brought by members of the Surprise, Ariz., Tea Party that the birth certificate Barack Obama released to the public April 27 might be a forgery, WND has learned.
The posse, under the authority of Arpaio's office, will consist of two former law enforcement officers and two retired attorneys, headed by Michael Zullo, a retired police detective originally from Bergen County, N.J.
WND confirmed with Zullo and with Arpaio's office that the investigation into the Obama birth certificate has been sanctioned fully by Arpaio's office. The investigation, they said, will be conducted with "utmost diligence," and the investigators will be authorized to utilize subpoena power.
Read the entire story now at WND.com.
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Posted on Tue, Sep. 13, 2011
Pa. federal judge rules against insurance mandateBy Chris Mondics INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
President Obama's plan to require individual Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty exceeds the powers granted both the president and Congress by the Constitution, a federal district court judge ruled Tuesday in Harrisburg
Federal District Judge Christopher C. Conner said the federal government's power to regulate interstate commerce does not give it the power to compel individual citizens to purchase products against their will.
"The nation undoubtedly faces a health-care crisis," Conner said. "Scores of individuals are uninsured and the costs to all citizens are measurable and significant.
"The federal government, however, is one of limited enumerated powers," Conner continued, "and Congress' efforts to remedy the ailing health care and health insurance markets must fit squarely within the boundaries of those powers."
Read more:
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New Video: David Berlinski
Discusses the Pretensions of Science
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Hello There,
The new Uncommon Knowledge video from our friends at the Hoover Institution is now available.
This week's video features David Berlinski, a mathematician and writer, and author of the recent book The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions.
Berlinski discusses the intersection of science and religion, and more specifically, the attacks on religion routinely made by scientists. According to Berlinski, it is incorrect to assume that science and religion are mutually exclusive worldviews. In fact, he believes scientists cannot truly claim to being able to prove or disprove religion or the existence of God.
Can science and religion peacefully coexist? Find out what David Berlinski thinks!
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Quote of the Day
"In politics the middle way is none at all."
-John Adams
GE responds to charges of crony capitalism
The CEO goes on trips with the President
General Electric, with a larger lobbying budget than any other company in America, has long lobbied for and profited from Big Government. Since Obama tapped GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as Job Czar, this critique has spread throughout the Right.
When it came out that GE's U.S. corporate income tax bill for 2010 was $0, anti-GE sentiment grew on the Left and Right. Finally, at the latest Republcian debate Newt Gingrich attacked GE for profiting from Obama-style green-energy loopholes
Click here to read the full article at the Washington Examiner
Government races to close billions in renewable energy loans guarantees
Article features terrifying picture of Henry Waxman
The Obama administration is in a race against the clock to close by month's end more than a dozen renewable-energy loan guarantees totaling $9 billion. Of that, just over $3 billion would come from the federal government's coffers.
It now has to do that amid an escalating political battle over a federally backed solar company spiraling into bankruptcy and facing an FBI probe. President Obama once praised the company, California-based Solyndra, as "the true engine of economic growth."
Click here to read the full article at the National Journal
Mayor Bloomberg predicts riots in the streets if economy doesn't create more jobs
Unsalted riots he hopes
Mayor Bloomberg warned Friday there would be riots in the streets if Washington doesn't get serious about generating jobs.
"We have a lot of kids graduating college, can't find jobs," Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show.
Click here to read the full article at the NY Daily News
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RINO ALERT IN THE MOTHER OF ALL STATES!
I realize most 9/12ers are focused on the 2012 Presidential elections. But for a moment, I would like to draw your attention to the Congressional races and reelection campaigns taking shape across the country. One in particular is gaining attention, but in all the wrong ways.
Virginia's Representative and 18-year incumbent, Bob Goodlatte is running for reelection. Oddly, Goodlatte is running on a Balanced Budget Amendment. I say it's odd because, he recently voted to raise the debt ceiling. In fact, he has voted to raise the debt ceiling more than 10 times since he's been in Congress.
Second, he voted to fund Obamacare. Also odd considering he directly defied his own state -- Virginia, which was leading the lawsuit against Obamacare.
Most of all, the odd thing about Bob Goodlatte's Balanced Budget Amendment is this: it's a scam. It neither cuts the budget nor attempts to cut it. It is pure window-dressing that makes him appear, fiscally conservative.
If you don't believe me, please read the bill. It's a 1/2 page long (excluding the changes). Here are the problems:
- Goodlatte used loopholes to allow Congress to overrule each spending constraint. (Notice how the word "unless" appears in nearly every sentence)
- nullifies all spending constraints during times of military conflict (Libya anybody?), war declarations or threats to national security. (Pardon, but we're talking about Barack Obama's TSA, which declared a 94-year old leukemia patient's diaper a threat to national security.)
- The bill will not go into effect until 2016. Who can wait that long?
Should you see this man disguising himself as fiscally conservative at a tea party rally, please ask him why he included so many loopholes in his BBA. And while we're at it, why he voted to fund Obamacare or voted so many times to increase the debt limit. He talks the talk but fails to deliver the spending cuts Americans demand.
 | | Weekly Republican Address 9/3/11: Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) |
 | | Bob Goodlatte Speaks in Buena Vista - Labor Day 2011 |
Bob Goodlatte speaking at a local political rally, where he actually said he wasn't up for reelection.
 | | We Need a Balanced Budget Amendment |
Bob Goodlatte promoting his balanced budget amendment.
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News You Can Use
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Bucks County Flood Relief Eligibility If you sustained property damage as a result of Hurricane Irene, you may be eligible for Individual Assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The first step is to apply to FEMA by calling 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or via the web: www.disasterassistance.gov
When you make the application, please have the following information available:
- Your Social Security number (including your spouse, if applicable).
- Private insurance information, if available.
- Address and zip code of the damaged property.
- Directions to the damaged home or property.
- Daytime telephone number and current mailing address.
With regard to Tropical Storm Lee, a Preliminary Damage Assessment is being conducted in Bucks County to determine if damages from the storm will enable this area to qualify for a federal disaster assistance declaration.
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I understand that this declaration is made when and if the total damage hits a certain dollar figure
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Much of River Road (Route 32) was closed due to the damage caused by flooding and mud slides. This photo was taken at Point Pleasant on September 8th.
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("total" includes residential, business and public property, i.e. roads and bridges). Once that assessment is complete, a determination will be made as to whether Bucks County residents who experienced damage from Tropical Storm Lee will be eligible for Individual Assistance from FEMA. Even though the county is included in a Federal Emergency Protective Measure Declaration, there is no Federal Disaster Assistance declaration as of yet regarding Tropical Storm Lee.
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) is working with FEMA to conduct the damage assessment, but the disaster assistance relief is administered under FEMA, the federal program, not PEMA, the state program.
For more information on disaster assistance, please visit the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) website at www.pema.state.pa.us. Click on the "Disaster Assistance" tab on the left-hand side.
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Private Well Testing Kits Available
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The heavy rain and standing water may have impacted residential wells, especially in areas where the river or a creek exceeded its normal borders. The Bucks County Health Department advises residents who have a private well to have their water tested for harmful bacteria. If you have been impacted by the recent storms, you have a private well without a treatment system and if the well head was covered by floodwaters you can obtain a FREE test kit at any of the following Bucks County Health Department locations.
Health Department (Neshaminy Manor)
1290 Almshouse Road, Doylestown, PA 18901
(215) 345-3318
Bucks County Government Services Center
261 California Road, Quakertown, PA 18951
(215) 529-7000
In addition, Bucks County Health Department urges residents to cover swimming pools, turn over bird baths and eliminate any other form of standing water to reduce the potential of an over infestation of mosquitoes which are infected with West Nile Virus.
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Coming Soon! My Annual Senior Expo
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You are invited to join me at my annual Senior Expo on Friday, September 23, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Central Bucks Senior Center, located at 700 Shady Retreat Road in Doylestown.
Guest speakers at the expo will include Chief Stephen J. White of the Doylestown Township Police Department and Mike Pesce from the Network of Victim Assistance.
You can bring unused, unneeded or expired medications for safe disposal by The Council of Southeast Pennsylvania, Inc. and law enforcement officials. The Military Order of the Purple Heart will also be on hand to collect old, tattered or discolored flags and properly dispose of them.
Along with the featured speakers, the event will include exhibitors, refreshments and health screenings. We had a great turnout last year, and I hope you can join us.
If you are planning to attend, please RSVP by contacting my office at (215) 489-2126. Information about the expo is also available on my website at RepQuinn.net.
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E-Newsletter September 16, 2011
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Thank you for taking the time to read my bi-weekly e-newsletter.
Disaster Recovery Town Halls
I will be hosting two town halls for constituents who are interested in learning more about the process by which they can apply for federal aid in an effort to recover from the recent storms, as well as permanent mitigation options
River Road, Bucks County, PA
Since Hurricanes Irene and Lee were making their way towards our area, I and my office have been working closely with state, local and federal officials to ensure a swift recovery from these powerful storms and the record flooding that struck our region. These town halls will provide constituents from the hardest-hit communities with important information regarding federal programs that may be available to you.
These sessions will be held this Sunday, September 18. The first will be at the New Hope Eagle Fire Company from 2:30pm - 3:30pm, and the second at the William Penn Fire Department in Hulmeville from 4:30pm - 5:30pm. If you have any questions, please call my Langhorne office at 215-579-8102 or visit my website.
Ten-year Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
As our nation commemorated the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Sunday, I joined members of our community at ceremonies around the 8th District, and all Americans across the country in honoring the memory and lives that were lost that day. The events of September 11, 2001 forever changed our nation. Our prayers and thoughts are with the families of those who lost friends and loved ones.
On this day we also honor the law enforcement, first responders and our Armed Services for their commitment and service. To those men and women who have served and those who continue to fight to protect our freedom, we offer our most sincere gratitude.
As we reflect upon the past ten years and pay tribute to those lost, we should remember that America has proven its resiliency, and we must continue to vigilantly guard our freedoms and our great nation.
Service Academy Nomination Information Day
On Saturday, September 24, 2011 from 9:00am to noon, I will be hosting an information session for 8th District students interested in learning more about the nominations process for our nation's service academies. The session will be held in the Gallagher Room of the Bucks County Community College Newtown campus. I will be joined by representatives from the service academies for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine. There will also be representatives from the Reserve Officers Training Corps, together with cadets and midshipmen who can talk about their experiences in the different programs.
While the session is primarily intended for high school seniors and their parents, sophomores and juniors seeking more information are also encouraged to attend. For more information, students should visit my website, or contact Rob Mitchell at 215-579-8102.
The SHIELD Act
This week, I introduced H.R. 2886, the SHIELD Act, legislation that would ensure compensation for our service members and federal law enforcement personnel in the case of an interruption of Congressionally-appropriated funds, during periods of a government shutdown or in the event of reaching the debt ceiling.
In the wake of the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, we are all reminded of the sacrifices our service men and women and federal law enforcement officers make. In our most difficult hours, we rely on members of our federal law enforcement community and our armed services for the protection of our liberty and freedom. No service member or critical law enforcement officer protecting the United States at home or abroad should have to worry about their paycheck in the event of a government shutdown. The SHIELD Act is an essential piece of legislation that pledges to protect those who protect us, even in times of financial uncertainty.
My Extended Office Hours will continue at the following times and locations:
Doylestown
On Saturdays, my staff is available at 108 North Main Street in Doylestown to meet with constituents seeking assistance from 9:00 AM until noon.
Bristol
On the first and third Wednesday of each month my staff is available at the Bristol Borough Municipal Building located at 250 Pond Street in Bristol from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
Quakertown
On the second and fourth Tuesday of each month my staff is available at the Quakertown Borough Hall located at 35 North Third Street in Quakertown from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
Mike Fitzpatrick
Member of Congress
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Washington, DC Office
1224 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4276
Fax: (202) 225-9511
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District Office
1717 Langhorne Newtown Rd. Suite 400
Langhorne, PA 19047
Phone: (215) 579-8102
Fax: (215) 579-8109
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Video: Obama's Drunken Uncle Omar And Steven King
ConservativeAmericaOnline.com
Will Congress step up to the plate and investigate why Obama's drunken uncle Omar is being given special consideration? Congressman Steven King (R-IA) has the guts to ask and make his demands known.
Read the Full Story
Pakistan Passes Obama's 'Religious Freedom' Test-After Sentencing Christian to Death
By Terence P. Jeffrey
CNSNEWS.com Pakistan, which has issued a death sentence to a Christian mother of five for allegedly blaspheming the prophet Mohammed, and which regularly prosecutes Christians for allegedly blaspheming Islam, has passed the religious freedom test imposed by the Obama administration.
When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released the U.S. government's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom this week, Pakistan was not listed among the so-called "Countries of Particular Concern." Read the Full Story
Obama's Ineligibility: Prepare to Defend America -- Political Insurgency
By Lawrence Sellin
CanadaFreePress.com It is no longer a question if Obama will fall, but when. The question remaining, however, is which members of the political establishment will fall with him.
Republicans and Democrats are now beginning to scramble to identify scapegoats or formulating excuses, not only for Obama's abysmal policy failures, but for allowing a usurper and criminal to occupy the White House.
Read the Full Story
Biggest Story in the World? China Faces Hard Landing
The Daily Bell/RightSideNews.com China risks hard landing as global woes spread ... China's carefully-managed soft landing is turning harder by the day, threatening to deflate the torrid credit bubble of the past three years. Beijing is alarmed by inflation above 6pc and price-to-income ratios for property in the rich coastal cities ... "There is a large potential risk," said Zhu Min, the deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund and a former Chinese official. Mr Zhu said China had doubled the loan ratio from below 100pc of GDP before the Lehman crisis to roughly 200pc today. The danger is that this excess could start to unwind just as the West goes into a sharp downturn, and possibly a double-dip recession. China and emerging Asia are fundamentally in weaker shape this time, having used up their "fiscal cushions", leaving them with little leeway to cope with a fresh global shock. - UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Europe has a lot of troubles. But, hey, China's always delivered before. Perhaps it can still fix the world once it fixes itself.
Read the Full Story
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Rep. Rosa DeLauro: Still Hangin' With the Connecticut Communists
September 16, 2011, 12:39 pm By Trevor Loudon
Rosa DeLauro
I have written previously of Rep. Rosa DeLauros's close ties to the Connecticut Communist Party.
Rosa DeLauro is one of Congress' highest ranking Democrats. She is particularly close to another long time friend of communist causes, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. It appears that one the Democratic Party's most influential legislators, Rep. DeLauro, still thinks it is appropriate to work closely with Marxist-Leninists. Rep. DeLauro is very close to Connecticut Communist Party leader Joelle Fishman, the daughter-in-law of late Soviet spy and Communist Party USA activist Victor Perlo.
Joelle Fishman also heads the Communist Party's Political Action Commission, the Party body charged with pushing the Communist agenda through the Democratic Party. As DeLauro has been in charge of appointing Democratic Congressmembers to various Congressional Committees, she has been in a position to move the Communist Party's many friends in Congress onto Committees that best serve the communist's goals.
Read more:
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Susan's Paul Ryan Medicare Pamphlet - please print this and give it to your contacts
SAVING MEDICARE
Since 1964, our nation's senior citizens have relied on Medicare to ensure access to healthcare. Now the program is going broke -- and it is going broke fast.
It began spending its reserves in 2008 when payouts exceeded dollars collected for the program. [cite]
Predictions for exhaustion of the reserve vary, with 2024 identified by the Social Security Administration in the Trustees 2011 report. [cite]
The Democrat response is to reduce the amount Medicare reimburses physicians for their services. [cite]
This will result in fewer participating physicians and the physicians continuing in the program seeing fewer Medicare patients.
Patients will wait longer and have fewer choices in seeing a doctor.
If this makes access to care sufficiently untenable, or if Medicare does not get on viable financial footing, it will be administered through ObamaCare[cite].
This would include cost controls by a 15-member board of bureaucrats deciding wich treatments, drugs, and surgeries patients can receive.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, has a plan which saves Medicare with no disruption to today's seniors and reasonable changes for future retirees.
The Ryan Plan is widely misunderstood and misrepresented. The future of our seniors' healthcare is too important to be decided on misinformation. Here are the facts about Medicare and the Ryan Plan.
The Ryan Plan in a Nutshell
Those currently retired and those close to retirement (55 and over) will see no change from the existing Medicare system. Existing physician reimbursement flaws will be corrected to encourage physicians to continue participating in the system.[cite]
On retirement, those currently under 55 will be provided vouchers from the government to help pay for health insurance. Voucher amounts will be based in part on income, with wealthier individuals receiving less assistance. Risk pools [cite] will be created to ensure that insurance companies will provide coverage to seniors, despite their generally higher use of medical care.
The result is retirees will have a system that gives them options, similar to that which members of Congress use and which will include options similar to Medicare Advantage, the popular plan eliminated by Obamacare. [cite]
The Ryan Plan Incorporates These Important Points
It is important that we
Plan now for changes, to avoid chaos later
The medicare system is running out of money. Change is coming, one way or another.
Pretending we can continue as we are is not an option, it is a recipe for disaster. The longer we wait to make changes, the greater the disruption to current and future retires, the more abruptly the changes will have to be implemented, and the fewer options we will have.
By implementing the Ryan Plan now, we will
- maintain the existing system for current retirees and for individuals 55 and over
- provide a sustainable, quality system for future retirees.
It is important that we...
Preserve the existing system, unchanged, for current retirees and workers 55 and older
This bears repeating:
- Under the Ryan Plan, if you are retired, your Medicare coverage will not change.
- If you are over 55, Medicare as it exists today will be there for you when you retire.
- And the Ryan Plan provides for quality health insurance coverage upon retirement for those currently under 55.
It is important that we...
Maintain availability of insurance coverage for future retirees
Since individuals generally require more medical care as they age, it tends to be difficult for older individuals to find private health insurance that will cover them. That is one reason our existing Medicare system is considered so important for many. The Ryan Plan creates risk pools which encourage multiple insurance companies to offer health coverage to those of retirement age.
It is important that we...
Maintain affordability
Individuals have paid into the Medicare system with the promise that coverage will be there for them when they retire. Unfortunately, we are facing an economic crisis in this country and Medicare is a significant part of the problem. To save the system for everyone and to avert broader economic calamity, in the future wealthier Americans will have to bear a greater portion of their healthcare burden.
It is important that we...
Make it feasible for doctors to participate in Medicare
Currently in many areas of the country physicans are reimbursed for Medicare patients at a rate that does not cover their expenses. Recent changes put forth by the Democrats further reduce reimbursement. [cite] This is not sustainable for any business and as a result increasing numbers of physicians are discontinuing their participation in the Medcare program. Patients are finding that their physician is no longer a Medicare provider and when they look for another physician it is increasingly difficult for them to find a Medicare provider who is accepting new patients and can see them in a reasonable time. [cite]. The Ryan plan fixes the reimbursement problem, making it feasible for physicians to continue participating in Medicare.
It is important that we...
Keep medical decisions between patients and doctors, not remote government panels
The Ryan plan harnesses the free market and puts choice in the hands of the patient. Retirees will be able to pick the insurance plan that best meets their needs, applying government vouchers toward premium costs. Medical decisions would be made in consultation with their personal physician, based on the individual's situation and preferences.
References
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 September 16, 2011
On Friday's Program
SHOCK VIDEO: 'Capitalist bloodsucker economy'
The Black Panthers are back and once again they managed to say something even crazier and more shocking than the last crazy thing they said. This time they lash out at Capitalism but more surprisingly President Obama, saying he has 'bombed' his own homeland while cutting a deal with Satan. Audio and Glenn's reaction HERE.
More leaders waking up: from economists to scientists
Glenn is encouraged by the list of leaders who are seeing where things are headed and they are standing up. Glenn talks about the prominent economists in Europe who are resigning in protest because of how reckless politicians are being and about the award winning scientist who calls B.S. on global warming. More details at GlennBeck.com!
Media tries to smear Glenn, gets story mostly correct
Glenn was particularly amused by one attempt to smear him from the MSM over comments he made on Obama's jobs bill. The writer tries to write an article that is damaging, instead he hits the nail right on the head. Well, almost on the head - he did manage to get a token lie in there. Glenn has the story and reaction on radio today. WATCH
Channeling Chris Farley: the greatest car crash description ever? WATCH
Guy gets in car wreck. He's shaken up but generally he's fine. He's hanging around the crash scene when a news team shows up - reporter asks him to describe what happens. The result is TV gold - check out the most epic description of a car crash you've ever seen. Watch the full video and catch Glenn's reaction HERE.
GBTV is calling all teachers
A fantastic Glenn Beck Program on GBTV last night featuring a remarkable audience of students who led a provocative discussion on the news, the Obamas, and the future. Glenn peppered them with questions and really challenged them on some issues - how did they hold up? Check out a free clip from last night's show. Start your free trial and get the entire show on demand. Glenn also alerted the audience that GBTV is looking for teachers, leaders and others who YOU want to hear from. GBTV will do everything it can to make that happen. Details HERE.
Ever wondered what it is like to work for Glenn? Business Insider goes inside the offices of 'The Blaze' - FULL STORY.
Egyptian official: Israeli peace agreement can be changed anytime
Not the comments Israel wanted to see as the vote on Palestinian statehood (and anti-Israel protests) are ramping up. An Egyptian official made comments about the decades long peace treaty between Egypt and Israel -- a treaty which ended up costing the President of Egypt his head. Are we heading back to those days or are we moving forward? Glenn explains the latest in the Middle East on radio TODAY.
Preparing for winter car repairs just got a little easier! You have enough to worry about without adding your car to the list. Let CARCHEX handle that for you. Markdown has a great offer today from CARCHEX that will help you focus on the things that matter most. For just $50, you get a $200 voucher that can be applied toward an Extended Vehicle Protection plan that fits your needs. For more details, go to Markdown.com.
Next W.H. scandal? AF General pressured by WH to say things he didn't believe
It hasn't been a good week for the White House. The 5th company (Solyndra) to be aided by the stimulus package and touted by the President has gone bankrupt. Worse, it appears the White House, according to emails, may have pressured government officials to fast track the $535 million loan, rush the approval process, causing mistakes to be made and taxpayers on the hook for half a billion dollars. Next up - the White House allegedly pressured an Air Force General to lie about another green endeavor. DETAILS
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~ If you come across an issue or story that you think would be of interest to the group, forward it to this email address so we can include it in the daily newsletter. Please include any links to the associated story with your email so that we can source it for the newsletter. J
You have received this mailing because you subscribed to our mailing list or signed up at a meeting.
If you have any problems with this mailing, please reply to this posting.
Thank you for your support.
Linda Rosen
9/12 Patriots of Lower Buck County
215-274-5415
Visit us on the WEB
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Scotland is known to have a slight problem with sectarianism, but the focus is invariably on Celtic-Rangers spats with the occasional demand to outlaw the singing of the Hokey-Cokey. Meanwhile, Scottish councils and universities pass their anti-Semitic motions with impunity.
