Quote: 

"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance"

If you see a story that you believe would be useful and important to our readers, simply respond to this email with a link and a brief description of why it is important.  (Even if it may be obvious)

Nullify Now! Philadelphia

THE INTERFAITH TASKFORCE FOR AMERICA AND ISRAEL (ITAI)

123 S. Broad Street, Suite 1832, Philadelphia, PA 19109

HOLD THE DATE

ITAI is pleased to invite you to attend our program titled "Christians in the Middle East: Endangered Species."

With Samir Asad (an Egyptian Coptic-Christian), Wafa Mikhail, and Joseph Puder, and Charles Kahn Jr.,

Our panel will discuss the current situation in Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Gaza, and more...

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2012, 7:30PM

At

St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church

1989 Rt. 70 East, Cherry Hill, NJ

Admission is free, tax-deductible contributions to ITAI are encouraged.

LISTEN LIVE TO REPATRIOT RADIO

"BETTER THAN EVER"

(all times are eastern)

Friday 10-11pm "Veterans' Weekly Forum" - Rich Davis and David Bellavia   

Remember January 3rd, 2007 The Day The Democrats Took Over!

The Case Against Obamacare: Health Care Policy Series for the 112th Congress

For Tea Parties, this can be used as basic ammunition for letters to the editor, columns for your local news outlet, handouts at public events, emailing the pdf to our elected reps as well as to members, friends and neighbors.

This appears to be an excellent resource; let's make use of it.

Lou Flanagan

The General Wayne Tea Party

The first contests in the race for the Republican nomination are just around the corner. To better inform you, we looked beyond the rhetoric to the candidates' actual records on the issues important to families.

This voter guide outlines candidate stances on issues that are important to the family. We researched the candidates' statements and votes on the ten issues that best give voters an understanding on if the candidates match your values. Please use this resource as you think about who you would like to see be the nominee to challenge President Barack Obama.

Download the free guide and be sure to share this resource with your friends and family before the 2012 primary season begins next month.

A values voter is an informed voter.

Sincerely,

Tony Perkins
President

President Obama's Year-End Trade Policy Blunder

Obama Confirms Unaccountability of Consumer Bureau

Flashback: Senator Outlines Objections to 'Unaccountable' Consumer Czar

Congress Needs to Fix Itself in 2012

QUICK HITS

Having totally failed at his efforts to create jobs for the 13.3 million unemployed Americans or otherwise significantly alleviate the unemployment rate, the White House now says it's on track to create 180,000 "work opportunities." Translation: mentoring and unpaid internships.

There is even more carnage in Iraq following President Obama's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the country. At least 27 people were killed on Thursday when truck bombs bearing the "hallmark of Sunni militants linked to Al Qaeda" exploded in Baghdad.

The President is headed to the Pentagon today to unveil a significantly reduced military and the largest defense budget cut since the end of the Cold War, despite America's continued obligations abroad and the ongoing threat of terrorism.

Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, and other defendants may face the death penalty for the ordering of the killing of protesters during the Arab Spring uprisings last February.

The White House could be on course to make a premature, dangerously naive move in agreeing to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantanamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office in Qatar. Read more about it on The Foundry. 

RedState Morning Briefing For January 6, 2012  

1. From Governor Rick Perry: Stop Insider Trading Dead In Its Tracks

Earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune ran a little noted editorial on the insider trading scandal plaguing Congress, calling out phony efforts to reform the rules and demanding that we finally put a stop to this outrageous and unethical behavior.

If you haven't read the editorial yet, I recommend you do because while the professional political punditry class is more interested in superfluous items like the political horse race and candidate attire, the reality is that members of both parties in Washington, D.C., are abusing their positions and ordinary Americans have had enough.

As the editorial notes, "'60 Minutes' reported that Pelosi and her husband participated in an initial public offering from Visa in 2008, just as credit card legislation started moving through the House. The Pelosis bought 5,000 shares at the IPO price of $44 a share. Two days later, the shares traded at $64. The legislation, which was likely to cut credit card company profits, went nowhere that year. It passed two years later."

2. Nancy Pelosi: It Was Very Bold and Encouraging When Barack Obama Ran Roughshod Over My Branch of Government

Democrats generally tend to operate on the hope that most American voters can't remember anything that happened longer than about a month ago. Very often they can get away with it, especially on something as esoteric as recess appointments or filibusters. But it is worth noting the history of this particular sordid tale which culminated yesterday, in order to understand why, even in the normal give and take that is to be expected when two parties are battling for power, Obama's action yesterday truly was an unprecedented abuse of power.

Presidents have long used the recess appointment to fill vacancies caused by a racalcitrant Congress. Clinton used them very frequently when Republicans controlled the chamber. During the GWB administration, after the Republicans retook the Senate in 2002, the Democrats in the Senate - including one particular Democrat Senator named Barack Obama - upped the ante through the widespread use of the filibuster to block all manner of Bush appointments. It is quite rich for Obama to complain about Republican minority obstructionism when he participated in the inception of the program. In fact, in 2004, when the Senate was without question in an intra-session recess, Bush recess appointed William Pryor for a seat on the 11th Circuit Court of appeals. Senate Democrats, led by Ted Kennedy, were so incensed that they unsuccessfully sued to prevent Pryor from being seated. Ultimately their suit was unsuccessful (although it never reached the Supreme Court) because a short recess is still a recess. Thus the Democrats were ultimately impotent to prevent Bush from thwarting their filibusters via recess appointment - until, that is, they took over Congress in 2006. Then the Congressional Democrats - again including Barack Obama - devised a scheme whereby the Senate never went into recess, thus preventing Bush from making further recess appointments. In other words, we are where we are today because of something the Democrats were doing themselves three short years ago.

Against this backdrop, Barack Obama is making the claim that since he has made relatively few recess appointments during his tenure as compared to Bush, it is completely okay for him to violate the plain text of the Constitution and spit on the separation of powers. One point should be made here - the main reason Obama hasn't had to make many recess appointments is that for the first two years of his three year Presidency his party controlled the House and also had a filibuster-proof rubber stamp majority in the Senate. The relatively small number of recess appointments is hardly evidence of any restraint on his part.

3. 'Leaner, Agile, and More Flexible': Are Obama and Panetta Setting Out to Create the Military that Donald Rumsfeld Always Wanted?

President Obama, Secretary of Defense Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dempsey gave a brief press conference this morning on America's new defense strategy, crafted in the face of massive national debt and looming budget crises (actually, it would be more accurate to say that the latter two gave a press conference; the president gave a statement, and then departed without taking questions). Though the $487,000,000,000.00 in upcoming DoD budget cuts - which Panetta called "politically sensitive" - were repeatedly mentioned (particularly by Deputy SecDef Carter in the second part of the presser), the entire conference on America's "strategic turning point" (a.k.a. America's "historic shift to the future") was an exercise in generalities, with Panetta continually referring reporters to Obama's forthcoming budget for specifics. Whether he was asked about weapons systems or military health care, Panetta never strayed far from his standard line that "everything was on the table" and "the President's budget will have more specifics."

A key message that Panetta and Dempsey repeatedly hammered was that the overall force (particularly the Army and Marine Corps) would be undergoing a "resizing" that, while made necessary by budget imperatives, would ostensibly be prevented from leading to a reduction in overall capability by the accompanying defense strategy. While the "unique global leadership role of the United States in today's world" would continue to be recognized and acted on, Panetta said, a necessary part of this will be a stronger reliance on "alliances" and an effort to "find innovative ways to sustain US presence" abroad. Given the resource problems that have been demonstrated by our effort to engage in combat and nation-building efforts in two countries at once over the last decade (not to mention the contingency operations being conducted in several other locations worldwide), it's clear such deep cuts will have an effect on defense capability, even if America's military is reorganized and its strategy rewritten with the new budgetary reality squarely in mind.

4. The biggest news of the day for Mitt Romney

With Iowa now under his belt there is some monumentally big news for Mitt Romney that no one has really noted yet today. Allow me to congratulate him.

For the first time since November of 2010, Mitt Romney has broken through the 25.5% ceiling that has been his maximum share of support in the Real Clear Politics polling average.

This is pretty significant as he has been on an upward trend since early December. But this is the first time he's gone above 25.5%. He is now at 26.6%.

5. Another Awkward Rick Santorum Vote

On February 14, 2002, Democratic Senators Joe Biden, John Edwards, Diane Feinstein, Ron Wyden, Robert Torricelli, and Chris Dodd amongs joined with every single Republican in the Senate including Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Lincoln Chaffee, and the rest to kill a measure that would have given felons, including rapists, drug traffickers, and arsonists, the right to vote.

The measure failed 63 to 31.

But while Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein were siding with the Republicans in the United States Senate, there were actually three Republicans joining 28 Democrats to support giving these felons the right to vote. One was Senator DeWine of Ohio who the voters would thereafter throw out of office.

The other two Republicans were Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

Deploy the Reductio ad Hitleram  

NO. 1. 
In the conservative arsenal against liberal smugness, complacency, and general disgustingness, this is the equivalent of the daisy cutter bomb: devastating and unanswerable because it's true. Hitler was a National Socialist. This means liberals, who are socialists in all but name, are Nazis. Should they question this-as they will-refer them to Jonah Goldberg's indispensible Liberal Fascism, in which all is explained: the red in the Nazi flag represents communism; the person largely responsible for the common misconception that Nazism was a movement of the political right was Joseph Stalin-who wanted to hide the embarrassing truth of just how close it was to Soviet communism; the Nazis were no bigger on free enterprise and liberty than the Obama administration is.  

If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem ...... 

By Ted Belman

Daniel Seidemann, the author of "The Myth of Undivided Jerusalem," published by The Atlantic, is the founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, an "Israeli" non-governmental organization that works to prevent developments, even if good for the city's residents, from taking place if said developments leave the city indivi sible.  The top three donors of this NGO are The Norwegian Foreign Ministry, The Swiss Foreign Ministry, and The British Foreign Ministry - all of whom want Jerusalem divided - according to the organization's own website.

The article is part of the effort of The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace to "help reach a just and comprehensive peace that will bring an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict."

As laudable as the search for peace is, many would argue, as I do, that agreeing to the terms of the PA - or the EU, for that matter, not to mention Hamas - would not result in peace in our time any more than such wrangling did in Chamberlin's time.  Furthermore, advocating for "peace" presupposes that the PA, to say nothing of Hamas, would sign an end-of-conflict agreement, abandon the so-called right of return, and recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people.  Their charter and their leaders say otherwise.  Thus, an end-of-conflict peace agreement is unattainable and should be replaced by a more realistic goal.

 
Seidemann begins by affirming the attachment of the Jews to Jerusalem:   

"The Jewish attachment to Jerusalem is incontestable. For millennia, Jerusalem has been central to Jewish identity in the Diaspora; since the birth of the state of Israel, the importance of contemporary Jerusalem as Israel's capital has become part of the ethos shared by Israelis and Jews around the world. Jewish attachments to Jerusalem are embodied both in the religious and historic sites in and around the Old City and in the modern Israeli city that has been built beyond its ramparts in the past century."

The same cannot be said for the Muslims or even the Christians.  Because Jerusalem is so central to Judaism, and because Jews have prayed for 2,000 years for the return to Jerusalem, and because Jews have shed considerable blood when losing it and when regaining it, it is beyond comprehension to think that the Jews would squander the city - or that anyone would demand that they do so.

 
But Seidemann does.  And so do the Obama administration and the EU.

 
Seidemann is wrong to suggest that Israel's policies are unsustainable or "embody an exclusionary vision of Jewish Jerusalem, ignoring the complexity of the city and its universal importance" and to suggest that Israel has implemented "a planning and zoning regime that limits Palestinian construction to a bare minimum". or has effectively barred Palestinian "immigration" into East Jerusalem.

 
In fact, Seidemann's testimony is libelous.  Israel is planning for a united Jerusalem in which the Arabs represent 40% of the population, which is far from "exclusionary."  Only by keeping it united under one administration can one take into account the complexity of the city.  What is unsustainable is a city frozen in time but not governed in a way that unites it even more.

 
Seideman also accuses Israel of effectively barring Palestinian "immigration" into East Jerusalem. Why not, it has been annexed to Israel since 1967.

A little bit of history is in order.  The Jews constituted a majority of the residents in Jerusalem during the hundred years preceding the creation of Israel in 1948.  In 1947, the UNGA passed Res. 181, which recommended a two-state solution and suggested that Jerusalem, according to the boundaries therein set out, be a Corpus Separatum, a separated city, administered by the U.N., for an interval of ten years, after which the city's status was to be redetermined by referendum.  The Jews were confident that they would win the referendum.

 
Six months later, the State of Israel was declared within the boundaries laid out by said resolution.  The surrounding Arab countries rejected this resolution and invaded Israel with the intention of destroying it and massacring the Jews living therein.  This war ended in 1949 with an armistice agreement which defined the ceasefire line with a green pencil, and thus we have the "green line."  As a result of the war, the referendum was never held, and Jerusalem became a divided city, with a no-man's-land separating both sides.

 
And so it remained until the Six-Day War in 1967, initiated by the surrounding Arab countries.  Israel was victorious and conquered all of Judea and Samaria, including Jerusalem inter alia.  Seventeen days later, Israel redrew the boundaries of Jerusalem to include 70 square kilometers of the conquered land lying to the north, east, and south of Jerusalem.  She did so because she wanted to make Jerusalem defensible and because it was her right.  After all, the Mandate gave Jews the right to reconstitute their homeland in the land then called Palestine and to settle in all parts of it.

 
Seidemann now wants Jerusalem to once again be divided as if that was a good or workable thing in the first place.  You will recall that the Communists had to build a wall through the middle of Berlin to keep it divided, and you will recall how the world and the residents rejoiced after Berlin's reunification.  A divided city is an abomination and an administrative nightmare.

   Ir Amim reports:

"70,000 Palestinians lived in the annexed territory in 1967, and found themselves under Israeli rule. Israel offered these residents citizenship, which was rejected collectively. Therefore, the residents of East Jerusalem received the status of permanent residents of Israel

" After the annexation of 1967, 70,000 Palestinians held blue identity cards; at the beginning of 2010 the number was estimated at 300,000. In 1967 they constituted 25% of the total population of the "united" Jerusalem, now they constitute more than 35%. At the current rate of growth, their share in the total population of the capital of Israel will be 40% by 2020, according to accepted projections"

 
It is important to note that Israel did not expel these Arabs and instead offered them citizenship.  They collectively refused the citizenship and so Israel offered them legal residency with blue cards entitling them to many benefits. Now they constitute about 35% of the Jerusalem's legal residents.  In 9 years, it is expected to reach 40%. This flies in the face of Seidemann's allegations above noted.

 
The recent polls, which Seideman dismisses without evidence as "problematic," support Arab preference for Israel.

 
This poll was conducted by American Pechter Middle East Polls for the Council on Foreign Relations together with the head of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion.

 
YNET reported:

showed that if Jerusalem were divided as part of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, east Jerusalem Arabs would prefer to live under Israeli sovereignty and that their opposition to Jerusalem's division is so intense that they would rather move to a new home within Israel's borders rather than live under the authority of a Palestinian state.

 
"The study also showed that Jerusalem's Palestinian residents were interested in keeping their Israeli Identity cards and enjoying the State's health and social benefits. Some 35% of them said that Israeli citizenship is their preferred citizenship and only 30% chose to be citizens of the future Palestinian state. An additional 30% said that they didn't know, or preferred not to answer the question."

 
Seidemann complains that "Israel still does not provide most normal services or even build sufficient classrooms in much of East Jerusalem."  While this has been true, Seidemann ignores the fact that Jerusalem has begun correcting the matter.  Just last month, Israel21C reported:

"When the 2011-2012 school year began in the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, millions of shekels in sparkling new or renewed classrooms, computers and sports facilities greeted 42,153 students and their teachers.

"The mayor and municipal professionals work regularly with members of the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem through the leadership of the community centers as well as organized groups of residents such as the Mayor's Forum of Eastern Jerusalem Principals and the Mayor's Forum for Welfare in Eastern Jerusalem," Miller tells ISRAEL21c.

 
"New schools, including approximately 200 classrooms, have been built in the eastern part of the city. The municipality is currently investing the unprecedented sum of NIS 300 million (about $69 million) in the planning and construction of 285 additional new classrooms for Arab schoolchildren.

 
"New classrooms wouldn't be as valuable without updated equipment inside them. So with the assistance of Israeli branches of companies such as Ernst & Young and Intel, the municipality rang in the new school year by distributing 1,720 mobile and desktop computers to schools, kindergartens and teachers in eastern Jerusalem.

 
"An additional 350 new donated computers were given to schoolchildren to take home."

Jerusalem has just completed a light rail line which runs through the center or the city and connects it to Arab neighborhoods.  Also Jerusalem is finding it difficult to get all necessary approvals to a  Master Plan for the development of a united Jerusalem.   This plan allocates additional acreage for Arab housing to accommodate the expected increase of Arab residents for the next twenty years. Development is proceeding in the absence of the Master Plan.

 CONTINUE

    Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel  972 (0)54 441 3252

Sunni v Shia: The ME's new strategic conflict

By Barry Rubin, Rubin Reports 

Of course, conflicts between Sunni and Shia Muslims are notat all new, but the fact that this is becoming a central feature on the regional strategic level is a dramatic shift. After all, as long as there were secular-style regimes preaching anall-inclusive Arab nationalist identity, differences between religious communities were subordinated. Once there are Islamist regimes, theology becomes central again, as it was centuries ago.

However, no one should misunderstand the situation. This is fundamentally a struggle for political power and wealth. When Sunni and Shia states or movements battle they are acting as political entities not pursuing old theological disputes.

The growing power and influence of Iran's Islamist regime posed a tremendous problem for Arab Sunni Islamists. They generally did not like Iran because it was Persian and Shia, yet it was the only Islamist game in town. Thus, Arab Sunni Islamist Hamas became an Iranian client. The...

Read the whole entry »

Court: Obama must be 'constitutionally' eligible

By Bob Unruh, WMD 

For the first time in dozens of court cases challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, a judge has ruled that Obama must, in order to be a candidate on the Georgia ballot for president in 2012, meet the constitutional demands for candidates for the office.

A hearing has been scheduled later this month for evidence on the issue that has plagued Obama and his presidency since long before he took office. At issue is the constitutional requirement that a president be a "natural-born citizen." Some allege he was not born in the U.S. as he has claimed and, therefore, is not eligible.

 Others, including top constitutional expert Herb Titus, contend that the term "natural-born citizen," which is not defined in the Constitution, would have been understood when the document was written to mean the offspring of two U.S. citizens. That argument is supported by a 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court decision

Under that standard, Obama could not qualify, because...

Read the whole entry »

Islamophilia and the Israeli Question

Daniel Greenfield, Sultan Knish.. 
The dominant theme of the Islamophile foreign policy narrative is that America's troubles with Islamic terrorism and the violent instability of the Middle-East somehow derive from our excessive closeness to the Jewish State. In this narrative, which is prevalent among diplomats, journalists and assorted talking heads who are neither but pretend to be both, the terrorists are really just critics of our foreign policy. Except instead of penning smarmy New York Times columns like Thomas Friedman or Nick Kristoff, they plant bombs and ram planes into buildings not for the greater glory of Allah, but to prove the theses of Adlai Stevenson III and Zbignew Brzezinski.

The trouble with this is that it fails to reflect any reality other than the one in the stifling craniums of the opinionators. The foreign policy dolts have been complaining about the Zionist menace long before there was a special relationship between the United States and...

Read the whole entry »

Tamar Yonah interviews Francisco Gil-White

Audio: Denial Can Get You Killed (Warning: This show is not for kids)

A7 Radio's "The Tamar Yonah Show" with Tamar Yonah

Listen Now!

Denial Can Get You Killed (Warning: This show is not for children)

Why isn't anyone telling the truth to the People? Do our leaders purposely lie to us about the enemy who wants to kill us? (There is no 'Palestinian People' they are an 'invention'. Then why does PM Binymain Netanyahu and the LEFT want to give up Jewish Land to a non-nation that has no claims or historical proof showing any significant connection to this land?) Are Israeli Leaders ignoring historical fact, then feeding it to the public, in order to push through agendas of the International Community because they believe we are too weak to fight them? Do our leaders look at themselves like 'grasshoppers' as mentioned in the Biblical story of Moses who sent out the 12 spies, where 10 of them came back contended that...

Read the whole entry »

South Sudan, Israel's New Ally

by Daniel Pipes  The Washington Times

It's not every day that the leader of a brand-new country makes his maiden foreign voyage to Jerusalem, capital of the most besieged country in the world, but Salva Kiir, president of South Sudan, accompanied by his foreign and defense ministers, did just that in late December. Israel's President Shimon Peres hailed his visit as a "moving and historic moment." The visit spurred talk of South Sudan locating its embassy in Jerusalem, making it the only government anywhere in the world to do so.

This unusual development results from an unusual story.

Today's Sudan took shape in the nineteenth century when the Ottoman Empire controlled its northern regions and tried to conquer the southern ones. The British, ruling out of Cairo, established the outlines of the modern state in 1898 and for the next fifty years ruled separately the Muslim north and Christian-animist south. In 1948, however, succumbing to...

Read the whole entry »

Our World: Is Israeli society unraveling?

By CAROLINE B. GLICK, JPOST 

On balance, Israeli society is extremely healthy.

Unemployment is at record lows. At a time of global recession, the Israeli economy is growing steadily.

Israeli Jewish women have the highest fertility rate in the Western world with an average of three children per woman. Education levels have risen dramatically across the board over the past decade with dozens of private colleges opening their doors to more and more sectors of the population.

Israel's diverse Jewish population is becoming more integrated. Sephardic and Ashkenazi intermarriage has long been a norm. Secular Jews are becoming more religious. A new educational trend that received significant media attention in recent months involves secular parents who send their children to national religious schools to ensure that they receive strong educational grounding in Judaism.

And as secular Jews become more religious, both the national religious and ultra-Orthodox sectors are becoming...

Read the whole entry »

December 31, 2011  

By Andrew C. McCarthy

January 5, 2012     "Could you be a criminal?"     State Department partners with Organization of Islamic Cooperation in what could lead to criminalizing free speech  

"That could never happen here."

When we shine a light on the conviction of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff in Austria for "denigrating religion," that's how some people respond.

Or when we warn about sharia law creeping into America. Or 85 sharia courts in Britain. Or "no go zones" in France.

And of course, our State Department would NEVER agree to a UN resolution that has the practical effect of criminalizing free speech, right?

The column below that recently appeared in Forbes (highlights added) is longer than we normally put out, but it is SO IMPORTANT that you be aware of what's coming our way. Please take a few minutes to read it-because your first amendment rights may soon be in jeopardy.

Of course, that could never happen here. 

The President of Wake Forest University in North Carolina, Nathan O. Hatch, has praised his recently appointed Assistant Chaplain, Khalid Griggs, as a "well-respected individual, both on campus and throughout the Winston-Salem community." What President Hatch does not acknowledge however is Imam Griggs' other, less publicized activities, such a being a senior ranking official of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), an organization with strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. He is also a member of the Shura Council for the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), an organization co-founded and led by Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

So how is someone like Khalid Griggs able to work in an environment where he has access to thousands of young, impressionable minds, and more importantly - why is no one protesting? Clarion Fund Senior Fellow Clare Lopez investigates.  [Special thanks to Donald Woodsmall who brought this story to our attention].

Alexander's Essay - January 5, 2012

Gratitude for What?

Sometimes we need reminding

"There is in every breast a sensibility to marks of honor, of favor, of esteem, and of confidence, which, apart from all considerations of interest, is some pledge for grateful and benevolent returns. Ingratitude is a common topic of declamation against human nature; and it must be confessed, that instances of it are but too infrequent and flagrant both in public and in private life. But the universal and extreme indignation, which it inspires, is itself a proof of the energy and prevalence of the contrary sentiment." --James Madison, 1778

Like many American Patriots, I get up early every morning prepared to do battle to sustain Liberty for this and future generations. On occasion, however, I experience battle fatigue, which can diminish my morale and stamina. Inevitably in those moments, something occurs that restores both my drive and my determination.

Patriots across the nation know that we are engaged in a never-ending campaign to defend Liberty from the relentless assaults of those who would replace Rule of Law with the rule of men.

Some battlefronts are colossal. Take, for instance, the national scheme of Democratic Socialism under the leadership of the Obama regime, which endeavors to collapse our economy and replace it with statist socialism. (In case you missed it, our nation closed the books on 2011 with a record national debt of $15.223 TRILLION. More significantly, total U.S. debt is now more than 100 percent of GDP -- an ominous threshold.)

Other battlefronts are smaller, such as the local assaults on the First and Second Amendments. Small they may be, but the Left is expanding any victories in those arenas, via Thomas Jefferson's "despotic branch," to undermine our Bill of Rights and most notably, Tenth Amendment Federalism.

Post Your Opinion: What are the most important battlefronts of 2012?

In the final months of 2011, with the stress of keeping our substantial mission and operations capability at full throttle, and dealing with the added daily burdens of managing the business platform supporting those capabilities, I was tired and my attitude reflected a dour spirit.

In our household, I share this maxim with my children: "Attitude is a reflection of Gratitude!" A grateful heart results in a joyful spirit. Clearly, however, my faded attitude was a reflection of my lack of gratitude. (In such times, I invoke the Iron Law of Parental Hypocrisy: Do as I say, not as I do.)

Another tenet related to attitude is that when we lose sight of all for which we should be thankful, that vista can always be recovered through service to others.

Still another method for regaining gratitude is to be catapulted into that recognition by loss or trial. In my case, it was a great loss, which restored my sense of gratitude, and my attitude.

A heroic American Patriot, a man who had been a mentor to me for almost 30 years, died on Christmas Eve.

While the words "patriot" and "hero" are often bandied about these days, sometimes those character traits are well earned.

Roger Ingvalson was an American Patriot of the first order, and truly a hero. He stood tall among American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines, and history will record that he was not only extraordinarily courageous, but in equal measure both humble and faithful.

In 1968, Roger was flying the F-105D with the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Korat Royal Air Force Base, Thailand. The air war over Vietnam was in its third year, and the pilot casualty list included Roger's wingman and best friend, Wayne Fullam, who was shot down in late 1967.

On 28 May, Roger took off on his 87th combat sortie, leading a mission to destroy a bridge in North Vietnam. (Roger would note lightheartedly that it is very important to keep the number of mission takeoffs and landings equal.) With 1,600 hours in the F-105, he was confident that this mission would be a success. As he pulled off the target, an air controller requested that he hit an enemy truck convoy nearby.

Roger's tactical preference was for high speed and low altitude engagement in order to assure accuracy. At about 0900, he located the convoy of Soviet-built trucks near Dong Hoi and rolled in at more than 500 knots. At 50 feet above the hard deck, he fired a long 20mm burst into the convoy.

Moments later, Roger recalls, "I heard and felt an explosion and my cockpit immediately filled with smoke. I hit the afterburner to gain valuable altitude, then pulled the canopy ejection handle to get rid of the smoke. I rocketed up to about 600 feet before my aircraft went into an uncontrollable roll. I pulled the ejection seat handle and squeezed the trigger. As I was catapulted out of the burning aircraft, the wind blast knocked me out, and I didn't regain consciousness until just prior to landing on a dried out rice paddy."

As he hit the ground, Roger's first reaction was to feel for broken bones. "With 15 years as a fighter pilot, I was fully aware of the fact that there is very little chance of survival during an emergency ejection at high speed and low altitude without a multitude of injuries. To my amazement, I had no broken bones or other injuries." He told me at that moment, he knew God had a plan for his life.

For the next 1,742 days, Roger endured torture, starvation, desolation, disease and one stretch of 20 months in strict solitary confinement. He spent much of his internment in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison, made famous after "Hanoi Jane" Fonda collaborated with Roger's captors to make a propaganda film purporting that American POWs were being treated humanely.

The rest of his remarkable story is included in our 2006 Veterans Day column, A Tale of Two Oaths.

Roger was a living example of the maxim "attitude reflects gratitude."

In 1808, John Adams, wrote, "Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives." Indeed, Roger honored his sacred oath to "support and defend" our Constitution. He loved our great country.

Of such Patriots, Gen. George Patton once said, "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." However, I both mourn Roger's absence and thank God he lived, while taking great comfort knowing he has gained victory over his suffering and is with our Savior for eternity. Job well done, good and faithful servant!

Roger drew his last breath on Christmas Eve, but his legacy is eternal. He was buried with full military honors at National Cemetery, and fittingly that ceremony included a flyover of F-16s in his honor, and that of his surviving family members, who are an extraordinary lot in their own right, including two grandsons who are Air Force Cadets.

On that note, my sense of gratitude has been fully restored.

Moving into 2012, with all of the formidable challenges awaiting us, our Patriot team has renewed our resolve and redoubled our efforts in steadfast support of Liberty. We pray that you, too, are renewed, and we look forward to standing side by side with you in defending Rule of Law, with a deep sense of gratitude for generations of Patriots gone before, and in thanksgiving to God, Almighty for His endowment of Liberty!

"With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have compelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live as slaves." --John Dickinson & Thomas Jefferson, 1775

(Note: If you have a minute to pause and contemplate just how great our nation really is, I invite you to listen to "My Beautiful America.")

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Libertas aut Mortis!

Mark Alexander
Publisher, The Patriot Post

News from The Hill:

Obama announces sweeping new military strategy for Pentagon
By John T. Bennett

The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled a sweeping new military strategy that jettisons plans for fighting two major wars at once while cutting the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal.

The strategy describes a new approach to fighting al Qaeda and puts China and Iran on notice, while readying the military for reduced funding and more austere budgets.

It will mean a smaller U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal as the Pentagon enacts $400 billion in cuts, as well as troop reductions, though these are not spelled out.

"As we look beyond the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - and the end of long-term, nation-building with large military footprints - we'll be able to ensure our security with smaller conventional ground forces," President Obama said in prepared remarks for a Pentagon briefing laying out the new strategy.

Read the story here.

Propaganda, Terror, and Mass Communication Part 2
Jan 05, 2012 11:25 am

Abuse of Power
Jan 05, 2012 11:11 am

Israeli Palestinian Confrontation,(December 28, 2011 - January 3, 2012)
Jan 05, 2012 12:45 am

Islamophilia and the Israeli Question
Jan 05, 2012 12:19 am

A Razor-Thin Victory for Romney
Jan 05, 2012 12:11 am

Silliness at the Fed: 'Love Us, Love Our Transparency'
Jan 04, 2012 11:59 pm

Global Poverty Act is Back...Is Bill Gates the World's Richest Useful Idiot?
Jan 04, 2012 03:25 pm

Iowa: Anti-Amnesty Romney and Santorum Finish 1 and 2
Jan 04, 2012 11:42 am

  VIDEOS * TODAY'S HOT PICKS

GOP Ignores Voting Irregularities in the Iowa Caucuses

Mitt Romney's Iowa "Win" was a Defeat

Video: Michelle Obama, Call Me "Your Excellency"!

Video: New Hampshire Legislators Fight Obama's Eligibility Fraud

Obama Officials Push Agents to "Rush" Immigrant Visas - Even If Fraud is Suspected

Shrinking America, Crouching China

Obama Makes Fraudulent Affirmative Action Pick Head of Army Drill Sergeant School

Obama's EEOC: Requiring a High School Diploma for a Job is Discrimination

EPA Hands Out $6.3 Million To Indian Tribes, Environmental Groups

Appeals Court Stops Obama's EPA from Raising Your Energy Bill...For Now

Read more: 

The One True Anti-Romney

While other candidates were busy rising and falling, sinking and swimming, reaching out to experts and promoting themselves to insiders, Rick Santorum did things the old fashioned way. He campaigned. And the candidate whom the insiders ignored and disdained, came within a hair of winning Iowa.

 

So now it's another round of Pile on Santorum. After the previous round of Pile on Gingrich. Which is how  we ended up with a match between Romney and Ron Paul. What exactly is the point of destroying Santorum I have to wonder? These attacks aren't really based on ideological opposition. Not for the most part. The war on Santorum in being waged to clear the way for some other candidate. And so every non-Romney candidate is being destroyed to make way for the one true Anti-Romney.

Who is the one true Anti-Romney? To some it's Perry, to others it's Gingrich and to others it's anybody but the candidates actually running.

There are many furious headlines being written castigating Santorum for somehow having sneaked under the radar without paying his dues by being lambasted by the conservative establishment for a week. The consensus is that he only almost won because all the other candidates crashed and burned. That might be true, but who tanked the other candidates? Aside from Cain, the liberal media hardly had to lift a finger. It was the gatekeepers of the establishment who did all the heavy lifting.

The National Review, which helped sink Gingrich, fires its biggest shotgun at Santorum by putting up a photo of him together with George W. Bush. It used to be Democrats that tried to sink Republicans with photos like that. But if we are going to disqualify any Republican who had his photo taken with Bush, the primary season just got a lot simpler.

The case against Santorum is that he is a "Big Government Conservative", all capital letters. That is the official talking point. But assuming that Santorum is a big government conservative, who are the small government conservatives? Romney, Perry, Gingrich?

When your competition are two state governors, one of whom was responsible for RomneyCare and the other for proposing a health insurance program for Mexicans, Santorum's transgressions like "national service, publicly financed trust funds for children, community-investment incentives, and economic-literacy programs in schools" don't seem that great a sin. What's left then for small government conservatism? Newt Gingrich? I like Gingrich, but he's not exactly immune to that charge by about a mile.

Worse still we are told that Santorum "voted against NAFTA and has long opposed free trade. He backed higher tariffs on everything from steel to honey." Horrifyingly unelectable. How can anyone possibly support a candidate who opposes mass shipping of American jobs overseas. Americans might support such a candidate, but the Chamber of Commerce never will.

At the London Telegraph, James Delingpole asserts that Santorum is "so left on the issues that matter he makes even Mitt Romney look like a red meat conservative". So I suppose we have found our Anti-Romney and he is Mitt Romney. The only way to possibly stop Santorum's radical left-wing opposition to NAFTA and support for economic literacy programs in schools is by rushing to vote for Mitt Romney to save America.

Longtime readers know that I am not a strong supporter of any candidate. There are candidates that I like while acknowledging their flaws. Overall I have tried to be fair to any legitimate candidate in the field and tried to find something good to say about them. As the seemingly inevitable ascent of Romney continues, I will find something to like about him, if only that his name isn't Obama.

What irritates me is that the primaries have descended into the depths of personal destruction where spurious attacks are used by supporters of one side or another until the field is a mass of ridiculed and banished candidates, and our winner is the man with the least personality and the least interest in what we think of him.
 

Beware of conservatives who see benefit in Obama's re-election

Jan 05, 2012 05:13 am | Coach Collins

by Doug Book,  staff writer

At least one well-known conservative has begun speaking out-loud the notion that an Obama re-election might not be the very worst thing that could happen, either to the nation or to Republicans-even to REAL Republicans-that is, conservatives, members of the Party base whose mistrust of Obama is nearly equaled by their mistrust of Mitt Romney and the 2008 'Ghost of Romney past', John McCain. 

The best-selling author of "Looking out for Number One" and "Restoring the American Dream", Robert Ringer has been a Libertarian/conservative for decades. And given 5 decades of Libertarian leanings, his support of Ron Paul should surprise no one.

But just prior to the Iowa Caucus, Ringer decided that should Ron Paul run the independent, third party campaign many so fear him capable of  "and it resulted in Obama's re-election, [Ringer] would be fine with that if it keeps Romney from taking the reins of power and ... Continue Reading:Beware of conservatives who see benefit in Obama's re-election

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American Minute January 4

Jan 04, 2012 03:13 pm | Coach Collins

By Bill Federer, staff writer

 Called the "Father of American Medicine," he signed the Declaration of Independence, was Surgeon General of the Continental Army, and a staff member of the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he opened the first free medical clinic. His name was Benjamin Rush, and he was born JANUARY 4, 1745. He founded the Philadelphia Bible Society, a Sunday School Union and a Society for the Abolition of Slavery. A proponent of public education, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote his Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic, 1786: "I proceed...to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all of the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of the youth; and here I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid on the foundation of religion. Without this there can be no virtue, ... Continue Reading:American Minute January 4

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Willard's 25% problem returns as 75% say "No thanks" and other thoughts on Iowa

Jan 04, 2012 10:13 am | Coach Collins

By Kevin "Coach" Collins

Mr. 25% has done it again. Willard Romney has a thing about the number 25. If there are six people in the Republican field his 25% puts him at or near the top. When the field thins out his 25% will have to be increased or he will end up the same way he did in 2008.

Rick Santorum is a solid conservative who demonstrated that a candidate's perceived conservatism will ultimately be the quality that propels one of the Republicans on the stage to the nomination. Whether Rick has the staying power to mount a protracted fight remains to be seen, but for now we have to congratulate him for being the first candidate to expose Willard's 25% problem to those who believe his nomination is a settled matter.

Ron "Sanjaya" Paul has had his day in the sun. There will probably never be any way to prove it, but Paul was ... Continue Reading:Willard's 25% problem returns as 75% say "No thanks" and other thoughts on Iowa

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ICE News Release: TOP STORY: French officers look to ICE HSI for guidance on gang enforcement

By Michael Cutler, Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.), CAPS Senior Fellow, January 5, 2012

Often a review of the news releases on the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) website can provide important insight into the immigration crisis that confronts the United States.  On December 27, 2011 ICE sent out a news release that focused on how they were helping the residents of Dallas, Texas to combat transnational gangs-a problem that is being confronted by many countries around the world.

The news release made note of the fact that members of French law enforcement traveled to the United States to get an "Up close and in person" view of how ICE and local police working together can benefit by the synergy that is created by this multi-agency approach.

I spent roughly half of my 30 year career with the INS working in close cooperation with a diverse conglomeration of law enforcement agencies on the local, state and federal level as well as with foreign law enforcement agencies and can attest to the many ways in which such cooperation among diverse law enforcement agencies can yield important successes in combating transnational criminal organizations, drug smuggling organizations and international terrorist organizations.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

To: Friends & Supporters

From: Gary L. Bauer


COUNTDOWN TO VICTORY: 306 DAYS TO THE 2012 ELECTIONS


Media Maelstrom

The past 24 hours have been unbelievable. Recently I joined Dr. Jim Dobson, Don Wildmon and others in calling for a private meeting of conservative leaders in a couple of weeks to discuss and evaluate the political landscape and how we can best advance our pro-family, pro-life values. Unfortunately, someone invited to that meeting had their own agenda and leaked to liberal reports in Washington that the meeting was about "stopping" one candidate or another in the Republican primaries.

The media love a story about Republicans fighting Republicans. And so as soon as that story broke, the phones started ringing off the hook -- ABC, the New York Times, Politico, USA Today, the Associated Press, etc. My message to every reporter was the same: There is one man I am interested in stopping, and his name is Barack Hussein Obama!

All of the candidates have flaws. But I believe virtually any of them would be head and shoulders above the socialist we currently have in the White House, who daily is engaged in questionable extra-legal, extra-constitutional actions that undermine our values and economy. (See next item.)

By the way, I would feel a lot better if all of the GOP candidates were spending less time trying to blow each other up and aiming more of their rhetorical fire at the disastrous administration that is currently in power. For example, I fear that so many millions of dollars of negative advertising ran in Iowa of Republicans attacking Republicans that our chances of carrying that state in November have been seriously diminished.

We will continue to do our best to bring conservatives together and keep everyone's eye on the prize: Ending the current nightmare in Washington and sending Obama packing in 306 days!


The Cordray Controversy

Barack Obama has done it again. Yesterday the president announced four "recess appointments." First, he appointed Richard Cordray as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Then Obama appointed three new members of the National Labor Relations Board. These appointments are extremely controversial and guaranteed to further poison the atmosphere in Washington.

Senate Republicans have been blocking these appointments for various legitimate public policy reasons. But rather than work with Republicans to address the important issues at stake, Obama simply decided to score cheap political points with his left-wing base.

Presidents have the power to make recess appointments when Congress is in recess. There's only one problem -- Congress isn't in recess! As the Wall Street Journal notes:

"Section 5 of Article 1 of the Constitution says that 'Neither House' of Congress can adjourn for more than three days 'without the Consent of the other' house. In this case, the House of Representatives had not formally consented to Senate adjournment. It's true the House did this to block the president from making recess appointments, but it is following the Constitution in doing so." [Emphasis added.]

The Journal also notes that Democrats deployed this same tactic during George W. Bush's last two years in order to prevent him from making recess appointments. But now Obama has taken it upon himself to decide when Congress is in session and when it isn't. Based upon Obama's logic, there is nothing to stop him from making recess appointments every weekend!

In response, the Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are promising to take the administration to court. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell blasted Obama for "arrogantly circumventing" the confirmation process. Speaker John Boehner also issued the following statement:

"This is an extraordinary and entirely unprecedented power grab by President Obama that defies centuries of practice and the legal advice of his own Justice Department.  The precedent that would be set by this cavalier action would have a devastating effect on the checks and balances that are enshrined in our constitution.  ...It's clear the President would rather trample our system of separation of powers than work with Republicans to move the country forward.  This action goes beyond the President's authority, and I expect the courts will find the appointment to be illegitimate."

Obama has created a constitutional crisis between two co-equal branches of government. He has bent the rules and broken long-standing traditions in order to get whatever he wants. It fits a consistent pattern of stretching, and in some cases breaking, the regular rules and procedures of government. These appointments are more examples of Chicago-style brass-knuckle politics -- not exactly "change we can believe in."

I hope the Republican presidential candidates are paying very close attention. If the administration, which promised to transcend partisanship and usher in a new era of bi-partisan cooperation, is willing to stoop to this level when it comes to governing, what will it do in a campaign when all its power is at risk?


Ron Paul's Liberal Base

The "entrance" polls of Iowa caucus-goers revealed some fascinating information about the people who showed up to support the candidates. For example, a plurality of women supported Rick Santorum, as did those who said they supported the Tea Party movement.

Here's what we learned about the folks who caucused for Ron Paul:

• They were young. Of the 15% of caucus-goers between the ages of 18 and 29, 48% backed Ron Paul.
• They were new to politics. Of the 38% of caucus-goers who had never attended a caucus before, 33% backed Ron Paul.
• They were not necessarily Republicans. Of the 23% of caucus-goers who identified as "independents," 43% backed Ron Paul.
• They were not conservatives. Of the 17% of caucus-goers who identified as "moderate or liberal," the largest share -- 40% -- backed Ron Paul. For comparison, 35% of those who identified as "very conservative" backed Rick Santorum, while only 15% of "very conservative" caucus-goers backed Ron Paul.

 Go here: 

 Today's Headlines: Thursday, January 05, 2012

Obama on Flouting Article 2, Section 2 of Constitution: 'I Refuse to Take No for an Answer'

The Heck with the Senate: Obama Skips 'Advise and Consent' in Naming 3 New Members of National Labor Relations Board

McConnell: Obama's Uncomfirmed Appointments in 'Uncertain Legal Territory'  

California Public School Kids Now Required to Study Contributions of LGBT Americans 

DOJ: Sinaloa Cartel's Influence Extends Well Beyond Border Into 'Much' of the U.S.

Oil Industry: Energy Issues, Keystone Pipeline Should Be Top of Mind for Voters 

Santorum: 'The State of Our Culture Under this Administration Continues to Decline' 

Gingrich: 'There Will Be a Great Debate in the Republican Party' 

Santorum Won Among Iowa Tea Partiers, Romney Among Tea Party Opponents, Says Entrance Poll

Santorum on Iowa Caucus Success: 'I Offer a Public Thanks to God' 

Santorum: Court Ruled Wrongly in Griswold v. Connecticut--the Pre-Roe 'Right to Privacy' Decision 

Ron Paul Won All Age Brackets Under 40 in Iowa Caucuses, Says Entrance Poll 

New Leader, New Year, But Same Belligerence From North Korea 

Nine of the Top Ten Religious Persecutors Are Islamic in Advocacy Group’s Annual Rankings

COMMENTARY:

The Great Conservative Sell-Out
By Ben Shapiro
When we deliberately broaden conservatism to encompass government-forced purchase of health insurance or raising taxes or appointing liberal judges or enforcing same-sex marriage or using taxpayer money to bail out business or pushing trade barriers, we destroy conservatism from within.  

A word from "Zeb" Zobenica 

Posted: 05 Jan 2012 11:44 AM PST

(Scott Johnson)

Reader "Zeb" Zobenica writes to comment on the OWS phenomenon:

Watching, and listening to, the #OWS crowd on TV provoked a "flashback" to the time I was readying myself to enter the corporate world.

I was a Marine jet pilot with an engineering degree, a wife, two young kids, a dog...and a cane. After sixteen months of "paint and repair" at a naval hospital following a plane crash, and an additional half-year of rehab, it was decided that I would never sit in an ejection seat again. It was time to meet a new challenge, sell myself to strangers...and put "grits" on the table with a pay check earned in the private sector.

While listening to the #OWS protestors, the realization that "these people are clueless" reverberated between my tinnitus-challenged ears. Memories harkened me back to the approach I used when confronted with job-seeking. Career change preparation included choosing where I wanted to live, proximity to extended family, salary considerations for a person with my education and experience. Research was done on several potential employers in the aerospace industry...corporate structure, plant locations, product lines, customers, hiring and layoff cycles, and an assessment of what I could contribute to their "war effort." Letters were written expressing an interest in their company and stating confidently the belief that I would be an asset to their corporation. The interviews that followed revealed a candidate in a gray business suit, tie, spit-shined shoes, hands and hair groomed, who knew something about the outfit he was hoping to work for, yet faced with the need to assure an employer that my gimpiness would not affect job performance.  

Fast forward to #OWS. Is this what the self-esteem movement has produced? Everybody gets a Happy Face? Nobody keeps score? There are no winners and losers? Trophies are for showing up? This is a "me" generation on steroids. They pursued academic degrees that promised little or no return on the investment and now find themselves deeply in debt...Where was the parental advice? School counselors? Was there no consideration given to job opportunities in the field, salaries offered, or a perfunctory cost-benefit analysis performed? Did they not understand that, unless one's applying for a job in a tattoo parlor or a chop-shop, body paint and piercings are not frequently found in the market place? To most employers, such appurtenances suggest a person with issues, consumed with self, an in-your-face personality who may not play well with others. Real life has owners, bosses, and co-workers who are not impressed with ear lobes festooned with "bagels" nor with potential employees who make a habit of reminding others of their rights. The wise human resources manager avoids these sea-lawyers like the plague. Out-of-court settlements are now a cottage industry and it's wise to keep these entitlement-gurus off the company payroll.

Zuccotti Park, in microcosm, took on the characteristics of a bacterial colony in a Petri dish. The population starts small, there is space, and plenty to eat. As the numbers multiply, demand for nutrition increases, and the by-products of consumption began to accumulate, inevitably leading to a toxic environment and disease. Street lesson #1...every organism, whether biological or physical, in order to function, requires a source of energy and produces waste. Chardonnay and pasta become piss and crap; gasoline becomes exhaust. It must be dealt with. It is a local issue affecting those in the Petri colony. It is not of planetary concern. Once handed-off to Gaia, she is well prepared to process what is produced.

Free food, or for that matter, free anything, attracts freeloaders, even in a Zuccotti Utopia. The workload on the gourmet cooks increased and they soon felt put upon. The chefs, after toiling for 18 hours daily, said enough is enough. Street lesson #2...there is no such thing as a free lunch. There exists among our species lazy, slothful slackers who demand access to the fruits of someone else's labor. It's hard-coded in the DNA.

Societies require organization; divisions of labor; systems to produce, manage, and allocate resources, resolve differences, and provide security. This means some become money managers, others collect trash. Some become bureaucrats, others stand before them with hat-in-hand. Who, or what, determines which role individual utopians get to play? Merit? Muscle? Big stick? Bloods or Crips? Street lesson #3...life isn't fair.

"Give peace a chance? Can't we all get along?" Apparently not. Utopia had to come to grips with stolen laptops, broken drums, rapes, and murder. Street lesson #4...there is a reason that cities have police departments and nations have armies. "Kumbaya" is a song, not a policy.

It may be said, simply and forthrightly, that "life is about choices and choices have consequences." This common sense slogan was apparently not taught to the #OWS crowd along the way. They've shown the world their tats, tits, lobes, and asses. We've heard their bongos, read their signs, and smelled their garbage, 'grass', urine, and excrement.

We, the real 99%, are not impressed!   

R.M. "Zeb" Zobenica
Capt., USMC (Ret.)

I thought you might enjoy that.

Occupy Wall St. Hits Rock Bottom: "Public Nuisance" 

Posted: 05 Jan 2012 09:40 AM PST

(John Hinderaker)

The Occupy Wall Street movement began with a burst of favorable press coverage that was reflected in a largely favorable public perception of the movement. However, as time went on and murders, rapes, assaults, and public urination, defecation and masturbation became the hallmarks of OWS, the public soured on the protesters. That was inevitable; it is hard to see how protesters who squat in public places week after week can do anything but wear out their welcome.

The extent to which this has happened is shown by Scott Rasmussen's latest survey on OWS. Fifty-one percent of likely voters now see OWS as a "public nuisance," while only 39% see them as "a valid protest movement representing the frustrations of most Americans." There is still room for those numbers to get worse, which they will as long as the OWS crime spree continues.

Now, for liberals, the question is how to bring the OWS demonstrations to a merciful conclusion before they do further damage.

JOE adds: Since we've used it several times, readers may want to enjoy full-sized documentation of our iconic Occupy protester.

January 05, 2012         

MOM CALLS 9-1-1, THEN SHOOTS INTRUDER    A teen mom and her newborn baby were home alone on New Years Eve when a pair of intruders tried to break into their Oklahoma City home. The terrified 19-year-old called 9-1-1 and spoke to the operator for 21 minutes before she decided to pull the trigger on her 12 gauge shot gun. See the video version of the story HERE.     

SANTORUM CRITICIZES... REAGAN?   Rick Santorum has found himself in the middle of a small controversy. During a speech to potential voters in New Hampshire, the surging Santorum violated what many call the 11th Commandment - "Thou shalt not criticize Ronald Reagan." Watch the clip HERE.

SEE THE COSTLIEST WEAPON EVER BUILT

The USS Gerald Ford cost more than $11 billion dollars to build. The ship has been called "100,000 tons of diplomacy." Get a good look at this military marvel HERE.

'CURRENT TV'S' KEITH OLBERMANN IS FEUDING WITH HIS NEW BOSSES  After losing his high-paying gig on MSNBC last January, Keith Olbermann landed on "Current TV," Al Gore's fledgling cable channel. However, the love affair between Olbermann and his new bosses may already have faded. See the reasons for all of the tension HERE.

PAYING CASH FOR GAS? YOU MAY NEED TO SHOW A DRIVER'S LICENSE   Michigan-area filling stations are asking drivers to swipe their drivers license before paying cash for gas, and claiming it is a security issue. How do you feel about being asked to show a license in order to pay cash for gas? Get all the details HERE.     

VIRAL VIDEO - WHY DID THE NAVY'S  'DEADLIEST SNIPER' PUNCH JESSE VENTURA?   Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was on the radio talking about his new book when he was asked about a 2006 encounter with former Minnesota Governor and SEAL alum Jesse Ventura. Watch the video and learn what happened HERE.