Tuesday, August 31, 2010

It Is A Fearful Thing To Fall Into The Hands Of The Living God.


It Is A Fearful Thing To Fall Into The Hands Of The Living God.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet


Allow me to say, right up front, that Mr. Glenn Beck does not need me to defend him.

I don’t know, for sure, what motivates Mr. Beck. I’d like to think it is love of God and country. But I don’t KNOW that.

Those of you who regularly read my blog, “INSIGHT on Freedom,” already know that I am about as “southern” as it is possible to be. My ancestors sailed into Charles Town Harbor, at what is known today as Charleston, South Carolina, in 1789 and were settled in the 98th Precinct of South Carolina. I grew up in the red clay and sand of the northern part of the state, in the piedmont, the foothills of that beautiful state.

I grew up at a time when a southern gentleman had a bible in one hand and a firearm in the other. We could pray or fight, at the drop of a hat, whatever the preference of our advisory might be.

I spent my youth reading, hunting, and getting an education. It was important that a southern man be well read, able to defend himself and his family, and have as much education as he was able to handle. (Yes, I DO believe there are those among us who are educated beyond their ability!)
Not satisfied with the education I was receiving in school, I read an entire set of encyclopedias, front to back, just to broaden my knowledge, and insure that I knew a little bit about a lot of things. I cannot tell you how important that became in the field of endeavor I chose later in life.

I was taken to many “tent meetings” as a child. I observed and studied those “traveling preachers.” I listened to their delivery, their gestures, their play on emotions, and, on occasion, their sincerity. A wise person once said that when you can fake sincerity you’ve got it made – or words to that effect. I am satisfied that in those tent meetings, I saw both, real and unreal sincerity. BOTH made and impact on me.

I have seen the effect an old fashioned revival can have on a community. I have seen lives changed, for the better, in a moment of introspection keyed by something that raspy-voiced old bible thumping preacher said, or a single line of scripture that burned with the intensity of a laser deep into the heart and soul of a person weighed down by the cares and woes of a life squandered.

I have seen, first-hand, those “redeemed” people pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and begin to rebuild it, restore it, and honor it. I have seen thisand it left a life long impression on this scribe.

So – what did I learn? I learned an extremely important truth. It does not matter who the messenger is -- what matters is – the message. The power is not in the messenger. The power is in the message. And if that message is truth, then believe me when I tell you, -- freedom is close behind.

Our nation is in dire straits. In my seventy years of life, I have seen America go from a "God-fearing" nation to a “fearing” nation. Of all those hell fire and brimstone preachers, I was exposed to as a child, not a single one of them wore a bulletproof vest, as I believe Mr. Beck did last Saturday. (A faint outline of the vest was visible through Mr. Beck’s shirt. At least, that is what I took it to be.) That, alone, speaks volumes about the state of our country.

Another thing I learned as a youth was this truth: God uses people who are broken, who have failed, who have buckled under the stress of their lives, who are physically imperfect, and who are reluctant to stand out from the crowd, even for a moment, even to work great wonders.

Yes, Moses had a speech impediment. He was reluctant to go back to Egypt where he was a wanted man – wanted for murder. He asked that his brother Aaron be sent instead of him. In the end, he went -- and the rest, as they say, is history (at least bible history, anyway.)
In the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 31, the writer says the following: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Consider that Mr. Beck may have fallen into the hands of The Living God.
Look at the life history of the Apostle Paul. Early in his life he took on the task of destroying the early Christian church. After his experience on the Damascus Road, he became the messenger of the gospel to all the Gentiles of the world including those of us who live today, 2000 years later.

I watched the entire telecast of the Restoring Honor Rally, last Saturday, and within ten minutes I exclaimed to my wife that I recognized it as an old-fashioned outdoor revival meeting. Because that is exactly what it was. And, I hasten to add – I don’t see that as a problem.

In the Old South, dishonoring a man could cost you your life. The man whose honor was questioned could demand satisfaction and, more often than not, the debate was settled by a duel to the death on the Field of Honor.

Honor was, and ought to be, a precious thing.
The honor of a nation is a mirror image of the honor of that nation’s people. Our very own leaders have called our honor, as Americans, into question. The people are now demanding satisfaction. As was said at the Restoring Honor Rally, "Now is not the time to fundamentally change America, now is the time to RESTORE America."

Look, I do not walk in lock step with Mr. Beck, or with any man or woman. Anyone who knows me, personally, will tell you that of all the birds perched on the power line facing north; I am the lone bird facing south. It is my nature.

I would ask only this: Consider the message from Saturday’s rally. Restoring America’s honor IS restoring America. The restoration of America is vital, not just to Americans but to the nations of the world. Consider which nation will slip into the leadership position that America gives up. THAT is truly frightening.

The restoring Honor Rally, last weekend, sent chills of fear through the ranks of the leftists, progressives, liberals, and the very few real democrats left in our government. They have now seen the evidence of just how far they have distanced themselves from the American people. When half a million people journey to the nation’s seat of government to PERSONALLY register a protest, any reasonable person would have to take notice and reconsider the course they have plotted for America. But they won’t.

I submit that half a million gathered on the national mall Saturday was just the vanguard of a nationwide movement to retake America from those who are determined to “fundamentally change” her from the constitutional republic the Founders meant her to be -- into a socialist sewer.

They must be stopped. That is why the Mid-Term Election, on November 2nd is so important. That is our new “D” day.

You may not care for the messenger – but, for the sake of America, for your sake, heed the message.

J. D. Longstreet

Monday, August 30, 2010

America On The Brink Of Nuclear Destruction?


America On The Brink Of Nuclear Destruction?
Is America the Victim of Nuclear Blackmail?
A commentary by J. D. Longstreet


“ … intelligence reports from various sources say al Qaeda has already smuggled from 7 to 70 nuclear weapons into the country across the Mexican border. American intelligence experts believe the number to be closer to 7 than 70 but admit the threat is very real.” (SOURCE)

“ … Intelligence information from captured al Qaeda documents, computers, and operatives indicates that al Qaeda has targeted 9 American Cities for nuclear attack.” (SOURCE)

While the Obama Regime fiddles modern day Rome is about to burn.

Iran is quickly, quickly, reaching the point at which they can produce an atomic bomb. Never mind the experts predictions that they are a year away. They have been wrong many times before. I suspect they are very wrong this time and your life may depend upon your preparation for that day when Iran lobs a nuclear bomb over the US strapped atop a second rate guided missile that, nevertheless, can get the job done.

Never, ever, allow yourself to believe that Iran is only blustering when saying they will wipe Israel off the map. Remember, they have also said a world without America is desirable -- and possible. They mean to blast America from the map as well.

However, a nuclear guided missile is not necessary to bring America to its knees. Iran knows that, as does al Qaida. Those suitcase bombs, placed in America’s major cities will do the trick and do it well.

Security experts, as reported above, tell us they have reason to believe that Islamic terrorists have been able to smuggle at least 7 and as many as 70 nuclear bombs into America by simply walking across the border between Mexico and the US. So much for border security, huh?

Captured terrorist documents tell us the targeted cities are: New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Of course, New York and Washington are the top two cities on the list for obvious reasons. They represent the seat of America’s government and the seat of America’s economic system. The destruction of those two cities, alone, will throw the entire nation into fearful confusion and spread panic much as a prairie fire races across the plains.

Some reports proclaim that one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at least two suitcase nukes reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S. Each suitcase weighed between 50 and 80 kilograms (approximately 110 to 176 pounds) and contained enough fissionable plutonium and uranium to produce an explosive yield in excess of two kilotons. The plutonium and uranium are kept in separate compartments that are linked to a triggering mechanism that can be activated by a clock or a call from the cell phone. (SOURCE)

If these security experts are to be believed, the nuclear bombs are already in place within America. So, it is only a matter of time.

I have to wonder if THAT is the reason the Obama Regime will not attack Iran and take out Iran’s nuclear facilities. I have to wonder if this is the reason Obama will not allow Israel to do so. Could it be, is it possible, that Al Qaida and Iran are, even now, blackmailing the American government? (It’s called nuclear blackmail.)

Iran IS in the process of building the “Islam Bomb.” That we know. We also know they will use it. We know they will use it on Israel and they will use in on America. Nuclear blackmail is the only reasonable answer to the question of why the US has not already taken Iran out. Nothing else makes any sense.

Even the bible scriptures of the Old Testament tell us that Russia and Iran will team up to attack Israel. (Ezekiel chapters 38-39) What do we have today? Russia and Iran have formed an alliance, a nuclear alliance, for the purpose of producing nuclear power, which will, in turn, make it possible for Iran to use the spent fuel rods (supplied by Russia) from their nuclear reactor(s) to produce the materials necessary for their atomic bomb. (There is a much more scientific explanation for this, but this is all one needs to know to understand the danger to Israel and the US from Iran.)

As Obama brings US combat troops home form Iraq, which borders Iran, one has to wonder why? Why are the troops coming home when it is so painfully obvious they are going to have to return in a few weeks, a few months, or a few years?

We have told you many times in our commentaries that America will never leave the Middle East again. We have a long-coveted military position in that troubled area, which gives us the advantage of being “forward deployed” in a region that foments most of the world’s problems. As the world’s policeman, by default, America needed a police station in that troubled neighborhood. Now we have it -- and we will not be giving it up.

But understand this: American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are only speed bumps in Iran’s path once they have the bomb. And they will have the bomb any day now.

Will the Obama Regime tell the American people the truth about the terrorist capability to wreak nuclear destruction on the homeland? No, I don’t think they will.

Will Obama take the risk that nuclear bombs are here and can be detonated at any time, and take the iniatives and mount an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities? Again, I believe the answer to be no. You see, that takes strong leadership, of which Obama is not capable.

With the Damocles Sword of nuclear disaster dangling perilously over America’s head it will call for a leader with a steel backbone and rock solid determination to do what needs so desperately to be done.

Time is NOT on our side – not anymore. We have reached the point at which anything we do is going to mean massive death and destruction to our friends and ourselves.

Yes, dear reader, I understand that all this sounds like an unlikely conspiracy. But remember -- as a TV promo says: “ALL conspiracy theories are not just theories.” Sometimes, those “theories” turn out to be very prescient. We have no choice now but to wait and see. It is sad that so many innocent people will die, needlessly, if this theory proves to be anything more than just a theory.

J. D. Longstreet

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Obama Continues to Appease Iran

Appeasing Iran
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

If the President of the US sits down, in a face to face meeting with the President of Iran, and discusses Iran’s attempt to develop an Atomic Bomb, discusses Iran’s meddling in Iraq… including the training and supplying of insurgents in Iraq who are killing America military personnel, discusses Iran’s declared intention of wiping Israel from the map, discusses Iran’s threatening of shipping through the Straits of Hormuz, discusses Iran’s arming and training of terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon and sundry other places around the globe, … would that be appeasement ?

Of COURSE it would be appeasement! Why? Because… it would raise Iran’s President up to the level of the US President in perceived prestige and power around the world (I mean, of course, the “OFFICE” of the President). Plus, it would embolden the terrorist organizations that would read it as “bringing the US to heel”.

There is nothing to discuss with Iran. We have demands to make, but there is nothing to discuss.

Look, Iran is skating on very thin ice. Their arrogance is either covering for their stupidity, or a national death wish. Either way the life of their country is in the balance.

Iran is setting itself up for a preemptory military strike by Israel… or the United States, or (most likely), both.

The fact that the US has been fighting a ground war against Iran, for many months now, is not lost on the intelligence communities of Israel, Great Britain and the United States. Although it has not been spoken of by the press in the US, to any great degree, the British press printed the facts about the 12,000 man Iranian force which flooded across the Iraq/Iran border shortly after the US and British Invasion of Iraq. It is certainly a contributing factor in the continuing battle to knock down the so-called “Insurgency” within Iraq.

The plain fact is, folks, we are fighting Iran on the ground, and all over the world right now. If the troops we are fighting against aren’t Iranian in blood, then they are Iranian by proxy.

Iran has a huge bulls eye painted on her today. If the people of Iran do not rise up and overthrow the mullahs and the Imams and whoever is running that pitiful excuse for a country then they can expect to be attacked by outside forces and their regime changed by force. Iran’s hand is raised toward every man and every man’s hand is raised toward Iran.

Iran’s leadership continues to boast of going after Israel. It is the worst mistake they could possibly make.

Israel has a first, and second, strike nuclear capability. She has nuclear-armed subs, at sea, as a back up to her ground based nuclear arsenal. If attacked, she will certainly strike back and… she has the capability to take out the entire metropolitan population of Iran a number of times over.

For many years, now, Israel has warned that she will use her nuclear option rather than be the recipients of another holocaust. Israel is not just whistling Dixie. She will do it as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow.

Iran finds a democratic Iraq unacceptable as a neighbor. Therefore, they intend to do, and are doing, anything within their power to cripple all efforts to establish such a government in Iraq. In the meantime, their effort to create a nuclear bomb, missiles, etc, is on track and is due to be realized well before the ten years our misled intelligence services led themselves to believe several years ago.

All of this we know. And some in our government want to negotiate??? Some of our presidential candidates want to TALK to Iran? At this point, talking is nothing more than a sign of weakness. On the other hand, if Iran wishes to send an emissary, through back channels, to talk to OUR people in search of a way to save their own behinds, well, that is a different story. We might entertain an offer from Iran to lay down here arms, remove her troops from Iraq, back away from the Straits of Hormuz, stop threatening the free flow of oil from the Middle East, cut off funding and supplying terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon and the other trouble spots around the globe, and basically, behaving themselves… then, we might be open to listening.

But, as long as Iran’s mad mullahs and hallucinating henchmen continue to prance and preen, shine their shields and rattle their sabers, any attempt, on the part of the US (or any other nation at which their vitriol is directed) to talk with them is viewed as appeasement… and rightly so.

Since the beginning of warfare between tribes there has always been those who want to try talking to the enemy tribe in an attempt avoiding open combat. They are, inevitably, the weakest members of the threatened tribe. Unfortunately, it is their protestations that “peace at any price” has cost more lives, in the long run, than would have been lost had the battle begun immediately and ended quickly with one tribe, or the other, wining decisively.

Appeasement does two things: It demonstrates the appeasing side’s weakness and fear and it allows the threatening side to grow stronger and bolder and even more determined to put the pip-squeak nation, begging for peace out of it’s misery.

Even inferring that one might talk to Iran, if one were in a position of power from which to do so, does the nation a disservice. It demonstrates the naiveté, the inexperience, and the lack of security in one’s ability to lead a nation of free people who went to war against a world superpower to gain their freedom and have fought ever since to maintain their freedom.

A great nation does not negotiate peace with another nation threatening war against it. A great nation swats the offending nation, as one would a fly, then dictates the terms of peace to THEM. Great leaders understand that. “Pretenders to Greatness” have never understood that. History records great nations and great leaders. Pretenders to greatness MAY gain mention in the footnotes of history.

So, as our diplomatic elite urge appeasement of Iran by “talking” understand they are not representative of the vast majority of the American people who had much rather act as men, standing on their feet in defense of their nation, than as weaklings on their knees, exposing their necks to the sword of the enemy.

Courage begets greatness. Fear begets timidity. Timidity gives birth to acts of appeasement. There is no place for timidity in the Office of the President of the United States.

J. D. Longstreet

Crisis! New York style vs the real thing ... Paul Driessen


Crisis! New York style vs the real thing
Our obsession with pesticide “risks” has very different consequences for America and Africa
Paul Driessen

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite” is no longer a fashionable good-night wish for Big Apple kids, even in the city’s high-rent districts and posh hotels. Growing infestations of the ravenous bloodsuckers have New Yorkers annoyed, anguished, angry about officialdom’s inadequate responses, and “itching” for answers.

Instead, their Bedbug Advisory Board recommends a bedbug team and educational website. Residents, it advises, should monitor and report infestations. Use blow-dryers to flush out (maybe 5% of) the bugs, then sweep them into a plastic bag and dispose properly. Throw away (thousands of dollars worth of) infested clothing, bedding, carpeting and furniture.
Hire (expensive) professionals who (may) have insecticides that (may) eradicate the pests – and hope you don’t get scammed. Don’t use “risky” pesticides yourself. Follow guideline for donating potentially infested furnishings, and be wary of bedbug risks from donated furniture and mattresses.

New Yorkers want real solutions, including affordable insecticides that work. Fear and loathing, from decades of chemophobic indoctrination, are slowly giving way to a healthy renewed recognition that the risk of not using chemicals can be greater than the risk of using them (carefully). Eco-myths are being replaced with more informed discussions about alleged effects of DDT and other pesticides on humans and wildlife.

Thankfully, bedbugs have not been linked to disease – except sometimes severe emotional distress associated with obstinate infestations, incessant itching, and pathetic “proactive” advice, rules and “solutions” right out of Saturday Night Live.
It is hellish for people who must live with bedbugs, and can't afford professional eradication like what Hilton Hotels or Mayor Bloomberg might hire. But imagine what it’s like for two billion people who live 24/7/365 with insects that definitely are responsible for disease: malarial mosquitoes.

Malaria infects over 300 million people annually. For weeks or months on end, it renders them unable to work, attend school or care for their families – and far more susceptible to death from tuberculosis, dysentery, HIV/AIDS, malnutrition and other diseases that still stalk their impoverished lands.

This vicious disease causes low birth weights in babies and leaves millions permanently brain-damaged. It kills over a million annually, most of them children and mothers, the vast majority of them in Africa. It drains families’ meager savings, and magnifies and perpetuates the region’s endemic poverty.

Emotional distress? Imagine the stress that comes from having no escape from destitution and disease; having to support a child with a perpetual ten-year-old’s mental functions; burying your baby, wife or sibling; or wondering whether you can walk twenty miles to a clinic, before the child you are carrying dies, and whether the clinic will have (non-counterfeit) medicine to cure her.

Frustration over absurd bedbug “solutions”? Imagine the reaction Africans must have to “malaria no more” campaigns that claim they will (eventually) eradicate the disease solely with insecticide-treated bed nets, drugs, “capacity building,” education and (maybe someday) mosquitoes genetically engineered not to carry malaria parasites. As to insecticide spraying, and especially DDT – fuggetaboutit.

DDT is the most powerful, effective, long-lasting mosquito repellant ever invented. Spraying the eaves and inside walls of mud huts and cinderblock homes every six months keeps 80% of the flying killers from entering. It irritates most that do enter, so they leave without biting, and kills any that land. However, many aid agencies refuse to encourage, endorse or fund spraying.

Many don’t even want to monitor mosquito and malaria outbreaks, or determine actual success in reducing disease and death rates. That would be more difficult and expensive than counting the number of bed nets distributed, and underscore the embarrassing reality that their “comprehensive” (and politically correct) insecticide-free programs achieve only 20-40% reductions in morbidity and mortality. By contrast, as South Africa and other countries have demonstrated, adding insecticides and DDT can bring 95% success.

We would never consider 20-40% fewer deaths a “success” for American children. Why should Africa?
Since EPA banned DDT in 1972 – after the United States and Europe had eradicated malaria – billions have been stricken by the vicious diseases, and tens of millions have died. That is intolerable.

We need adult supervision and informed debate on pesticide policies, laws and regulations. We can no longer leave those decisions to unaccountable anti-chemical activists in pressure groups and government agencies. These zealots are making decisions that determine the quality of life for millions of Americans, especially poor families – and life itself for billions of malaria-threatened people worldwide.

If not for the economic and mental health of Americans afflicted by bedbugs – support responsible, ethical policies for Africa’s sick, brain-damaged, and dying parents and children.
____________
Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality, author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death, and consultant to the forthcoming malaria-really-no-more film, “Three Billion and Counting.”

End environmental experiments on Africans! ... Fiona Kobusingye

End environmental experiments on Africans!
Fiona Kobusingye


I wish I had a shilling for every time someone told me spraying homes with
DDT to prevent malaria is like using Africans in evil experiments. I would
be a rich woman.


That claim is a blatant falsehood. Even worse, it hides the many ways poor
Africans really are being used in environmental experiments that cause
increased poverty, disease and death.


If any people were ever used in DDT experiments, it was Americans and
Europeans. During World War II, this insecticide and mosquito repellant was
sprayed on tents and around camps to keep American and British soldiers from
getting malaria. After the war, millions of concentration camp survivors,
and millions of German and Italian citizens were sprayed with DDT (right on
their bodies) to prevent typhus.


Then in the 1950s and 1960s, America and Europe sprayed huge amounts of DDT
all over, as a critical part of their campaign to eradicate malaria. Yes,
they still had malaria in those countries! But not anymore.


Numerous scientific and medical studies found that DDT was safe, and that it
did not cause cancer or other health problems worse that skin rashes, even
with high levels of exposure. Anti-insecticide activists still say "some
experts think" DDT "may be linked" to things such as low birth weights in
newborn babies, lactation failure in nursing mothers or slight reductions in
mental power. However, they have never been able to prove any of this - and
we know malaria clearly does cause these problems.


America and Europe banned DDT anyway, but only after they had used it to
eliminate malaria. And in Africa we only want to spray a little on the walls
of houses, to keep mosquitoes out, keep them from biting if they do come in
the house, and save millions of lives! Nothing else works as well, at any
price.


America and Europe used a chemical (DDT) that environmentalists now claim is
dangerous. But the chemical got rid of malaria. Nobody got cancer or other
health problems from DDT.


Just as important, around the same time, thousands of brave American and
Canadian parents let their children be used in another health experiment:
they had them inoculated with the Salk vaccine, to see if it would prevent
polio. It worked! And it started a worldwide program that has almost
eliminated that terrible disease.


If Africans used DDT for indoor residual spraying, they will be using a
chemical that America, Europe, India, South Africa, Ethiopia, Mozambique,
Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all shown is effective in
fighting malaria, and safe for people and the environment.


But environmentalists still say, don't do it in Uganda, Rwanda and other
countries where malaria is still killing our parents and babies. They say we
should just use bed nets, ACT drugs and maybe some Icon. These things
certainly help. But they only reduce malaria by 30% or so - whereas we could
prevent and almost eradicate this disease, if we would also use DDT.


Bluntly put, environmentalists are using African parents and children in
anti-DDT experiments. Against all the evidence from decades of using only
nets and drugs and maybe other insecticides, they want to keep ignoring DDT
as a long-lasting spatial insect repellant. They want to keep us doing what
has at best worked only partially, on the assumption that maybe it will work
better next year - or that a 30% malaria reduction is good enough.


They are playing with our lives. So are the government agencies, health NGOs
and others who support their policies. This is wrong and immoral. And it is
only one of the ways they use Africans as experimental laboratory animals.
They are also denying us access to other modern technologies that can
improve and save lives.


600 million people in sub-Sahara Africa live on two million shillings ($900
USD) or less per year. Nearly 700 million never have electric power for
lights, refrigeration, schools, shops and clinics - or have it only a few
hours per week. Millions die from diseases that would be prevented, if they
did not have to burn wood and dung, and had safe water, better healthcare
and higher living standards that reliable, affordable electrical power would
bring.


But environmentalists constantly block coal, gas and hydro-electric power
plants. They want us to live in experimental societies where people get
whatever limited electrical power can be generated day to day with wind
turbines or solar panels. They pressured the World Bank to reject loan
applications for power plants in Ghana and South Africa, and support
President Obama when he says Africans should focus on wind, solar and
bio-fuel power, instead of fossil fuels.


Meanwhile, they live in wealthy countries, with all the electrical power
they need. With the health, opportunity and prosperity electrical power
brings. With freedom and mobility that cars and fossil fuels bring. With
blessings most Africans can only dream of.


Radical greenies also oppose agricultural technologies that would bring a
green revolution to Africa. They denounce seeds that have been "touched by
corporations" - even hybrid, but especially biotech seeds - that produce
bigger, more nutritious crops, resist plant diseases like banana wilt and
cassava brown streak, survive droughts, thrive in nutrient-poor or saline
soils, and require fewer pesticide applications.


They want us to rely on traditional "open-pollinated" seeds that have lower
germination rates and crop yields - seeds that require more land and more
backbreaking labor, but generate so little income that farmers stay
impoverished for life, and people continue to starve.


China and India put up with this immoral eco-colonialism for decades.
Finally, they had enough. They refused to be the environmentalists'
experimental pawns any longer. They took charge of their own destinies,
charted their own future, financed their own projects, and refused to be
stopped again by anti-development green policies, politicians and pressure
groups.


Uganda, the Great Lakes Region and all of Africa need to do the same thing.
We have the land and natural resources, the bright and hard working people.
Let us be brave and bold! Let us become prosperous and healthy together.
__________
Fiona Kobusingye is co-chair of the Congress of Racial Equality Uganda and
Kill Malarial Mosquitoes Now coalition.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

KKK and the Democratic Party

(PUBLISHED HERE WITH PERMISSION of TYSKNEWS.COM)
Hey, Walter Fauntroy, the Ku Klux Klan was the Terrorist Wing of the Democratic Party

Tomorrow's (TODAY'S) Restoring Honor rally at the Lincoln Memorial has the Democrats in a panic. They're afraid of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin exercising their right to free speech and their freedom of assembly.

At the National Press Club, Walter Fauntroy falsely accused the Tea Party of having ties to the Ku Klux Klan. In the many years Fauntroy was Delegate for the District of Columbia, he was a member of Congressional Black Caucus, an organization that excludes people on the basis of race. Blind to his hypocrisy, he has falsely accused a political movement open to all races, the Tea Party, of being racist.

Speaking at the National Press Club, Fauntroy said: "We are going to take on the barbarism of war, the decadence of racism, and the scourge of poverty, that the Ku Klux – I meant to say the Tea Party... You all forgive me, but I – you have to use them interchangeably."

Now is the time to speak Truth to Power.

It would have been far more truthful for Mr. Fauntroy, who is a Democrat, to have admitted the fact that the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist wing of his own political party. Yes, the Ku Klux Klan was established by the Democratic Party. Yes, the Ku Klux Klan murdered thousands of Republicans – African-American and white – in the years following the Civil War. Yes, the Republican Party and a Republican President, Ulysses Grant, destroyed the KKK with their Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

Full article here: http://tinyurl.com/2dzbmqa

School Daze, Plugged In and Zoned Out ... Alan Caruba

School Daze, Plugged In and Zoned Out
By Alan Caruba

The older you get the faster time seems to speed by. One minute you’re talking about the Baby Boom generation, 1946 to 1964, and the next it’s Generation X, 1965-1983. If the Boomers thought the world owed them a living, the Gen X’rs were all about “relationships” and the “environment.”

Before you knew it, it was the Generation Y, often referred to as the Millennials, 1984-2002, that everyone was talking about and trying to sell crap to. The oldest of these are age 26 and the youngest age 8. Most young people think the world exists for them, but Generation Y has more reason to believe this than their parents and grandparents.

Their parents doted upon them, insisting on every safety device known to man be used to protect them from scraped knees or concussions. Television networks have entire channels devoted to them such as Disney, Nickelodeon, or Discovery Kids. Their parents had to get by with MTV. Like their parents, they have been demographically targeted as a consumer group.

The federal government is so concerned for them that it came up with No Child Left Behind. Never mind that most earlier programs like Head Start and other social inventions have a record of failure. Whatever is gained in Head Start is rapidly lost when they enter our dreadful school systems.

I have been reading one of the scariest books (remember books, printed on paper, between two covers?) I have received in a while. It’s Dr. Tim Elmore’s “Generation iY: Our Last Change to Save Their Future.” (http://www.savetheirfuturenow.com/).

In February 2010, The Kaiser Family Foundation reported that kids between eight and eighteen were spending seven-and-a-half hours each day in front of a computer screen. This is the MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter generation, sending and receiving an average of 1,742 texts per month!

For all this communication, I suspect they are as clueless as their parents who, after all, probably voted for Barack Obama in the name of “diversity” and “multiculturalism.” Generation iY is even less prepared to be adults than their parents. “These kids have been online since preschool,” writes Dr. Elmore, “and can’t imagine life any other way.”

There is some good news about those born between 1983 and 2003. Early statistics indicate that teen pregnancy rates are down, drug abuse was lower than their parents, violent crime among this age group is its lowest in twenty years, education and civic involvement was at a record high, and as students they are optimistic about their prospects of changing the world.

Most of the news about this newest generation, however, is not good. They are overwhelmed. According to an American College Health Association random sample study released in 2007, 94% reported feeling overwhelmed by their lifestyles; 44% said they felt so depressed it was almost difficult to function; and almost 10% said they had considered suicide in the past year.
Generation Y is, despite the stereotype, quite competitive and wants to be the best, having been told they are the best from their earliest years. Trying to live up to that is very stressful. They are, no surprise, over-connected. They often cope by escaping into the world of online fantasy video games or the social world of texting, Facebook, and Twitter. Or they push themselves to be a “super kid.”

Dr. Elmore says that, either way, they end up with very poor relationship skills and low emotional intelligence. They are short on patience, listening skills, and conflict resolution; all essential if one is to progress toward being an adult.

In the latter years of Generation Y when they are entering the adult world as college students or job-holders, they are also stuck in an adolescence that goes on for too long. They tend to find both challenging in ways earlier generations did not. They often do not make good employees, changing jobs rapidly either because they quit or were fired while in search of a unified sense of self.

It is, I suppose, the lament of every generation that those born after them are inadequate to the task of running the world. Having seven decades under my belt, I tend to look at the generation that came of age in the 1960s, the Baby Boomers, as responsible for a lot of the problems we have today in the nation. The Clintons, for example, are quintessential Boomers.

Whoever thought we would end up with a Democrat-controlled Congress that spent billions of dollars on “stimulus” or “reformed” Medicare without even reading any of the legislation before voting?

Whoever thought we’d end up with a very young, narcissistic President who is so disconnected from the American people that he probably has no idea how quickly they have concluded he is a danger to the future of the nation? Surrounded by academics with no experience in “the real world”, he probably thinks he is the smartest one in the room. He’s not.

Generation X and Generation Y had better “grow up” or they will be the ones to watch America’s economic, military, and cultural dominance disappear in their lifetimes.

© Alan Caruba, 2010
*********************
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Will The US Military Be Disenfranchised this November?


Will The US Military Be Disenfranchised this November?
Will Those Fighting To Protect The Right To Vote Not Have Their Votes Counted?

A commentary by J. D. Longstreet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is concern that Obama’s DOJ, under the leadership of Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, might not be enforcing the new Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act as vigorously as they should.

The MOVE Act, which was passed last October, is supposed to ensure that servicemen and women serving overseas have plenty of time to get in their absentee ballots. However, if the DOJ does not enforce this law by holding the states to compliance, thousands of ballots from US military personnel serving overseas, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, may not arrive back in the home state of the soldier, sailor, Airman, or Marine, in time to be counted in the November 2nd Mid-Term Election.

Eric Eversole, director of the Military Voter Protection Project, a new organization devoted to ensuring military voting rights has said: “It is an absolute shame that the section appears to be spending more time finding ways to avoid the MOVE Act, rather than finding ways to ensure that military voters will have their votes counted… ” Mr. Eversole continued: “The Voting Section seems to have forgotten that it has an obligation to enforce federal law, not to find and raise arguments for states to avoid these laws.” (SOURCE)

The MOVE act requires states to send absentee ballots to overseas military troops 45 days before an election, but a state can apply for a waiver if it can prove a specific “undue hardship” in enforcing it.

Senator Jon Cornyn, Republican of Texas, was one of the co-sponsors of the Move Act. On July 26th he wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and complained that he is concerned that the DOJ is allowing states to opt out of compliance with the Move Act. In a statement to Fox News Senator Cornyn said: “Military voters have been disenfranchised for decades, and last year Congress acted.” Cornyn went on to say: “But according to recent information, the Department of Justice has expressed reluctance to protect the civil rights of military voters under the new law. All our men and women in uniform deserve a chance to vote this November, and the Obama administration bears responsibility for ensuring that they have it.”

Cornyn continued: “For far too long in this country, we have failed to adequately protect the right of our troops and their families to participate in our democratic process. The MOVE Act was supposed to end this sad history. The right to participate in democratic elections is fundamental to the American experience.” (SOURCE)

At least seven states, plus the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands, have filed requests for waivers with the USDOJ. If those waivers are granted those states will not have to send ballots to their servicemen and servicewomen overseas on time. That means, even if they DO receive their ballots and get them filled out and mailed back, they will not arrive in their home states in time to be counted.

The list of states, Districts, and US Territories asking for waivers: Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, the Virgin Islands, Washington, and District of Columbia. (SOURCE) (We believe this list to be incomplete as some news organizations are reporting as many as twelve states; others are reporting ten states, etc.)

Understand, it is the Department of Defense, which will make the final decision on whether the waivers will, or will not, be granted. BUT -- it is the job of the Department of Justice to see that the law is enforced.

With the democrats set to receive a well deserved drubbing this November, it will not be surprising if those waivers are granted.
The MOVE ACT contains a waiver provision, which allows states to exempt out of the requirements by demonstrating an extreme emergency. BUT, that state must also submit a plan that provides sufficient time for military voters to have their vote counted.

Where is the outrage from the citizens of those states? Isn’t it past time to fire off a letter, an e-mail, or just pick up the phone and call the Secretary of State’s office in that state -- or the state Board of Elections, and demand that they get those ballots to those US citizens who are putting their lives on the line – daily -- to protect the right to vote for ALL Americans, including themselves.

There is something very wrong about disenfranchising a soldier serving his/her country overseas, especially in a time of war. As my father would have said: “If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can get a ballot to a soldier in the field and back in time to be counted.”

This is wrong, folks. Just plain WRONG!

J. D. Longstreet

How I Learned to Love the Bomb ... Alan Caruba


How I Learned to Love the Bomb
By Alan Caruba

As a child in the 1950s, I learned how to “duck and cover” in order to protect myself from an atomic bomb explosion. Little did I know that the instruction should have been “Kiss your asterisk goodbye.”

The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the Soviets wanted to put nuclear-tipped long range missiles there, led to a confrontation between President John F. Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev that had both sides changing their underwear after it was over.

What do the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea in common? They all have nuclear weapons and, of course, Iran has been working toward that goal and is now very close to achieving it.

Some will argue that Israel should not be on the list because it has never acknowledged its nuclear capabilities, but everyone knows they have them. Presumably the Iranian mullahs do as well, but they are a bunch of nuts waiting for the mythical Twelfth Imam to come out of a well and smite the enemies of Islam.

It is instructive that both Pakistan and India acquired their nuclear weapons without anyone being aware of it until after the fact. At CIA headquarters, when India announced its successful test, it came as a very big surprise. These days, the U.S. is busy reassuring Israel that Iran is “at least a year away” from nuclear status and you can imagine how relieved they are to hear that.

North Korea is a wild card and, given the lack of success the U.S. and anyone else has had to get them to abandon their nukes, the same can be assumed for Iran when they make their announcement. Meanwhile they have to content themselves with announcing new missiles, the latest of which they dubbed “the ambassador of death.”

The Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization has designated Sunday, August 29, as “The International Day against Nuclear Tests.” Given the total lack of success in thwarting any nation that wants a nuke, my confidence in the United Nations’ treaty is zero.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN component, has been kicked out of North Korea, Iraq and Iran on several occasions, so one might rationally assume it is useless when it comes to stopping the manufacture of A-bombs.

Olli Heinonen, the former chief of UN nuclear inspections worldwide, told Le Monde, a French newspaper, that Iran has stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium for 1-2 nuclear arms, but he thought doing so made no sense. Betting on the rationality of the Iranian ayatollahs is not a good idea.

Who doesn’t want a ban on nuclear weapons testing? The United States Senate for one.

While the U.S. has “signed” a number of the test ban treaties that have been around since the 1960s, the Senate has not ratified any of them, thus avoiding having to commit the nation to no longer testing new nuclear weapons. For some reason, the U.S. Senate does not trust Russia or the other nuke nations.

In April, our ever-hopeful President Barack Obama journeyed to Russia to sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Dmitry Medvedev dubbed “New Start.” For Obama it was another empty photo opportunity on a par with accepting the Nobel Peace Prize (soon to be available everywhere in boxes of Cracker Jack). For the Russians it was a reason to break out the vodka.

Robert R. Monroe, a retired vice admiral in the U.S. Navy and former director of the Defense Nuclear Agency from 1977-1980 explains why. “The treaty has many problems from being unverifiable to giving Russia virtual veto power over U.S. missile defense, and more.” That’s bad enough, but it’s worse than that.

Two days before meeting with the Russians, the Obama administration released its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). Monroe says, “The NPR is joined at the hip with New Start, and together they take this country down a dangerous path. For 65 years, the very existence of our nation has depended upon a strong nuclear deterrent. The new NPR wipes out this proven policy, substituting one of weakness in its place.”

Liberals love test ban treaties. They love the idea of unilaterally disarming the United States in a world where there are nations who may not love us.

Not surprisingly, the nations with nukes have not signed onto anything that would take away their deterrent factor and, of course, Iran is hell-bent on getting them for itself.

Not a single conflict since the U.S. dropped two A-bombs on Japan in 1945 to end a war they started has used nuclear weapons. Rational people, even if they have nuclear weapons know that using them is probably suicidal. Irrational people like the Iranian ayatollahs are probably the exception.

Alan Caruba blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

(c) Alan Caruba, 2010

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Has Mexico Become Somalia?


Has Mexico Become Somalia?
The Coming Invasion of Mexico
A commentary by J. D. Longstreet

If Republicans recapture the US Congress this November, one of the first orders of business should be to fence off our southern neighbor, Mexico.

For generations of Americans an old adage “Good fences make good neighbors” was repeated and passed on to following generations Americans. Somehow, the common sense of that old pearl of wisdom has been lost. But, I hasten to add that Americans living along the southern US border with Mexico have not forgotten it.

There is an full blown “insurgency” in our southern border states as Mexican dope terrorists engage in gun battles flinging rounds from their weapons across the border into American homes and schools and even public buildings as they wage war with their local and state police and among themselves.

The Mexican government is unable to bring anything approaching order to much of Mexico. Those willing to murder and maim hold the real power in Mexico and it will only grow worse – unless the US military steps in.

There is something wrong when America can send its military to the far corners of the world to restore order and safety to citizens in war torn nations but cannot bring itself to do the same to one of its closest neighbors, especially when the violence there has resulted in the deaths of so many Americans even on the US side of the border.

So, now that a good portion of our military is being brought home from the Middle East, we propose that the Commander-in-Chief direct the war planners at the Pentagon to draw up immediate plans for an invasion and occupation of Mexico. Once the violence there is brought to heel, the ‘feel good” democrats can begin their beloved program of nation building in a nation that needs it as badly as Iraq or Afghanistan.

Look, common sense says an invasion of Mexico is, for all practical purposes, a fait accompli. It is going to happen. We have been forced to do it a number of times in the past and the problems with Mexico today are every bit as serious, if not more, so than they were then.

In the meantime, we must, I repeat, we MUST build an effective barrier between the two nations. It must be a serious barrier, one that will incorporate lethality as a final result for anyone attempting to defeat it by climbing over it or tunneling under it.

The time is far past for the Border Patrol. We live in a period of history in which a government law enforcement agency cannot maintain the integrity of the border. We propose relegating the Border Patrol to processing anyone caught, alive, who may have managed to negotiate the fence and enter the country illegally.

We also propose the “Catch and Release” program be ended, forthwith, and all persons caught in the country illegally be placed in interment camps where they will be detailed to work on road projects and public works projects until the country they came from can be pacified and brought back into the family of civilized nations. They should be released with the warning that should they be caught a second time entering the US illegally, the sentence will be death.

Once the Border Patrol is pulled back and relieved of their duties of patrolling the border, THAT job should be handed over to the regular military forces with orders to seal the border with whatever means necessary -- including the use of deadly force.

Enough is enough. It is time the US brings to bear the full weight of its military force on Mexico. We have tolerated the thumbing of their noses at the sovereignty of our country for far too long. Mexico is now a threat to our national security as surely as al Qaida and should be treated as such.

We have warned numerous times that if the US government does not act to bring order to the border with Mexico, American civilians, fed up with living where their lives and the lives of their families are in constant danger, will take up arms and do what Americans have always done, protect themselves.

The war being waged on our southern border is not going to get any better until the US military is ordered into to Mexico to quell the violence and force order at the point of a military weapon.

Yes, the whole thing IS disagreeable and one I don’t like contemplating. But the “can’t we all just get along" diplomacy of the Obama Regime is obviously not working and has, in fact, led us to this untenable situation where only military force can bring order.

We will soon have battle-hardened troops returning from Iraq. These are ideal troops to send into Mexico after a few weeks of rest and relaxation.

The longer the US dithers and waits, the mess is only going to get worse and more lives, both Mexican and American are going to be lost.

It is time, once again, to invade Mexico.

J. D. Longstreet

Wednesday, August 25, 2010



Is Islam a Religion, an Aggressive Political Movement, or Both?
Why America Must Define Religion
(Previously published by Faultline USA on 10/15/07)

Does our American Constitution, which offers blanket and unquestioning protection of religious freedom, create the very means by which the destruction of American sovereignty can be accomplished?


When America was founded no one thought it was necessary to define the concept of religion. To this day America has failed to define what is or is not a religion.


We must focus upon questioning the adequacy of our American Constitution (specifically the two clauses of the First Amendment concerning the relationship of government to religion: the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause).


How can it be unconstitutional for government to establish a religion when the constitution hasn’t even defined religion? And isn’t it important to define religion so as to determine whether something is a "religion" for Establishment Clause purposes?
Read more of this article here


The following three previously published articles will shed light on the urgent need for America to finally come to terms with our failure to define religion.
Islam, Islamism, and America
The Battle for American Unity

Here's an excerpt from Our Vulnerable Religious Freedoms

Here’s why the 1st Amendment just isn’t sufficient!
Let me quote from an earlier article, An “Honest” Terrorist Writes: “No Muslim Can Pledge Loyalty to the Constitution”


Read the words of Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun in the Lee v. Weisman ruling, 1992.

When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some.

I submit that the corollary to Blackmun’s statement might go like this:


(1) When a government fails to define what constitutes a religion it conveys a message to all that any ideology can pass for religion, and that freedom of religious expression supercedes all other freedoms and overrules all duties of government – specifically the primary duty of government to protect its citizens from harm.


(2) When a government fails to define what constitutes a religion, any ideology with intent to destroy the very constitutional protections it enjoys can hide in plain view while actively undermining the very system of government that gives it protection.


From Faultline USA. The Link is below:

Mexico, Bloody Mexico ... Alan Caruba

Mexico, Bloody Mexico
By Alan Caruba


It is increasingly obvious that the Obama administration is more interested in protecting Mexicans than Americans.

Case in point; Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has eleven suspects accused of murdering law enforcement officers in his maximum security county jail in downtown Phoenix. As reported in the August 18 Washington Post, “Justice Department officials in Washington have issued a rare threat to sue (Arpaio) if he does not cooperate with their investigation of whether he discriminates against Hispanics.”

“The standoff comes just weeks after the Justice Department sued Arizona and Gov. Jan Brewer because of the state’s new immigration law,” the Post noted. The latest word from Americans for Legal Immigration is that twenty-two States now have lawmakers developing versions of Arizona’s illegal immigration crackdown bill SB 1070.

So nearly half the States are aligning themselves with Arizona. Why?

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that, according to Mexican figures released recently, the toll of the drug wars was said to be 28,000. It includes growing numbers of “civilian victims” ranging from toddlers caught in the cross fire to students massacred at parties. Mexico’s disintegration as a civil society is so severe its government is considering legalizing drugs to reduce the intercine battles between the cartels.

Little wonder that Mexicans are fleeing their war-torn nation to the safety of the United States. Earlier this year at least thirty residents of El Porvenir, located about four miles from the Texas border town of Fort Hancock, crossed into the U.S. and asked for political asylum, telling authorities they fear for their lives. The chief deputy sheriff of Hudspeth County reported that a cartel had threatened to kill children in schools across the border unless the parents paid $5,000 pesos.

Mexico has a slim hold on anything resembling a civil society where the law enforcement authorities can stem the violence or journalists can report it.

Support for building a Mexican border fence is up to 68% according to Rasmussen Reports in late July. Other surveys indicate that 56% of voters nationwide oppose the Justice Department’s decision to challenge the Arizona law and 61% favor passage of a law like Arizona’s in their own State.

Why would anyone would consider vacationing in Mexico when, according to State Department figures, 79 U.S. citizens were killed there in 2009, up from 35 in 2007. In Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, 23 Americans were killed in 2009, compared with two in 2007. Earlier this year, in April, three people linked to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez were ambushed and murdered. As many as half of the 2,660 killings in that city are attributed to paid assassins from the Barrio Azteca gang.

The most widely reported murder was that of Robert Krentz on his southern Arizona ranch in March. An illegal alien is the primary suspect in the killing. Meanwhile, La Raza (the “Race”) an immigration advocacy group in the U.S. is supporting driver’s licenses and in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens. They are, of course, opposed to a secure fence and cooperative immigration enforcement efforts between local, state, and federal authorities.

The worst of all this data is the further fact that Congress continues to progress toward “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”, another way of saying mass amnesty for illegal aliens. In 2007, as a Senator, Obama voted to double legal immigration from 1.2 million annually to 2.4 million.

The costs to the United States, already experiencing the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression, are extraordinary. With millions of unemployed Americans, two new studies of the impact on the U.S. labor force revealed that, of the jobs we’re told Americans won’t take, the majority of job-holders are in fact native-born. This includes maids and housekeepers, taxi drivers, meat processors, grounds maintenance workers, construction laborers, porters, bellhops and concierges, and janitors.

Beyond the labor market, U.S. taxpayers are spending $52 billion annually to educate the children of illegal aliens with local governments taking the biggest hit of nearly $50 billion.

The pressures on the U.S. healthcare system and on the law enforcement system are comparable and the irony is that the U.S. has spent billions in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of nation building, but is doing little comparatively here at home to cope with the flood of illegal immigration.

Instead, the U.S. Department of Justice is doing whatever it can to punish States like Arizona for taking even the most minimal steps to protect Americans. As for the Department of Homeland Security, its preference is to ignore the problem. We are being ill-served by the Obama administration and are likely to be stabbed in the back by a lame-duck Congress.

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Obama Lacks Respect Among World Leaders


Obama Lacks Respect Among World Leaders
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************

Americans like to be liked. At least, that is what we have been told for decades. And while it is true to an extent, it is not one hundred percent true. In fact, the American people will take respect over likeability when the occasion calls for it. Actually, the American people’s desire for respect far exceeds that of their leaders who are, of course, politicians. We all know that a politician’s political life depends upon his/her “likeability factor.” It is far more important to them to be liked than to be respected.

That fact presents a terrible problem for the country in international diplomacy. When our representatives are dealing with the leaders of foreign countries, especially our enemies, it is immeasurably important they be respected. If there is no respect for the American leader, there is a better than even chance an attempt will be made to “roll” the American leader. The foreign leader, in such a situation, gets what he wants from the American, while the American only THINKS he got what he wanted, only to find out later that he had been conned and, in fact, got the short end of the stick.

Mr. Obama’s foreign forays, flying into European countries and Asian countries, have yielded America nothing for all his flashy efforts abroad. His meetings with foreign leaders has been “meet and greet,” dinner, posing for photographs, delivering remarks in which he apologizes for America’s short-comings, and waving from the steps of Air Force One and then flying away having accomplished nothing substantial, at all.

Even our traditional friends have taken a standoffish posture toward Obama. The British, after having been offended by Obama in the first few days of his presidency, now stand back and reserve their efforts, on America’s behalf abroad, even though they are America’s oldest friend, the Mother Country, in fact.

In the Middle East, Mr. Obama deliberately shunned The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and left Mr. Netanyahu sitting alone for an hour or more while Obama went off to have dinner with his family. That was an unforgivable snub and one that will never be forgotten. Sooner than later, the US is going to need Israel’s help, covertly, or overtly, and it will be slow in coming, IF it comes at all. What goes around -- comes around.

See, Netanyahu believes that peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis can only be accomplished under Israel’s terms. And Netanyahu has said “NO” to Obama’s demand that there be no more settlements constructed by Israel. That act by Netanyahu leaves Obama absolutely nothing he can offer to the Palestinians or the Syrians. As we said – what goes around – comes around.

Obama’s henchmen in the White House are now more than a little concerned that the Obama Regime will be compared to the Jimmy Carter Administration. They needn’t worry, it is already being compared to Jimmy Carter’s administration, and, it has come up short of Carter’s sterling performance as a paper tiger.

Newt Gingrich recently said: "Carter tried weakness and the world got tougher and tougher because the predators, the aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators, when they sense weakness, they all start pushing ahead." Gingrich also said, referring to the Obama Regime, "This does look a lot like Jimmy Carter." (SOURCE)

It has been said that Obama speaks apologetically and carries no stick at all!

In May of this year, Ed Koch, a former Mayor of New York City, (a democrat) said the following in Koch’s Comments”: “Have we lost the will to stand up to the bullies of the world? The administration points with pride to the fact that it is preceding with sanctions against Iran at the Security Council and that it succeeded in bringing Russia and China to the point where they too have agreed to vote for sanctions. To accomplish this, however, the US had to agree to Russia's delivering arms to Iran, e.g., an anti-aircraft system that would be used to shoot down US, and Israeli planes that might in the future seek to eliminate Iran's nuclear facilities. With respect to China and getting its consent to vote with us, we dropped sanction measures that would have crippled Iran's banking and financial institutions and prohibited the sale of gasoline to Iran, which has no conversion facilities, which would have devastated its economy.

Some will say that pointing out these failures of will is jingoistic. I believe these failures to stand up for allies and most importantly to stand up for ourselves is why we are taken less seriously by nations throughout the world than should be the case. When others fully respected us, we were able to keep the world at peace. We are losing that ability with each passing day, as we demonstrate our unwillingness to teach the bullies of the world the lessons they deserve.

Speak softly and carry a big stick, Teddy Roosevelt said. President Obama speaks apologetically and carries no stick at all. No wonder North Korea torpedoed that South Korean warship, something they would not have done in all probability if China had not quietly approved. No wonder Brazil and Turkey thumb their noses at us. We have become a laughingstock.” (SOURCE)

We have disagreed with Mayor Koch on numerous occasions, but this is one of those times when we are in total agreement.

We continue to see America being laughed at and made fun of around the world while Obama bows and scrapes and apologizes. It is embarrassing. But more than that -- it is dangerous, very dangerous, not only for America, but for the world.

J. D. Longstreet

Monday, August 23, 2010

Madam Speaker Unmasks the Ugly Face of Socialism


Madam Speaker Unmasks the Ugly Face of Socialism
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*******************
Back in the 1950’s, while still a lad in high School, I delivered a speech at the University of South Carolina. I don’t remember a great deal of what I said in that particular speech, but I remember I called notice to the dangers of socialism and communism -- and the danger of an all powerful government they both demand.

I remember, too, that I mentioned how socialist governments, such as the one in the socialist Soviet Union used the power of the government to keep their citizens in check, in line, if you will. I mentioned how the secret police of the Soviet Union would come knocking at the doors of their citizen’s homes at the “dead hour” (3 AM), smash it in -- and drag the would be dissident off to the Lubyanka Prison – and if he/she lived through the interrogation, would, quite likely, wind up in a gulag prison somewhere in the frigid climes of Siberia, there to work for the state while valiantly trying to remain alive.

Living in the socialist Soviet Union meant toeing the socialist line. One thing, which was never tolerated by the state, was disagreement with the state. If one dared to openly disagree with the government of that socialist country, you would be investigated, immediately, and fairly soon you would find yourself in the bowels of the Lubyanka Prison -- or some other suitable site for “intensive interrogation” -- then on to digging latrines in the frozen ground of Siberia.

So – what does this have to do with America today? I assure you it has more to do with the situation we Americans find ourselves in today than I care to dwell upon. But we will dwell upon it for a few moments.

Unfortunately, America finds herself on the threshold of just such a society ruled over by socialist thugs in charge of our government in Washington, DC.

We are all aware of the debate over the attempt to locate an Islamic Mosque, just 600 feet from the ghastly hole in the ground of New York City where the World Trade Center stood, until a handful of Muslims brought it down by crashing two loaded airliners into it killing nearly 3,000 innocent Americans including men, women and children.

Recently, the President of the United States announced, pointedly, and publicly, his support for the placement of that mosque so near the still tender scar on America’s soul.

An overwhelming majority of Americans have voiced their disapproval of that particular site for an Islamic mosque. Islam was the religion of those Muslims who hi-jacked those planes and deliberately flew them into the Twin Towers committing mass murder in the name of Islam. Some of the voices raised in disapproval are those of prominent citizens. They joined the protesting voices booming from the conservative side of the blogosphere including the voice of “yours truly.”

Just last week, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a democrat, suggested that those who disagreed with the placement of that mosque at Ground Zero should be investigated.

When I heard what the Speaker had said, my blood ran cold. This was exactly the same thing I had warned the audience about, back in the 1950’s, at the University of South Carolina. I was just a high school kid then, but I already, instinctively, knew way down deep, where I live, that socialism was a product designed and manufactured in Hell and marketed by Satan, himself. I knew then, as I know now, that socialism is nothing more than a pleasant looking façade for pure evil.

Speaker Pelosi’s suggestion that those who disagreed with President B. Hussein Obama’s position of support for the Ground Zero Mosque should be investigated is straight out of the socialist handbook. Never, ever, disagree with them! They will make every effort to destroy anyone with the temerity to disagree with their “statist” philosophy.

Speaker Pelosi’s suggestion to investigate those, like myself, who disagree with Obama, is just one link in the chain of socialist slavery with which the democrats are working, tirelessly, to shackle America. They are making it known they are coming after anyone who threatens their hold on power.

As the American Mainstream Media has voluntarily pledged their fealty to the socialist government of B. Hussein Obama, it is the conservative voice of the blogosphere that presents the most vociferous challenge to Obama, Pelosi, and Reed and the socialists in the American government. We have NOT escaped their notice and, rest assured, they are coming after us anyway they can.

The democrats have guided America into socialism and they are now very afraid Americans will turn on them and snatch the reins of power from them. They are in a state of near panic while the level of anger toward them, and what they have done to America since 2006, has risen to an explosive level. That explosion is set for detonation on November 2nd of this year – and the democrats know it.

Publicly, the democrats deny it, while privately they are sick at heart over their blow-hard, narcissistic, President who has not only embarrassed them, but may have led their mutual political party to near destruction.

Indications are that the democrats are just now coming to realize Americans are not ready for socialism on a par with the socialist states of Europe. They already knew that my generation of Americans would never willingly accept socialism without a fight. They also knew that my generation could be counted on to vote -- at every election.

As our national leaders observe the quiet rebellion of its citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble and petition the government for redress of their grievances -- under the banner of the Tea Parties, they react outwardly in surprise and anger. That is their public reaction. Privately, they know the game is over and their over-reaching gamble to turn America from a constitutional republic to a socialist sewer has failed.

It is incumbent upon the American electorate to hammer the nails into the coffin lid of the Democratic Party’s attempt to “Fundamentally Reform” America into a “collectivist” socialist state. We can do that by going to the polls this coming November and voting as many democrats out of office as we possibly can -- and voting against new Democratic Party candidates seeking office, as well. Doing so will insure they cannot perpetuate those socialist programs they managed to activate since 2006 –and that includes ObamaCare.

In addition, we must make absolutely clear that we insist the GOP, once bestowed with the power of leadership, defunds and repeals those socialist programs with which the democrats have yoked America.

The GOP must understand that if they try and fail, or if they refuse, America will be very unforgiving and will vote them out of office, as well. The stage will then be set for a thriving third party, which will replace one of the two major parties in existence today -- just as the Republicans replaced the Whig Party in the 19th century.

As a young High School student in the 1950’s I intuitively knew this fight was coming. Now that it is here – we must not fail.
J. D. Longstreet
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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Iran’s Dance of Death Continues While a Weak US President Looks On


Iran’s Dance of Death Continues While a Weak US President Looks On
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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“Engineers began loading fuel rods into a nuclear reactor on Iran's southern coast Saturday, a milestone that puts the long-delayed plant within a few weeks of operation, Iranian state television reported.

John R. Bolton, the Bush administration's former United Nations envoy, made waves and set off war jitters last week after he said that Israel was running out of time to bomb the plant before the fuel cells were loaded, or otherwise risk creating a radioactive cloud that would harm too many civilians.

Iran countered with its own threat. "In that case, we will lose a power plant, but Israel's existence will be in danger," said Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen Ahmad Vahidi.

Iran could theoretically make bombs by extracting plutonium from the reactor's spent fuel rods, although Russia has vowed to keep a close tab on the plant and recover any such material and experts doubt such an outcome.”

"Resistance of the Iranian nation along with their independence-seeking spirit as well as their strong support for their officials have led to the completion of the Bushehr power plant project," Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, told reporters.
(SOURCE)

And all of this makes the Islam Bomb an imminent possibility.

Back in May of 2008, we wrote that if Iran were to lay down her arms, remove her troops from Iraq, back away from the Straits of Hormuz, stop threatening the free flow of oil from the Middle East, cut off funding and supplying terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon and the other trouble spots around the globe, and basically, behave herself… then, we might be view her in a different light.

But, as long as Iran’s mad mullahs and hallucinating henchmen continue to prance and preen, shine their shields and rattle their sabers, any attempt, on the part of the Obama Regime (or any other nation at which their vitriol is directed) to talk with them is viewed as appeasement… and rightly so.

Since the beginning of warfare between tribes there has always been those who want to try talking to the enemy tribe in an attempt avoiding open combat. They are, inevitably, the weakest members of the threatened tribe. Unfortunately, it is their protestations that “peace at any price” has cost more lives, in the long run, than would have been lost had the battle begun immediately and ended quickly with one tribe, or the other, wining decisively.

Appeasement does two things: It demonstrates the appeasing side’s weakness and fear and it allows the threatening side to grow stronger and bolder and even more determined to put the pip-squeak nation, begging for peace, out of it’s misery.

Even inferring that one might talk to Iran, if one were in a position of power from which to do so, does the nation a disservice. It demonstrates the naiveté, the inexperience, and the lack of security in one’s ability to lead a nation of free people who went to war against a world superpower to gain their freedom and have fought ever since to maintain their freedom.

A great nation does not negotiate peace with another nation threatening war against it. A great nation swats the offending nation, as one would a fly, then dictates the terms of peace to THEM. Great leaders understand that. “Pretenders to Greatness” have never understood that. History records great nations and great leaders. Pretenders to greatness MAY gain mention in the footnotes of history.

So, as Obama’s diplomatic elite urge appeasement of Iran by “talking” -- understand they are not representative of the vast majority of the American people who had much rather act as men, standing on their feet in defense of their nation, than as weaklings on their knees, exposing their necks to the sword of the enemy.

Courage begets greatness. Fear begets timidity. Timidity gives birth to acts of appeasement. When facing an enemy determined to destroy the US, which they refer to as “The Great Satan,” there is no place for timidity in the Office of the President of the United States.

J. D. Longstreet