OBAMA AT WRIGHT'S MERCY

"Rarely in the history of American politics has a bigot had as much power as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright enjoys today.

Support for Sen. Barack Obama has plunged nationally and (more importantly) in North Carolina since Rev. Wright confirmed at his National Press Club appearance Monday (4/28) that he does indeed hold racist, lunatic, anti-American views, and implied that Sen. Obama has been insincere in separating himself from them. "He had to distance himself, because he's a politician," Rev. Wright said.

If you're running as the candidate of hope and change who will "bring us together," it is hard to imagine how things could get worse. But they can.

Jeremiah Wright could destroy his former protégé in a single interview. Obama is at the mercy of a man who hates the country of which he wants to be president."

- - Jack Kelly

“Diplomacy without force is like music without instruments.”

-- Frederick the Great --

Hayden warns of Russian unrest - The Washington Times

Russia's declining population will require Moscow to import foreign workers, increasing racial and religious tensions in the former superpower that still has thousands of nuclear weapons, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said. (continue)

Dr. Jack Wheeler comments on this very same subject with an article titled, "THE COMING DESTRUCTION OF RUSSIA, " and writes:

Which of two kinds of fascism do you think are more dangerous - one stemming from a culture's or a people's feeling of inferiority or superiority?

If a country possessing a Fascism of Inferiority got into a war with a country possessing a Fascism of Superiority, all else being equal which do you think has a better chance of winning?

Russians are xenophobic because they deeply suffer from a lack of cultural self-confidence and an inferiority complex towards the West. Han Chinese are xenophobic because they feel they are a culturally and racially superior form of humanity. Westerners, Japanese, Blacks, Tibetans, et al, are all sub-human compared to the Han.

Russia is dying - literally. Life expectancy is lower than that of Bangladesh. Millions of Russian men drink a gallon of vodka a week. Millions of Russian women are sterile after having so many abortions. This is a culture with a death-wish, one that does not want to survive.

The conclusion that CIA Director Michael Hayden draws from Russia's demographic collapse, given in a speech at Kansas State yesterday (4/30), is that Russia will have to import millions of foreign workers. There's only one place that can supply a sufficient number of such workers: China.

The question really is, will Russia surrender peacefully or put up a fight - maybe even a nuclear fight?

Sen. Schumer: Supreme Court 'Out of Balance'

Sen. Schumer: Supreme Court 'Out of Balance': "The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts is 'the most conservative in memory,' and the Senate should not confirm another nominee to the bench from President Bush 'except in extraordinary circumstances,' in the view of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y."

NEW CURRENCY

THE NEW U.S. 5 DOLLAR BILL:

World Tribune  Iraqi forces gaining traction against Shi'ite fighters

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military has reported that the Iraq Army and security forces were performing well in operations against Iranian-sponsored Shi'ite militias.

Officials said Iraqi security forces demonstrated enhanced skills in the battles against Shi'ite insurgents in Baghdad and Basra over the last month. They said Iraq Army and police units remained cohesive amid heavy fighting...

World Tribune  CIA's Hayden: Syria was on verge of becoming nuclear power

WASHINGTON  The U.S. intelligence community, in an about-face from an assessment of less than a year ago, has concluded that Syria was close to becoming a nuclear power.

World Tribune  Azerbaijan blocks Russian nuke shipment to Iran

NICOSIA  Iran has reported that a shipment of Russian nuclear equipment was being held in neighboring Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan, an ally of the United States, has acknowledged the delay. The Azeri government said it has sought to determine whether the nuclear shipment violated United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran. (read on)

Media Side with Anti-Coal Environmentalists Despite Urgent Power Needs

Coal provides half of U.S. power. Yet anti-carbon activists are calling for Americans to stop using it. The industry gets little balanced coverage in a media climate filled with global warming advocacy.

Kabul Attack: Afghani Security Woes or Taliban Incompetence?

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
StratFor
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.

The Taliban’s April 27 attack against a ceremony commemorating Afghanistan’s independence has gotten a lot of media attention. One reason driving the coverage is that the attack took place during an event broadcast on live television that was attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and an array of local and foreign dignitaries, including the U.S. and British ambassadors and the NATO commander in Afghanistan.

The strike, which left three people dead, has also resulted in severe criticism of Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbel, with some Afghan lawmakers calling for their resignations.

Clearly, the attack underscores the Karzai regime’s continuing struggle to achieve stability in Afghanistan: the attack was the third assassination attempt against him in his four-year presidency. It is also a reminder — like the massive suicide bombing that occurred in Baghlan province Nov. 6, 2007, and the Jan. 14 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul — that Taliban militants have expanded beyond their traditional operational strongholds in Afghanistan’s South.

In retrospect however, perhaps the most interesting facet of this attack was not how it drew attention to security problems in Afghanistan, that it happened at a high-profile event, or even that the attack was launched in Kabul. Like the suicide bombing at Bagram Air Base during U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s February 2007 visit, those things have all happened before.

Rather, the truly interesting factor in this case, and one that has received little focus from most observers, is that the Taliban proved incapable of capitalizing on a golden opportunity to stage a dramatic and effective operation even though they were given many weeks to prepare for the attack. Read it all here.

Washington Post:
In France, Prisons Filled With Muslims

Ethanol part of food crisis, says Durbin

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Monday that U.S. ethanol policies may be partly to blame for a global food crisis threatening to leave millions hungry.

Durbin, whose state produced 2.28 billion bushels of corn in 2007 — second only to Iowa — emphasized he wasn’t advocating a shift from policies that provide incentives for biofuel production.

How nice of him.

Examining A ‘Nation at Risk’
By Ed Feulner

It’s all too easy for lawmakers to throw cash at a problem. After all, they’re spending somebody else’s money. Take the way they’ve handled (or, rather, mishandled) education policy…

Clinton Won't Be Deposed in Fraud Case before November
By Fred Lucas

(CNSNews.com) - A fundraising controversy involving Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate run that has moved through California's courts for about five years probably will have no effect on the presidential race, given the latest court ruling.

CONGRESS NEEDS TO ACT ....

.... And like adults:

‘Congress Needs to Do More’ About Oil and Food Prices, Bush Says
(CNSNews.com) - President Bush, admitting that “these are tough times,” laid some of the blame for higher gasoline and food prices right at the doorstep of Congress on Tuesday. Members of Congress want foreign countries to boost their oil production, but they won’t allow the U.S. to boost its own production, President Bush said at a White House news conference.

The president does not make law, does not write legislation, and does not put together spending bills. Bush can sign it or veto it. The Dems are in control of both houses. Do something. Do something good. Do something positive. If it's good, he'll sign it.

But we know the Dems won't do anything to increase oil production, or make us less dependent on foreign sources of energy.

While energy conservation is good policy, it does not increase production, nor decrease costs. In the grand scheme of things, looking at the global picture, whatever (little) we save through conservation, will not put a dent in the supply that is needed on a global level; and the savings from conservation will be quickly gobbled up by the increased demands of other rapidly growing economies.

We need to drill. We need to refine more at home. We need to use more nuclear energy. We need to scale back on our ludicrous ethanol policy. And, we need to continue research on alternate energy.

Related:
From the Soviet Union to Putin’s Russia
By Alan Caruba

Unless Americans begin to understand the geopolitics of energy—and soon—a lifestyle we have taken for granted is going to be severely impacted…

Franken owes $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states

The Democrat front runner to challenge Norm Coleman (R) for the Minnesota senate seat this November has more money woes.

The Shift Toward an Israeli-Syrian Agreement

By George Friedman
Stratfor
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.

The Middle East, already monstrously complex, grew more complex last week. First, there were strong indications that both Israel and Syria were prepared to engage in discussions on peace. That alone is startling enough. But with the indicators arising in the same week that the United States decided to reveal that the purpose behind Israel's raid on Syria in September 2007 was to destroy a North Korean-supplied nuclear reactor, the situation becomes even more baffling.

Read full article here.

Far to the Left of the American Mainstream
By David Aikman

Senator Barack Obama has brought excitement and eloquence to the Democratic Party presidential contest. He is intelligent, says gracious things about his political opponents, and does not seem mean-spirited. He has also galvanized into politics legions of hitherto apolitical young people.

Obama is, nevertheless, possibly the most left-wing major presidential candidate this country has ever seen. For two decades, he attended a church in Chicago pastored by a man who preached rabidly anti-white and anti-American sermons. He has been friends with an American left-wing former terrorist who, as recently as September 2001, showed no regrets whatever for his violent actions of the 1970's. He was friends in Chicago with a Palestinian professor outspokenly hostile to Israel and at a dinner in 1998 sat next to one of the Palestinian community's most poisonously leftist critics of America, Dr. Edward Said.

Obama is a pleasant fellow. But he is far, far left.

This is what makes him more of a threat. 'If too many people do not look behind the curtain' and are taken in by his personality and demeanor, we could elect someone whose policies could be very detrimental to the U.S. as we know it.

For those on the left who want to revolutionize and dramatically reshape the US of A, this is their dream candidate.

Pundits

The Telegraph is coming out with their list of the top 50 political pundits in the U.S. Each daily installment will list 10 pundits. Their list includes a short narative on each pundit. The first set of ten are #'s 50 through 41.

50. RACHEL MADDOW

49. MARY MATALIN

48. PAUL KRUGMAN

47. JC WATTS

46. MARK LEVIN

45. FRED BARNES

44. JEFFREY TOOBIN

43. PAUL BEGALA

42. BILL BENNETT

41. MARK SHIELDS

They have come out with their second set of 10, and they are:

40. TONY SNOW

39. DEE DEE MYERS

38. MICHAEL BARONE

37. EUGENE ROBINSON

36. NEWT GINGRICH

35. JOE TRIPPI

34. HOWARD KURTZ

33. ROLAND MARTIN

32. WILLIAM KRISTOL

31. JUAN WILLIAMS

Supreme Court upholds photo ID law for voters in Indiana

Las Vegas Sun/AP

Obama’s Former Pastor Focuses on ‘Real Change,’ Too
All of the presidential hopefuls have talked about “change” in their campaigns, none more than Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who has cast himself as the one who can bring “real change” to Washington. On Monday, Obama’s long-time pastor Jeremiah Wright also talked about change -- “real change” -- specifically, “God’s desire for a radical change in the social order that has gone sour.”

Dr.Wright: Choosing Hate Over Hope

By Kevin McCullough

"Dr. Jeremiah Wright should be twice stricken with the guilt over his lies and betrayal told this week to Bill Moyers." (continue reading)

The Race Card is Too Easily Played

Obama Camp: McCain Has Racist Vote

Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe says racists are probably going to vote for John McCain in November if Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee.

Obama Insensitive

MCCAIN CALLS OBAMA INSENSITIVE TO POOR PEOPLE
New York Post

CORAL GALBES, Fla. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Sunday called Democratic rival Barack Obama insensitive to poor people and out of touch on economic issues.

The GOP nominee-in-waiting rapped his.....

Truck carrying migrants crashes in Ariz.; 4 dead
Los Angeles Times

PHOENIX -- A truck jammed with as many as 60 illegal immigrants crashed and rolled in a remote part of central Arizona this morning, killing four and injuring many.

More UN Nightmares

BBC NEWS: UN troops 'armed DR Congo rebels'

The UN has covered up claims that its troops in Democratic Republic of Congo gave arms to militias and smuggled gold and ivory, the BBC has learned.

The allegations, based on confidential UN sources, involve Pakistani and Indian troops working as peacekeepers.

The UN investigated some of the claims in 2007, but said it.....

Close Call

Karzai escapes assassination bid

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unhurt on Sunday from an assassination attempt by Taliban fighters who fired guns and rockets at an official celebration near the presidential palace in Kabul.

McCain shifts on use of Wright

Jonathan Martin's Blog - Politico.com

Pointing to Barack Obama's remark today on "Fox News Sunday" that his former pastor was "a legitimate political issue," John McCain this afternoon brought up two new controversial statements by Jeremiah Wright that have recently surfaced.

"I saw yesterday some additional comments that have been revealed by Pastor Wright, one of them comparing .....