"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

--George Washington--

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY

Click to enlarge

Hasta la vista

Click to enlarge.

WELCOME TO VICHY AMERICA

"This was not just another election. The last time we had a presidential election, the Left tried to get a brazen traitor elected - namely John Kerry. This new President from the Left is even more than that. Obama was no traitor, because he never was really on our side in the first place. His loyalties have always been to his "tribe" of Marxists and the poor dark skinned people of the world.

Never before have we had a president who probably wasn't even an American citizen. (If he was a citizen, he would have released his birth certificate. His own grandmother remembers his birth in Kenya. link)

Never before did so much untraceable internet-donated money enter the election, most likely from overseas. link The drop of the American dollar and stock market made foreign money sources in Europe and the Middle East all the more potent. His rock-star status in Europe and fund raising trip there was a blatant ploy to encourage foreign investment in the outcome of our election. The Clintons once gave gross military favors to the Chinese in exchange for illicit donations, but now interference from foreign financial sources is vast.

Obama was really a foreign candidate - in spirit, funding, and citizenship. This was not an American election. It was an international election between America and Anti-America."

-- Dagny D'Anconia

THE NIGHT WE WAVED GOODBYE TO AMERICA

By Peter Hitchens

"Anyone would think we had just elected a hip, skinny and youthful replacement for God, with a plan to modernize Heaven and Hell - or that at the very least John Lennon had come back from the dead.

The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilization. At least Mandela-worship - its nearest equivalent - is focused on a man who actually did something.

I really don't see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts."

Read more

THE EVIL OF THE FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE

Dr Jack Wheeler:

"The November 4^th election is being hailed as "transformational." It certainly has been personally transformational for me.

Grocery shopping at the local Giant supermarket is a very different experience now. As I look at all the people scrutinizing the fruits and vegetables, telling the butcher what cut of meat they want, or walking down the aisles pushing their carts with a list in their hand, they all look so normal, just like before last week.

Yet I know that a majority of them are either suicidally insane, too stupid to know what they've done to themselves, or crypto-fascists. Before last week, they were all my fellow Americans. Now I don't really know who or what they are.

They, together with 60-odd million others, have decided to lurch America radically and thoughtlessly to the left. Collectively, they are a cold-shower demonstration of the self-destructive evil of the fear of the evil eye."

TO THE POINT NEWS

Iran, Qatar And Russia take gas cartel plan to second stage

World Tribune —

ABU DHABI — Iran, Qatar and Russia have reconvened their talks on the formation of a natural gas cartel.

The three countries, the top gas producers in the world, began an energy summit on Nov. 12 in the Qatari capital of Doha, Middle East Newsline reported. Officials said the key issue was an examination of the technical details required for the formation of a gas cartel modeled on OPEC. In October 2008, Doha, Moscow and Teheran agreed to examine the establishment of a gas cartel. [continue]

Increased commerce, traffic diminishes tensions between Turkey, N. Iraq

World Tribune —

WASHINGTON — Turkey and the Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Iraq have significantly improved relations to the point where a major Turkish ground invasion appears unlikely, a U.S. military report said.

The report for the U.S. Army said Ankara has developed strong economic ties with the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq. [continue]

Uprising spreads to second city in Libya

World Tribune —

CAIRO — Fighting between opposition forces and the regime of Col. Moammar Qaddafi has spread in Libya as thousands of government troops have been rushed to several cities.

Libyan opposition sources said tribes and other unemployed young men were battling regime forces in at least two cities in the North African state. The sources said the Qaddafi regime has imposed a news blackout as well as laid siege to the cities.

"The regime is pouring in thousands of forces in several cities in Libya to prevent the spread of a revolt," an opposition source said.  [continue]

Al Qaida 'butcher' known for beheadings of innocents, captured in Diyala

World Tribune —

BAGHDAD — A leading Al Qaida operative has been captured in Iraq.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry reported the arrest of Riyad Wahab Hassan Falih, deemed one of the most brutal agents of Al Qaida. Officials described Falih as a leading Al Qaida executioner who in 2008 was operating in the Diyala province.

"Iraqi forces received intelligence on a very dangerous terrorist known as the number-one butcher who was responsible for a beheading squad that slaughtered innocent people," Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed Al Askari said.  [continue]

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families."

—Benjamin Rush, 1773

NO CONCERN HERE.

Mugshot of the Day

"Executive summary: naked woman kicks cops in groin, requires five armed police officers to be subdued, and then goes all Al Franken on the jailers. Word is that the Democrat Party is eyeing her for a Senate run."

Read about it at Doug Ross @ Journal.

The Culture War and Barack Obama

Bill O'Reilly :

The fascinating thing about Barack Obama's election is that few Americans seem to know exactly how the man is going to govern. Will he be a Nancy Pelosi enthusiast, a far-left guy? Or will he move to the center like President Clinton did? Even his devoted followers don't really know how he will initially use his power.

There's an old country saying: "You dance with the one who brung ya." Just hours after Obama's victory, the far-left MoveOn outfit issued a press release saying that during the campaign it had raised an astounding $88 million on behalf of the president-elect. The timing of MoveOn's statement was no accident: It was a subtle reminder that payback is expected.  [Read more]

Worrying Signs from Border Raids

Global Security and Intelligence Report

Last week, the Mexican government carried out a number of operations in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, aimed at Jaime “El Hummer” Gonzalez Duran, one of the original members of the brutal cartel group known as Los Zetas. According to Mexican government officials, Gonzalez Duran controlled the Zetas’ operations in nine Mexican states.

The Nov. 7 arrest of Gonzalez Duran was a major victory for the Mexican government and will undoubtedly be a major blow to the Zetas. Taking Gonzalez Duran off the streets, however, is not the only aspect of these operations with greater implications. The day before Gonzalez Duran’s arrest, Mexican officials searching for him raided a safe house, where they discovered an arms cache that would turn out to be the largest weapons seizure in Mexican history. This is no small feat, as there have been several large hauls of weapons seized from the Zetas and other Mexican cartel groups in recent years.

The weapons seized at the Gonzalez Duran safe house included more than 500 firearms, a half-million rounds of ammunition and 150 grenades. The cache also included a LAW rocket, two grenade launchers and a small amount of explosives. Along with the scores of assorted assault rifles, grenades and a handful of gaudy gold-plated pistols were some weapons that require a bit more examination: namely, the 14 Fabrique Nationale (FN) P90 personal defense weapons and the seven Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifles contained in the seizure.

Matapolicias

As previously noted, the FN Five-Seven pistol and FN P90 personal defense weapon are very popular with the various cartel enforcer groups operating in Mexico. The Five-Seven and the P90 shoot a 5.7 mm-by-28 mm round that has been shown to be effective in penetrating body armor as well as vehicle doors and windows. Because of this ability to punch through body armor, cartel enforcers call the weapons “matapolicias,” Spanish for “cop killers.” Of course, AK-47 and M-16-style assault rifles are also effective at penetrating body armor and vehicles, as are large-caliber hunting rifles such as the 30.06 and the .308. But the advantage of the Five-Seven and the P90 is that they provide this penetration capability in a much smaller — and thus far more concealable — package.

The P90 is a personal defense weapon designed to be carried by tank crew members or combat support personnel who require a compact weapon capable of penetrating body armor. It is considered impractical for such soldiers to be issued full-size infantry rifles or even assault rifles, so traditionally these troops were issued pistols and submachine guns. The proliferation of body armor on the modern battlefield, however, has rendered many pistols and submachine guns that fire pistol ammunition ineffective. Because of this, support troops needed a small weapon that could protect them from armored troops; the P90 fits this bill.

In fact, the P90 lends itself to anyone who needs powerful, concealable weapons. Protective security details, some police officers and some special operations forces operators thus have begun using the P90 and other personal defense weapons. The P90’s power and ability to be concealed also make it an ideal weapon for cartel enforcers intent on conducting assassinations in an urban environment — especially those stalking targets wearing body armor.

The Five-Seven, which is even smaller than the P90, fires the same fast, penetrating cartridge. Indeed, cartel hit men have killed several Mexican police officers with these weapons in recent months. However, guns that fire the 5.7 mm-by-28 mm cartridge are certainly not the only type of weapons used in attacks against police — Mexican cops have been killed by many other types of weapons.

Reach Out and Touch Someone

While the P90 and Five-Seven are small and light, and use a small, fast round to penetrate armor, the .50-caliber cartridge fired by a Barrett sniper rifle is the polar opposite: It fires a huge chunk of lead. By way of comparison, the 5.7 mm-by-28 mm cartridge is just a little more than 1.5 inches long and has a 32-grain bullet. The .50-caliber Browning Machine Gun (BMG) cartridge is actually 12.7 mm by 99 mm, measures nearly 5.5 inches long and fires a 661-grain bullet. The P90 has a maximum effective range of 150 meters (about 165 yards), whereas a Barrett’s listed maximum effective range is 1,850 meters (about 2,020 yards) — and there are reports of coalition forces snipers in Afghanistan scoring kills at more than 2,000 meters (about 2,190 yards).

The .50-BMG round not only will punch through body armor and normal passenger vehicles, it can defeat the steel plate armor and the laminated ballistic glass and polycarbonate windows used in lightly armored vehicles. This is yet another reminder that there is no such thing as a bulletproof car. The round is also capable of penetrating many brick and concrete block walls.

We have heard reports for years of cartels seeking .50-caliber sniper rifles made by Barrett and other U.S. manufacturers. Additionally, we have noted many reports of seizures from arms smugglers in the United States of these weapons bound for Mexico, or of the weapons being found in Mexican cartel safe houses — such as the seven rifles seized in Reynosa. Unlike the P90s, however, we cannot recall even one instance of these powerful weapons being used in an attack against another cartel or against a Mexican government target. This is in marked contrast to Ireland, where the Irish Republican Army used .50-caliber Barrett rifles obtained from the United States in many sniper attacks against British troops and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

That Mexican cartels have not used these devastating weapons is surprising. There are in fact very few weapons in the arsenals of cartel enforcers that we have not seen used, including hand grenades, 40 mm grenades, LAW rockets and rocket-propelled grenades. Even though most intercartel warfare has occurred inside densely populated Mexican cities such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Nuevo Laredo — places where it would be very difficult to find a place to take a shot longer than a few hundred meters, much less a couple thousand — the power of the Barrett could be very effective for taking out targets wearing body armor, riding in armored vehicles, located inside the safe house of a rival cartel or even inside a government building. Also, unlike improvised explosive devices, which the cartels have avoided using for t he most part, the use of .50-caliber rifles would not involve a high probability of collateral damage.

This indicates that the reason the cartels have not used these weapons is to be found in the nature of snipers and sniping.

Snipers

Most military and police snipers are highly trained and very self-disciplined. Being a sniper requires an incredible amount of practice, patience and preparation. Aside from rigorous training in marksmanship, the sniper must also be trained in camouflage, concealment and movement. Snipers are often forced to lie immobile for hours on end. Additional training is required for snipers operating in urban environments, which offer their own set of challenges to the sniper; though historically, as seen in battles like Stalingrad, urban snipers can be incredibly effective.

Snipers commonly deploy as part of a team of two, comprising a shooter and a spotter. This means two very self-disciplined individuals must be located and trained. The team must practice together and learn how to accurately estimate distances, wind speed, terrain elevation and other variables that can affect a bullet’s trajectory. An incredible amount of attention to detail is required for a sniper team to get into position and for their shots to travel several hundred meters and accurately, consistently strike a small target.

In spite of media hype and popular fiction, criminals or terrorists commit very few true sniper attacks. For example, many of our sniper friends were very upset that the media chose to label the string of murders committed by John Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo as the “D.C. Sniper Case.” While Mohammed and Malvo did use concealment, they commonly shot at targets between 50 and 100 meters (about 55 yards to 110 yards) away. Therefore, calling Mohammed and Malvo snipers was a serious insult to the genuine article. The assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the killing of Dr. Bernard Slepian, also have been dubbed sniper attacks, but they actually were all shootings committed at distances of less than 100 meters.

Of course, using a Barrett at short ranges (100 meters or less) is still incredibly effective and does not require a highly trained sniper — as a group of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agents found out in 1993 when they attempted to serve search and arrest warrants at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The agents were met with .50-caliber sniper fire that ripped gaping holes through the Chevrolet Suburbans they sought cover behind. Many of the agents wounded in that incident were hit by the shrapnel created as the .50-caliber rounds punched through their vehicles.

While it is extremely powerful, the Barrett is however a long, heavy weapon. If the sniper lacks training in urban warfare, it might prove very difficult to move around with the gun and also to find a concealed place to employ it. This may partially explain why the Mexican cartels have not used the weapons more.

Moreover, while the Zetas originally comprised deserters from the Mexican military and over the years have shown an ability to conduct assaults and ambushes, we have not traditionally seen them deploy as snipers. Today, most of the original Zetas are now in upper management, and no longer serve as foot soldiers.

The newer men brought into the Zetas include some former military and police officers along with some young gangster types; most of them lack the level of training possessed by the original Zetas. While the Zetas have also brought on a number of former Kaibiles, Guatemalan special operations forces personnel, most of them appear to be assigned as bodyguards for senior Zetas. This may mean we are not seeing the cartels employ snipers because their rank-and-file enforcers do not possess the discipline or training to function as snipers.

Potential Problems

Of course, criminal syndicates in possession of these weapons still pose a large potential threat to U.S. law enforcement officers, especially when the weapons are in the hands of people like Gonzalez Duran and his henchmen. According to an FBI intelligence memo dated Oct. 17 and leaked to the media, Gonzalez Duran appeared to have gotten wind of the planned operation against him. He reportedly had authorized those under his command to defend their turf at any cost, to include engagements with U.S. law enforcement agents. It is important to remember that a chunk of that turf was adjacent to the U.S. border and American towns, and that Reynosa — where Gonzalez Duran was arrested and the weapons were seized — is just across the border from McAllen, Texas.

Armed with small, powerful weapons like the P90, cartel gunmen can pose a tremendous threat to any law enforcement officer who encounters them in a traffic stop or drug raid. Over the past several years, we have noted several instances of U.S. Border Patrol agents and other U.S. law enforcement officers being shot at from Mexico. The thought of being targeted by a weapon with the range and power of a .50-caliber sniper rifle would almost certainly send chills up the spine of any Border Patrol agent or sheriff’s deputy working along the border.

Armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and .50-caliber sniper rifles, cartel enforcers have the potential to wreak havoc and outgun U.S. law enforcement officers. The only saving grace for U.S. law enforcement is that many cartel enforcers are often impaired by drugs or alcohol and tend to be impetuous and reckless. While the cartel gunmen are better trained than most Mexican authorities, their training does not stack up to that of most U.S. law enforcement officers. This was illustrated by an incident on Nov. 6 in Austin, Texas, when a police officer used his service pistol to kill a cartel gunman who fired on the officer with an AK-47.

While the arrest of Gonzalez Duran and the seizure of the huge arms cache in Reynosa have taken some killers and weapons off the street, they are only one small drop in the bucket. There are many heavily armed cartel enforcers still at large in Mexico, and the violence is spreading over the border into the United States. Law enforcement officers in the United States therefore need to maintain a keen awareness of the threat.

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
STRATFOR
Global Security & Intelligence Report

GOP Needs a Compelling Vision

Ken Blackwell :

In the aftermath of the 2008 election, the Republican Party has begun going through the litany of reasons that they lost. While the GOP must do many things better, the one thing that it must do if it wants to win back power is to put forward powerful ideas that persuade today's voters. [Read more]

Agency Begins Process to Allow Drilling off Va. Coast -
washingtonpost.com

RICHMOND, Nov. 12 -- The Bush administration is moving ahead with efforts to lease the waters off Virginia's coast to companies interested in drilling for oil and natural gas, despite calls from environmentalists that the plan should wait for the new president to take office.

Obama transition team may create 'climate czar' post
But Al Gore won’t fill it

Washington Times

CNSNews.com - US General Urges Obama to Keep Missile Defense

Washington (AP) - The Air Force general who runs the Pentagon's missile defense projects said that American interests would be "severely hurt" if President-elect Obama decided to halt plans developed by the Bush administration to install missile interceptors in Eastern Europe.

Senate Finance Chairman Calls for Mandatory Health Insurance
(CNSNews.com) – The Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a health-care reform plan Wednesday that incorporates many of the provisions of President-elect Barack Obama’s plan, but goes one step further -- it would require everyone to eventually buy insurance coverage. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) proposes that medical insurance cover pre-existing conditions, as Obama’s plan does, and would set up an insurance exchange to help people and businesses find insurance if they need -- but don’t have -- coverage.

Ayers: Obama was 'family friend'

New afterword to 2001 book, Ayers describes Barack Obama as 'family friend'

"In a new afterword to his 2001 book, Bill Ayers, former leader of the 1960s radical group Weather Underground, describes President-elect Barack Obama as a “family friend.”

Hmmm. In the lead up to the election, they made it sound like they were more like just two ships crossing paths in the middle of the night.

Story at Chicago Sun Times.

Sonia Sotomayor: Obama’s First Supreme Court Appointment?

"Sonia Sotomayor is reportedly on Barack Obama’s short-list for the Supreme Court. If nominated and confirmed, she would be the first Hispanic person to serve as a Supreme Court justice."

Read the rest at Right Pundits.

Contrary to Campaign Claim, Obama Told Paper He Attended Trinity Church ‘Every Week’
(CNSNews.com) – President-elect Barack Obama said in 2004 – while he was a state legislator running for a U.S. Senate seat – that he attended services at Trinity United Church of Christ every week. This is in contrast to what Obama, as a presidential candidate, said this year after controversial anti-American remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright surfaced. Obama then told news outlets that he did not attend the church frequently and was not aware of Wright’s comments.

Rino Season Is Now Open

By Ted Nugent

Like any entity that abandons basic quality control, political parties rot from within. It happened to the Democrats long ago, and now has become the case with the Republican Party, which has strayed from its conservative underpinnings.

There are really only four things I have a strong aversion to: unloaded guns, dull knives, banjos, and Republicans in Name Only (RINOs).

Read the Full Story Here

If You Want 2012, Earn It

By Jed Babbin

The lesson of 2008 is that it's not enough to sound like a conservative. Whoever wants the Republican nomination in 2012 is going to have to earn it by taking conservative actions, not just repeating conservative words.

Read the Full Story Here

The Porno-fication of Rush Limbaugh

By A.W.R. Hawkins

Because of Rush Limbaugh's success as the trendsetter and trailblazer of talk radio, the self-proclaimed "Doctor of Democracy" has been called everything from "a big, fat idiot," by that big, fat, idiot Al Franken, to "hateful" and "unpatriotic" by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). But Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently took accusations and name-calling to new low when he equated talk radio -- and by implication Limbaugh -- with pornography. This accusation was part of Schumer's argument that the government ought to be able to "regulate" talk radio because it regulates pornography

Read the Full Story Here

Supremes Save Sonar -

By Ashley E. Herzog
HUMAN EVENTS

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court decided Tuesday that the Navy can use sonar in its exercises off the California coast -- despite objections from environmental groups, who say that sonar is harmful to whales and other animals.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that national security was a more pressing concern than the well-being of marine mammals.

“Even if the plaintiffs have shown irreparable injury from the navy's training exercises, any such injury is outweighed by the public interest and the navy's interest in effective, realistic training of its sailors,” he wrote.

[Continue Reading]

Peace through strength? Nope.

Rep. Barney Frank (S-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee:
"We don't need all these fancy new weapons."

Apparently in lock step with Barack's desire to cut the military budget by 25 percent.

Marxism 101

Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA):
"For the last seven years we have had the highest corporate profit ever in American history. ... But it hasn't been shared, and that's the problem, because we have been guided by a Republican administration who believes in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it. They have an antipathy toward the means of redistributing wealth. And they may be able to sustain that for a while, but it doesn't work in the long run."

And of course this follows on the footsteps of Obama's moment of weakness when he let the veil fall and said to "Joe The Plumber" right before the election: "I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody."

Time will tell.

Rewriting history:

In his first major media appearance following his election to be the next President of the United States, Barack Obama said, "I have spoken to all of [the former presidents], that are living, obviously, President Clinton -- I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances."

Barack did later apologize; and well he should. Jim Angle of Fox News had to set the record straight: Nancy Reagan consulted with an astrologer about Ronald Reagan's schedule after he was shot. It was actually Hillary Clinton who was reported to have engaged in séance-like sessions in which she communed with the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt."

IT'S A NO GO FOR PAYGO

"As Congress gears up to pass another spending 'stimulus' bill, there's one political silver lining: Democrats are being forced to abandon the pretense of fiscal conservatism known as 'pay as you go' budgeting. Late last week the leader of the House Blue Dog Coalition, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, announced that with Barack Obama about to enter the White House, 'I'm not sure the old rules are relevant anymore.' Why not? Because, Mr. Cooper said, 'It would be unfair to the new President to put him in a budget straitjacket.' Democrats ran on 'paygo' in 2006, promising to offset any new spending increases or tax cuts with comparable tax increases or spending cuts. Once in charge on Capitol Hill they quickly made exceptions, waiving paygo no fewer than 12 times to accommodate some $398 billion in new deficit spending -- not that the press corps bothered to notice. That didn't stop Majority Leader Steny Hoyer from announcing in May that 'We're absolutely committed to paygo. Speaker [Nancy Pelosi] is committed to paygo. I'm very committed to paygo. Our caucus is committed to paygo.' Yet now Mr. Cooper is delivering official last rites, as the Washington spending machinery powers up in earnest. Paygo was always a big con designed not to reduce spending but to stop tax cuts. It was invented to stop the GOP Congress and then a Republican President, but it is inconvenient when Democrats run the show. With the recession available as an excuse for just about anything, get ready for the first $1 trillion federal budget deficit. And don't expect any howling from the Blue Dogs."

--The Wall Street Journal

"Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves."

--Joseph Warren (1775)--

"Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."

 --William F. Buckley Jr.

"Government price-fixing, once started, has alike no justice and no end. It is an economic folly from which this country has every right to be spared."

--Calvin Coolidge

"History does not entrust the care of freedom to the weak or timid."

--Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The substantially enhanced Democratic majorities in Congress stand poised to pass a raft of legislation that ranges from the destructive to the abominable and the tyrannical. It will serve as an early challenge to the judgment of President Obama, and to the efficacy of the loyal opposition."

--Claremont Institute Fellow Scott Johnson

"Obama will try to convert those temporary moderate and conservative votes of his into permanent liberal and moderate voters -- just as Reagan did in reverse between 1980 and 1984. If we conservatives can make our case, the election of 2008 will be a blip, just a kick-the-bums-out election. If Obama makes his case, he may have moved the center of political gravity to the left for a generation. Every conservative man and woman, to battle stations."

--columnist Tony Blankley

"Still, the Republican Party retains a remarkably strong pulse, considering that McCain's often chaotic campaign earned 46 percent of the popular vote while tacking into terrible winds."

--Washington Post columnist George Will

"Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself."

—Thomas Jefferson

Repeat for a Revival?

By Michael Medved

Eerie parallels between the election of 2008 and the Democratic sweep of 1992 should reassure Republicans. In 1992, Bill Clinton swept to victory with 370 electoral votes; Barack Obama apparently won 365. Clinton beat the first President Bush by 5.5 percent of the popular vote, Obama beat McCain by 6.5 percent. Even more strikingly, both houses of Congress will convene with almost precisely the same partisan alignment they showed in '92--258 Democrats in the House, 57 in the Senate.

Despite these lopsided margins, Republicans came roaring back to take both House and Senate in 1994, then the White House six years later. Today's Congressional leadership for Republicans is better than '92, and for Nancy Pelosi's Democrats, it's far worse. With focus and unity, the GOP might once again confound conventional wisdom with a quick conservative revival.

LAW OF THE LAND

Supremes consider 'Statue of Tyranny'

Sect demands right to erect monuments next to 10 Commandments.

Communist Party ecstatic over '08 election results
Voice of Marxism announces 'hard work is just beginning'

Critics cry foul over DPS license checkpoint plan

Chronicle
Chron.com

"The state agency that imposed new rules barring illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses is requesting authority to set up statewide driver's license checkpoints, part of what several lawmakers suspect is a plan to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Some lawmakers say stops would unfairly target illegal immigrants.

.... when I saw the driver's license regulations, I said, 'Maybe they're not after Texas' drunk drivers, but maybe they're after undocumented people and this is a mechanism to get them,' State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio said."

Baaa waaa waaa waaa. Read more here.

Obama team pledges openness in transition

But will it disclose private donors?
Chicago Sun-Times

House to Consider Auto Aid

Chamber to Reconvene To Vote on Bailout Funds
Washington Post



HH says: The Dems see the oil industry as evil. They hate oil. They hate its' carbon footprint. They hold hearings accusing the evil oil companies of price gouging. They threaten taxes on 'windfall profits.'

(I haven't seen any of these hearings lately. Have you?)

They would much rather see all of us, their subjects, walk, ride bikes, and ride mass transit. But yet, they want to save the auto industry why?

Democratic Senator to unveil detailed plan for health insurance guarantee
Los Angeles Daily News

ARTISTS FLOCKING TO THE ANNOINTED ONE

Artists flock to create images of Obama
Obama portrayed as President Abraham Lincoln
New Jersey Star-Ledger

Obama Under Pressure to Have Diverse Administration
The Hill

Obama’s Illegal Alien Aunt: The Rest of the Story
By Michelle Malkin

I hope Barack Obama remembered to thank George Bush on behalf of his illegal alien aunt this week. The lame-duck Republican president did the Democratic president-elect a generous—and dangerous—favor right before Election Day: Putting politics above homeland security, the Bush administration ordered immigration authorities across the country to halt all deportation enforcement actions until the campaign season was over. According to my sources, the Bush administration issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his Kenyan half-aunt, Zeituni Onyango.

The Sheer Idiocy of Following Youth Movements
By Ben Shapiro

Greg Campbell is an obscure writer for a Fort Collins, Colo., weekly newspaper. But on Oct. 26, he penned what serves as the perfect window into the mind of many Barack Obama supporters. Campbell attended an Obama rally with his 11-year-old son, Turner, and said he was excited, not by Obama, but by his son’s reaction to Obama. “For me, (Obama’s message) sunk in because I could see it through the eyes of an 11-year-old.” We have reached a dangerous point in American politics when parents take their voting cues from 11-year-old children. But Campbell isn’t alone.

Roseanne Says Blacks Who Supported Prop 8 Are ‘Bigots’ and ‘Ignorant’
(CNSNews.com) – Actress Roseanne Barr has lashed out at African-Americans for overwhelmingly supporting California’s Proposition 8. The comedienne accused blacks of being “bigots” and “ignorant” for supporting the ballot initiative, which amends the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Europe Pressures Obama Ahead of Washington Summit
Dusseldorf, Germany (CNSNews.com) – As European leaders prepare to attend the G20 meeting in Washington later this week, they are stepping up pressure on President-elect Obama to support their plans on both international finance and climate change. The meeting is the first of a series of summits proposed by President Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the president of the European Union’s executive Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, to address the global financial crisis.

No On Taxpayer Bailout of Auto Industry, Say Free Market Economists
(CNSNews.com) - It would be better to let struggling U.S. auto firms file for bankruptcy and restructure their companies than subsidize them with a taxpayer-funded bailout, said free market economists and financial experts. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have expressed support for a bailout.

Campaign to End Affirmative Action Scores Decisive Win in Neb., Looks to Future
(CNSNews.com) - Although Barack Obama opposed civil rights initiatives on the ballot last week, a decisive win in Nebraska and a narrow loss in Colorado show that millions of Americans will vote against race-based preferences – if they get the chance to.

Immigration Groups Mobilize to Push for ‘Pathway to Legalization’ Under Obama
(CNSNews.com) – Immigrant groups are calling on the incoming Obama administration to push for “just and humane immigration reform” and “a pathway to legalization” -- amnesty and citizenship for illegal immigrants. Two groups held a press conference in Washington Tuesday to announce that a “mass mobilization” by illegal immigrants is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21—one day after the president-elect is sworn into office.

Pulling Plug on GM Would Help Both Auto Industry and Michigan
IBD Editorials

AIG uses my money to tell me how taking more of my money is good for me
MichelleMalkin.com

Change We Can Remember: Will Barack Obama be another Bill Clinton?
Raeason.com

To some investors, Obama means risk
Los Angeles Times

Commentary

All's Fair with the Left
Media ignore how unfair liberal plans really are.
By Dan Gainor
The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow
Business & Media Institute

Fair’s fair, right? Not always – especially in the new America that dawns January 20. That’s when the Obama administration takes over and they have bold plans for making America a fairer place to be.

The Democratic platform Obama supports has 30 separate references to fairness in some form or another. Obama wants a “fair economy,” “fair trade,” women to get “fair pay,” to make “sure that workers get their fair share,” and to restore “fairness to our tax code.”

These items have nothing at all to do with being fair. They are Orwellian doublespeak like: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” They are the antithesis of what those terms are supposed to mean. [continue reading]

Will Obamanomics Spike Unemployment in 2009?

Small business owners fear higher taxes and health care mandates.

By Dan Kennedy
Business & Media Institute

Obama's Pledge to Not Drill for Oil

By Hugh Hewitt

This past weekend spokesmen for President-elect Obama announced that among his first actions after being sworn in will be the revocations of permissions previously granted to drill for oil on some public lands.

This is a very bad way to launch a new administration. Oil is at or around the $60-a-barrel level today, but only a few short months ago it was above $140 a barrel, and when the worldwide recession ends, worldwide demand will heat up again.

Right now we have a window to push for new supplies to slow the rise of oil again, but we cannot do that if the first thing a new president does is shut down critical parts of the search for new oil resources.

Urge the president-elect to explore--not shutter exploration.

Chinese nuke sub spotted by Japanese tracking USS George Washington near Korea

World Tribune

Report: Obama views 'have serious implications for Israel'

World Tribune —

TEL AVIV — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama can be expected to have a rocky relationship with Israel, according to a new report.

The Begin-Sadat Center cited Obama's plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and reconcile with Iran and Syria in concluding that the forthcoming Obama administration was likely to clash with the next Israeli government.

What Creeps These Members of Congress Be

By Robert Higgs
The Independent Institute


Read more at The Beacon.

Cloture Rules: How Obama May Bring One-Party Rule to America

By Jonathan Bean
The Independent Institute

Read more at The Beacon

William Rusher : Losing the War in Iraq

The first big step of Barack Obama's administration, and quite possibly its defining achievement, will be abandoning America's military involvement in Iraq. Obama can argue, quite plausibly, that he has a mandate from the American people to do exactly that.

He certainly has made no secret of this intention. In September of last year, he asserted that......

Cal Thomas : Breakdown

Remember when Democrats lamented the growing budget deficit and spoke of the burden our children and grandchildren would face if we didn't put our fiscal house in order? That was when Republicans ran the federal government and Democrats opposed tax cuts. Now that Democrats are about to be in charge, concern about the deficit has disappeared and spending plans proliferate, even though the national debt passed $10 trillion in September and we added another $500 billion last month.

The latest, but by no means the last supplicant at the public trough, is the auto industry, which wants a bailout to save jobs because.....

David Limbaugh : Liberal Censorship and Its Roots

The most unnerving aspects about the Democrats' sweeping victory Nov. 4 are their intolerance for dissent and their willingness to censor and otherwise suppress their opponents. Consider: [Read on]

Thomas Sowell : "Intellectuals"

Among the many wonders to be expected from an Obama administration, if Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times is to be believed, is ending "the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life."

He cited Adlai Stevenson, the suave and debonair governor of Illinois, who twice ran for president against Eisenhower in the 1950s, as an example of an intellectual in politics.

Intellectuals, according to Mr. Kristof, are people who are "interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity," people who "read the classics."

It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Read more.

THE MAGIC OF THE 'CHOSEN ONE' IS WORKING ALREADY

Violent crime is down in Phila.
Philadelphia Inquirer

Ahmadinejad Sees Collapse of ‘Bullies’ As Good Chance to Spread Islam

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted on Thursday that the imminent collapse of international “bullies” would be a good opportunity to spread Islam and Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Ahmadinejad did not mention the U.S. by name but said that the “bullying powers” were on the verge of collapse because they are hated by the nations of the world, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

PEACE JUST AROUND THE CORNER. OH, MAYBE NOT.

CNSNews.com - Rockets Slam Israel After Army Uncovers Smuggling Tunnel

Jerusalem – The situation in the Gaza Strip will be among the foreign policy challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama, an expert here said on Wednesday.

Dozens of rockets were launched at Israel early Wednesday from the Gaza Strip, a barrage not seen since a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas took effect in June.

THANK GOD FOR NOAH WEBSTER

CNSNews.com - UN Anti-Terror Effort Bogged Down Over Terrorism Definition

Seven years after the U.N. Security Council responded to 9/11 with a tough resolution aimed at tackling the scourge of terror, its ability to do so remains hamstrung by a failure to agree of a definition of terrorism – and by policies evidently designed to avoid embarrassing or annoying member states. More.

‘Apartheid’ Israel, Islamophobia on the Agenda for U.N. Racism Meeting

CNSNews.com -

Seven years after the United States and Israel withdrew in protest from a United Nations racism gathering, the drafters of the primary document for a follow-up conference next spring have included sentiments that prompted the earlier walkout.

Most glaringly, the draft text declares that Israeli policies and practices in territories claimed by the Palestinians constitute “a new kind of apartheid, a crime against humanity [and] a form of genocide.”

Critics are urging governments to boycott next April's UN conference on racism in Geneva, dubbed "Durban II."

[Continue]

Million to one odds (or more) that Obama won't support such a boycott. What about the timing of this announcement? Barack just won the election and this is back on the agenda. Do ya' think the drafters smell success this time around with a new "ruler" (Obama) at the helm? - HH

AND SO IT BEGINS....

Obama’s ‘Change’ Likely to Include Funding Abortions Abroad
(CNSNews.com) – The “change” that President-elect Barack Obama promised on the campaign trail will likely include overturning President George W. Bush’s 2001 executive order to prohibit the use of federal tax dollars for groups that perform or advocate abortion as a means of family planning in foreign countries, Obama’s transition team has said. [CONTINUE]

In our relatively short history as a country, we have gone from the Boston Tea Party, a defiant move against England's taxation upon the settlers of this country, to using taxes upon our own citizens and funding abortion abroad.

I'm afraid this is just the beginning of the 'changes' Barack wants to make. I will not be afraid to tell you "I told you so" when the appropriate time(s) come. - HH

Rep. Pence: ‘I Have Not Endorsed Boehner’ for House Minority Leader

(CNSNews.com) - Conservative Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) has not endorsed incumbent House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to keep his leadership status in the next Congress, and if a more conservative member of Congress challenges Boehner for the post, Pence will not endorse Boehner, he told CNSNews.com on Monday. [Continue]

Iran Returns to the Global Stage

By George Friedman
Geopolitical Weekly
STRATFOR


"After a three-month hiatus, Iran seems set to re-emerge near the top of the U.S. agenda. Last week, the Iranian government congratulated U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on his Nov. 4 electoral victory. This marks the first time since the Iranian Revolution that such greetings have been sent.

While it seems trivial, the gesture is quite significant. It represents a diplomatic way for the Iranians to announce that they regard Obama’s election as offering a potential breakthrough in 30 years of U.S. relations with Iran. At his press conference, Obama said he does not yet have a response to the congratulatory message, and reiterated that he opposes Iran’s nuclear program and its support for terrorism. The Iranians returned to criticizing Obama after this, but without their usual passion.
The Warming of U.S.-Iranian Relations

The warming of U.S.-Iranian relations did not begin with Obama’s election; it began with the Russo-Georgian War. In the weeks and months prior to the August war, the United States had steadily increased tensions with Iran. This process proceeded along two tracks.

On one track, the United States pressed its fellow permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom) and Germany to join Washington in imposing additional sanctions on Iran. U.S. Undersecretary for Political Affairs William J. Burns joined a July 19 meeting between EU foreign policy adviser Javier Solana and Iranian national security chief Saeed Jalili, which was read as a thaw in the American position on Iran. The Iranian response was ambiguous, which is a polite way of saying that Tehran wouldn’t commit to anything. The Iranians were given two weeks after the meeting to provide an answer or face new sanctions.

A second track consisted of intensified signals of potential U.S. military action. Recall the carefully leaked report published in The New York Times on June 20 regarding Israeli preparations for airstrikes against Iran. According to U.S. — not Israeli — sources, the Israeli air force rehearsed for an attack on Iran by carrying out a simulated attack over Greece and the eastern Mediterranean Sea involving more than 100 aircraft.

At the same time, reports circulated about Israeli planes using U.S. airfields in Iraq in preparation for an attack on Iran. The markets and oil prices — at a high in late July and early August — were twitching with reports of a potential blockade of Iranian ports, while the Internet was filled with lurid reports of a fleet of American and French ships on its way to carry out the blockade.

The temperature in U.S.-Iranian relations was surging, at least publicly. Then Russia and Georgia went to war, and Iran suddenly dropped off the U.S. radar screen. Washington went quiet on the entire Iranian matter, and the Israelis declared that Iran was two to five years from developing a nuclear device (as opposed to a deliverable weapon), reducing the probability of an Israeli airstrike. From Washington’s point of view, the bottom fell out of U.S. policy on Iran when the Russians and Georgians opened fire on each other.
The Georgian Connection

There were two reasons for this.

First, Washington had no intention of actually carrying out airstrikes against Iran. The United States was far too tied down in other areas to do that. Nor did the Israelis intend to attack. The military obstacles to what promised to be a multiday conventional strike against Iranian targets more than a thousand miles away were more than a little daunting. Nevertheless, generating that threat of such a strike suited U.S. diplomacy. Washington wanted not only to make Iran feel threatened, but also to increase Tehran’s isolation by forging the U.N. Security Council members and Germany into a solid bloc imposing increasingly painful sanctions on Iran.

Once the Russo-Georgian War broke out, however, and the United States sided publicly and vigorously with Georgia, the chances of the Russians participating in such sanctions against Iran dissolved. As the Russians rejected the idea of increased sanctions, so did the Chinese. If the Russians and Chinese weren’t prepared to participate in sanctions, no sanctions were possible, because the Iranians could get whatever they needed from these two countries.

The second reason was more important. As U.S.-Russian relations deteriorated, each side looked for levers to control the other. For the Russians, one of the best levers with the Americans was the threat of selling weapons to Iran. From the U.S. point of view, not only would weapon sales to Iran make it more difficult to attack Iran, but the weapons would find their way to Hezbollah and other undesirable players. The United States did not want the Russians selling weapons, but the Russians were being unpredictable. Therefore, while the Russians had the potential to offer Iran weapons, the United States wanted to reduce Iran’s incentive for accepting those weapons.

The Iranians have a long history with the Russians, including the occupation of northern Iran by Russia during World War II. The Russians are close to Iran, and the Americans are far away. Tehran’s desire to get closer to the Russians is therefore limited, although under pressure Iran would certainly purchase weapons from Russia, just as it has purchased nuclear technology in the past. With the purchase of advanced weapons would come Russian advisers — something that might not be to Iran’s liking unless it were absolutely necessary.

The United States did not want to give Iran a motive for closing an arms deal with Russia, leaving aside the question of whether the Russian threat to sell weapons was anything more than a bargaining chip with the Americans. With Washington rhetorically pounding Russia, pounding Iran at the same time made no sense. For one thing, the Iranians, like the Russians, knew the Americans were spread too thin. Also, the United States suddenly had to reverse its position on Iran. Prior to Aug. 8, Washington wanted the Iranians to feel embattled; after Aug. 8, the last thing the United States wanted was for the Iranians to feel under threat. In a flash, Iran went from being the most important issue on the table to being barely mentioned.
Iran and a Formal U.S. Opening

Different leaks about Iran started to emerge. The Bush administration posed the idea of opening a U.S. interest section in Iran, the lowest form of diplomatic recognition (but diplomatic recognition nonetheless). This idea had been floated June 23, but now it was being floated after the Russo-Georgian War. The initial discussion of the interest section seemed to calm the atmosphere, but the idea went away.

Then, just before U.S. presidential elections in November, the reports re-emerged, this time in the context of a new administration. According to the leaks, U.S. President George W. Bush intended to open diplomatic relations with Iran after the election regardless of who won, in order to free the next president from the burden of opening relations with Iran. In other words, if Obama won, Bush was prepared to provide cover with the American right on an opening to Iran.

If we take these leaks seriously — and we do — this means Bush has concluded that a formal opening to Iran is necessary. Indeed, the Bush administration has been operating on this premise ever since the U.S. troop surge in Iraq. Two things were clear to the Bush administration in 2007: first, that the United States had to make a deal with the Iraqi Sunni nationalist insurgents; and second, that while the Iranians might not be able to impose a pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, Tehran had enough leverage with enough Iraq Shiite factions to disrupt Iraq, and thus disrupt the peace process. Therefore, without an understanding with Iran, a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be difficult and full of potentially unpleasant consequences, regardless of who is in the White House.

The issue of Iran’s nuclear program was part of this negotiation. The Iranians were less interested in building a nuclear weapon than in having the United States believe they were building one. As Tehran learned by observing the U.S. reaction to North Korea, Washington has a nuclear phobia. Tehran thus hoped it could use the threat of a nuclear program to force the United States to be more forthcoming on Iranian interests in Iraq, a matter of fundamental importance to Iran. At the same time, the United States had no appetite for bombing Iran, but used the threat of attacks as leverage to get the Iranians to be more tractable.

The Iranians in 2007 withdrew their support from destabilizing elements in Iraq like Muqtada al-Sadr, contributing to a dramatic decline in violence in Iraq. In return, Iran wanted to see an American commitment to withdraw from Iraq on a set timetable. Washington was unprepared to make that commitment. Current talks over a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Washington and Baghdad revolve around just this issue. The Iraqi Shia are demanding a fixed timetable, while the Kurds and Sunnis — not to mention foreign governments like Saudi Arabia — seem to be more comfortable with a residual U.S. force in place to guarantee political agreements.

The Shia are clearly being influenced by Iran on the SOFA issue, as their interests align. The Sunnis and Kurds, however, fear this agreement. In their view, the withdrawal of U.S. forces on a fixed timetable will create a vacuum in Iraq that the Iranians eventually will fill, at the very least by having a government in Baghdad that Tehran can influence. The Kurds and Sunnis are deeply concerned about their own security in such an event. Therefore, the SOFA is not moving toward fruition.
The Iraqi Stumbling Block

There is a fundamental issue blocking the agreement. The United States has agreed to an Iraqi government that is neutral between Washington and Tehran. That is a major defeat for the United States, but an unavoidable one under the circumstances. But a U.S. withdrawal without a residual force means that the Iranians will be the dominant force in the region, and this is not something United States — along with the Iraqi Kurds and Sunnis, the Saudis and Israelis — wants. Therefore the SOFA remains in gridlock, with the specter of Russian-Iranian ties complicating the situation.

Obama’s position during the election was that he favored a timed U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, but he was ambiguous about whether he would want a residual force kept there. Clearly, the Shia and Iranians are more favorably inclined toward Obama than Bush because of Obama’s views on a general withdrawal by a certain date and the possibility of a complete withdrawal. This means that Obama must be extremely careful politically. The American political right is wounded but far from dead, and it would strike hard if it appeared Obama was preparing to give Iran a free hand in Iraq.

One possible way for Obama to proceed would be to keep Russia and Iran from moving closer together. Last week, Obama’s advisers insisted their camp has made no firm commitments on ballistic missile defense (BMD) installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, repudiating claims by Polish President Lech Kaczynski that the new U.S. president-elect had assured him of firm support during a Nov. 8 phone conversation. This is an enormous issue for the Russians.

It is not clear in how broad of a context the idea of avoiding firm commitments on BMD was mentioned, but it might go a long way toward keeping Russia happy and therefore making Moscow less likely to provide aid — material or psychological — to the Iranians. Making Iran feel as isolated as possible, without forcing it into dependence on Russia, is critical to a satisfactory solution for the United States in Iraq.

Complicating this are what appear to be serious political issues in Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been attacked for his handling of the economy. He has seen an ally forced from the Interior Ministry and the head of the Iranian central bank replaced. Ahmadinejad has even come under criticism for his views on Israel, with critics saying that he has achieved nothing and lost much through his statements. He therefore appears to be on the defensive.

The gridlock in Baghdad is not over a tedious diplomatic point, but over the future of Iraq and its relation to Iran. At the same time, there appears to be a debate going on in Iran over whether Ahmadinejad’s policies have improved the outlook for Iran’s role in Iraq. Finally, any serious thoughts the Iranians might have had about cozying up to the Russians have dissipated since August, and Obama might have made them even more distant. Still, Obama’s apparent commitment to a timed, complete withdrawal of U.S. forces poses complexities. His advisers have already hinted at flexibility on these issues.

We think that Bush will — after all his leaks — smooth the way for Obama by opening diplomatic relations with Iran. From a political point of view, this will allow Bush to take some credit for any breakthrough. But from the point of view of U.S. national interest, going public with conversations that have taken place privately over the past couple of years (along with some formal, public meetings in Baghdad) makes a great deal of sense. It could possibly create an internal dynamic in Iran that would force Ahmadinejad out, or at least weaken him. It could potentially break the logjam over the SOFA in Baghdad, and it could even stabilize the region.

The critical question will not be the timing of the U.S. withdrawal. It will be the residual force — whether an American force of 20,000 to 40,000 troops will remain to guarantee that Iran does not have undue influence in Iraq, and that Sunni and Kurdish interests are protected. Obama promised to end the war in Iraq, and he promised to withdraw all U.S. troops. He might have to deal with the fact that he can have the former only if he compromises on the latter. But he has left himself enough room for maneuver that he can do just that.

It seems clear that Iran will now return to the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. If Bush re-establishes formal diplomatic relations with Iran at some level, and if Obama responds to Iranian congratulations in a positive way, then an interesting dynamic will be in place well before Inauguration Day. The key will be the Nov. 10 meeting between Bush and Obama.

Bush wants to make a move that saves some of his legacy; Obama knows he will have to deal with Iran and even make concessions. Obama also knows the political price he will have to pay if he does. If Bush makes the first move, it will make things politically easier for Obama. Obama can afford to let Bush take the first step if it makes the subsequent steps easier for the Obama administration. But first, there must be an understanding between Bush and Obama. Then can there be an understanding between the United States and Iran, and then there can be an understanding among Iraqi Shia, Sunnis and Kurds. And then history can move on.

There are many understandings in the way of history."

www.stratfor.com

Obama: A Global Reaction

By David Aikman

The victory of Barack Obama in the presidential election has aroused a variety of reactions around the world. The predominant one is positive for the US: appreciation of the fact that a black man could be elected in a country that had many racial problems in the past. All Americans can bask in the glow of that praise.

But not everyone is happy. The Germans worry about American protectionism under a Democratic president. Egyptians say they hope Obama will change American policies in the Middle East and resolve the Palestinian issue. Israelis, on the other hand, worry that Obama may be too soft on Iran and those Palestinians who want to destroy Israel.

One thing is sure: the change Obama promises to bring may not please everyone.

OP-ED: What Republicans need to do to win in 2010

Washington Times - The Democrats' Shadow Party

By Tom DeLay

Obama's 'Change': Appointing Beltway Has-Beens

By: Dick Morris and Eileen McGann 

What's with Obama's choice of old-time Clinton cronies and recycled Washington insiders to run the transition to his new politics of change?

Can't the anti-Washington-insiders and the president-elect find anyone who isn't a Beltway has-been?

Obama Moving to Halt Oil Drilling

Wait Just One Darn Minute....

Blueprints for Auschwitz Camp Found in Germany

I thought the Holocaust never happened. Was Ahhhhhkk..i.....dinny.....jod just pulling our leg?

MoneyNews - Bailout Billions Going to Secret List

Transparency seems to be a foreign word around Treasury.

Even after telling Congress in September that the agency would make clear how it spends trillions in emergency loans and bailout cash, so far no names are forthcoming.

Newswire Bloomberg has sued, demanding that......

Al Franken's Senate Bid: A Joke Gone Bad

Something he is quite familiar with. But sadly, ACORN Registrations May Tilt Minnesota Tally.

Obama Invents 'Office of the President-Elect'

Source: Obama secretly pledged cooperation with Syria

Said to favor Israel's retreat from strategic Golan Heights

Web faux pas: Plan leaked for 'civilian security force'?

Before blogs caught it, Democrat's site told of requiring students to serve
--WND

Related story:
Agenda disappears from Obama website
Gone are promises on how administration would handle 25 different issues
--Washington Times

Related Story:
GOP Congressman: Obama Wants Own Gestapo
WASHINGTON — A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.

"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

Osama bin Laden plans US attack that will 'outdo' September 11
OSAMA bin Laden is planning an attack against the United States that will "outdo by far" September 11, an Arab newspaper in London has reported.

Related story:
Al-Qaida plans mass-casualty attacks in UK
Secret enclaves of terrorists living in Britain said to plot onslaught
--London Telegraph

WHAT'S NEXT? MOUNT RUSHMORE?

Even now, plans under way for Obama national holiday

A civil rights organization in Kansas has launched a campaign to designate Nov. 4 as a national holiday, commemorating the election of Barack Obama as president.

Rumor has it - on inaugural day, Barack will place his hand on the yet to be released Obama Manifesto.

Uranium traces found at bombed Syrian sitE

Alleged secret nuclear reactor targeted by Israelis, built with help of N. Korea

By Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – United Nations investigators have found traces of uranium at a site in Syria bombed last year by Israel, it was revealed today.

The site was identified by the White House in April as a secret nuclear reactor being built with aid from North Korea. [Read more]

REMEMBER OUR HEROES ON VETERAN'S DAY

Veteran's Day is upon us. Please pay homage to our brave men and women who don our nation's uniform. They are magnificent people who sacrifice greatly for us. Let's thank them for their service.

Colonel Oliver North founded Freedom Alliance in order to "advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense."

Freedom Alliance has done wonderful things for thousands of troops (and their families - let's not forget them and their sacrifices). If you want to help, and you can afford it, please consider making a donation.

Liberalism's Basic Instinct

By Michael Medved

Senator Charles Schumer doesn't like conservative talk radio and compares it to pornography, saying government must control both. He doesn't acknowledge that framers of the First Amendment clearly intended to block government control of political speech, but expressed no desire to protect porn.

Oddly, Schumer wants to control what other people say, instead of just answering and correcting them. He gets many outlets for his views, but beyond managing his own mouth, he also wants to silence mine.

The conservative basic instinct seeks less interference, less bureaucratic control over our lives. Left wingers' basic instinct demands more interference, more control over the lives of their neighbors. On health care, education, retirement, spending the money we earn, transportation, and what radio shows to choose, we trust the people to make the best decisions. Liberals trust only themselves to make decisions for everyone else.

Media Defeats McCain?
By L. Brent Bozell III

The election of Barack Obama was certainly historic, and the great attraction of that historic moment led to more history: an Obama-smitten news media that completely avoided their responsibility to test the nominee with hard questions. It made the gooey 1992 Clinton campaign look like a fistfight by comparison. Obama faced none of the withering scrutiny applied to even the Republican vice presidential candidate. Instead, he was treated to a nearly constant string of encomiums and tributes to his transformational candidacy, while nearly every possible pitfall of political embarrassment or inconvenience has been omitted or dismissed. The big question now: If the media couldn’t scrutinize the man before he was elected, why would they feel the drive to do so afterwards? They won’t. They worked for his election. They will now work for his administration. [Read on]

How America Has Changed
By Alan Caruba

Many of those who helped elect Barack Obama as the next president represent a very different generation of Americans from earlier ones. They have passed through the politically correct indoctrination of government/union controlled schools and have little accurate knowledge of history, geography, or civics with which to make informed judgments. They are more the product of popular media and culture than any previous generation. Here are some of the ways that America has changed since the 1960s. [Read on]

Newt in 2012?
By Robert D. Novak

In serious conversations among Republicans since their election debacle Tuesday, what name is mentioned most often as the Moses, or Reagan, who could lead them out of the wilderness before 40 years? To the consternation of many Republicans, it is none other than Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House. Gingrich is far from a unanimous or even a consensus choice to run for president in 2012, but there is a strong feeling in Republican ranks that he is the only leader of their party who has shown the skill and energy to attempt a comeback quickly. [Read on]

Wow. What a Revelation. Who Knew?

Washington Post concedes bias for Obama

CNSNews.com - Obama Planning to Close Gitmo, Ship Terrorists to U.S. for Trial

Washington (AP) - President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice. [Read on]

CNSNews.com - Obama Will Reverse Bush Policies on Stem Cell Research, Oil Drilling

Washington (AP) - President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.  [Read on]

CNSNews.com - Almost 90 Percent of Muslims Voted for Obama Despite Differences on Abortion, Marriage

(CNSNews.com) – Nearly 90 percent of American Muslims supported Democrat Barack Obama on Election Day -- and did so on the basis of economic and foreign policy concerns, top Muslim groups said in Washington, D.C., Friday.

Muslims overlooked differences they might have had with the President-elect’s positions on same-sex marriage and abortion, just as Catholics and other religious groups did on Tuesday, according to top officials connected with the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT).  [Read more]

CNSNews.com - Abortion Groups Confident Obama Will Push His Pro-Abortion Agenda

(CNSNews.com) - The leading abortion rights organizations in America say they are confident that Barack Obama will push for their full agenda, including passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, comprehensive sex ed and “reproductive rights” that include “affordable" birth control. [Read on]

CNSNews.com - No Conservative Will Challenge Boehner for House GOP Leader’s Post

(CNSNews.com) - Three out of the four most powerful House Republican leadership positions will be changing hands in the wake of Tuesday’s election, in which Democrats gained 19 seats. That won’t include the position of House Minority Leader, however.

Sources on Capitol Hill told CNSNews.com that despite “widespread discontent” among rank-and-file Republicans, it is unlikely that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) will even be challenged for his position in the new Congress. [Read more.]

CNSNews.com - Rescue Package is Not Socialism, White House Says

The White House (CNSNews.com) – The federal government’s $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, which includes purchasing shares in the nation’s banks, does not undermine free market capitalism, the White House said on Friday.

“We’re very, very far away from that line of socialism, wherever that’s drawn out there,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. [Read more]

PSA

Now that we are past the elections, the holidays are not far behind. Thanksgiving will be upon us soon, and before we know it - Christmas.

This is the perfect time to remember our troops and the sacrifices they make for us. So let's not forget them during these upcoming holidays.

Please consider making a contribution to Operation Gratitude, and the USO.

Also, Veterans Day is coming up on Tuesday (11-11-2008). Let's thank them properly. Give thanks and donate if you can. Many thanks.

The Decency of George W. Bush

By Michael Gerson
Washington Post

Election Day 2008 must have been filled with rueful paradoxes for the sitting president. Iraq — the issue that dominated George W. Bush's presidency for 5 1/2 bitter, controversial years -- is on the verge of a miraculous peace. And yet this accomplishment did little to revive Bush's political standing — or to prevent his party from relegating him to a silent role. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110602693.html

The achievement is historic. In 2006, Iraq had descended into a sectarian killing spree that seemed likely to stop only when the supply of victims was exhausted. Showing Truman-like stubbornness, Bush pushed to escalate a war that most Americans — and some at the Pentagon — had already mentally abandoned.

The result? A Sunni tribal revolt against their al-Qaeda oppressors, an effective campaign against Shiite militias in Baghdad and Basra, and the flight of jihadists from Iraq to less deadly battlefields. In a more stable atmosphere, Iraq's..... [Read more..]

Iraq reinforces Syrian border with major buildup

BAGHDAD — Iraq has deployed more than 10,000 troops to the border with Syria. Officials said the Iraq Army and police have sent troops from bases in the Anbar province to the Syrian border.

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The bankrupting of the nation for political gain

World Tribune —

A lot will be said and written about the presidential election, but one central fact remains: John McCain was ahead in the polls until the financial crisis emerged and President Bush was pushed by Treasury Secretary Paulson into seeking a $700-billion Wall Street bailout on Sept. 18. The crisis benefited Obama, even though he voted for the bailout, because he was not a Republican, like McCain or Bush. Republicans were blamed because a Republican was in the White House.

The exit polls on Nov. 4 still found the public opposed to the bailout by a 56-39 percent margin.

The panic around mid-September infected the Mainstream Media and even the conservative media, especially Fox News, which became a soapbox for the bailout that now exceeds $1.8 trillion. But rather than bail out or “rescue” anything, the hastily-passed measure, ironically named the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,” started a process that now threatens national bankruptcy.

Because Wall Street has gotten its bailout, the Democrats figure that they can now spend even more, supposedly to benefit Main Street. Which means spending and debt will get even more out of control and more socialist measures, this time under President Obama, will be taken.

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Obama promises U.S. reconciliation with Syria

Obama returned calls from nine heads of state

World Tribune —

SEOUL — The United States president-elect Barack Obama got many congratulatory calls from heads of state this week.

Among the calls he returned was one from South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak who is concerned about the Korea-U.S. free-trade agreement (FTA). The other return calls were made to the leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan and Mexico.

Obama, during his campaign, strongly opposed the FTA as a threat to Michigan motor vehicle workers. Obama's position puts him at direct odds with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak, who is pressing hard for approval of the deal by South Korea's fractious National Assembly.

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