Obama in Afghanistan

Two Cheers for Obama’s Afghanistan Policy "The president deserves praise for the way he has defined the problem. The United States faces a syndicate of violent extremist groups — al-Qaeda among them — that is based in western Pakistan. This syndicate seeks to launch transnational terrorist attacks (al-Qaeda), to destabilize Afghanistan (Taliban, Haqqani group, and Hezbe Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), and to challenge the Pakistani government (Pakistani Taliban). It is noteworthy that President Obama, unlike some of his advisers, did not contrive to portray an illusory distinction between al-Qaeda and the Taliban."

ForeignPolicy.com  "Obama and his retinue will also get a chance to see how the tenor of private conversations with foreign governments changes when confidentiality is no longer guaranteed. I wonder who gets to write the cable on this one."

NY Times: Obama Pays Visit to Afghanistan   "Mr. Obama’s visit came at a pivotal moment in the war on both sides. In Washington, the administration is completing a review of the surge and counterinsurgency strategy that the president approved a year ago, although officials played down its import." Credit should go to President Obama for many of his actions in Afghanistan. It appears he is moving away from the left in the areas where he grows wiser.

http://terrellaftermath.com/



Those Christian Zionists Are at It Again

Alana Goodman in Commentary: "The Carmel blaze destroyed more than 5 million trees, so this is a welcome effort. Israel is fortunate to have the support of the Christian Zionists, especially when some other groups — such as the New Israel Fund, an organization that purports to be “pro-Israel” — spend much of their funds and energy supporting those trying to get Tzipi Livni arrested in Europe."

Two forward leaps bring Iran weeks away from weapons-grade uranium

DEBKAfile  "Production of Iran's first batch of uranium yellowcake marked just one of Tehran's two nuclear leaps forward ahead of the resumption of its nuclear talks with the Six Powers in Geneva Monday, Dec. 6, after a 14-month interruption.

"The second breakthrough was not made public. debkafile's military and intelligence sources disclose that after a huge effort, Iran was able to sit down with those powers having piled up 23.5 kilos of 19.75 percent enriched uranium."

WikiLeaks and the Afghan War

STRATFOR "The Afghan war is about an insufficient American and allied force fighting a capable enemy on its home ground and a Pakistan positioning itself for the inevitable outcome. The WikiLeaks contain all the details."

More damaging revelations from Wikileaks   "Today's blow are revelations about facilities in other countries that we consider "vital" to our security. From BBC:"...Rick Moran in American Thinker,
as is the following:

Wikileaks threatens 'poison pill' doc dump if shut down "Assange has to be stopped, even at the risk of these other documents coming out. An example has to be made of him and that traitor Manning who has helped him. The anarchists have their boot on our throats and their drive to create chaos in a dangerous world must be nipped in the bud or the survival of civilization would be put at risk."

No Negotiation With WikiTerrorists "If there were any doubt that WikiLeaks is not about open government, but giving aid and comfort to enemies of the U.S., then the latest release of a State Department document listing facilities vital to U.S. security ends any doubt.
"The document is described by the BBC -- hardly a right-wing organization -- as a terrorist wish list:"...
Via Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Political Correctness Kills: Study Shows How Terrorists Infiltrate U.S. Government

Pajamas Media  "Then there was Ali Mohamed, a man who trained American soldiers on Arab culture and infiltrated the U.S. Army’s training program for intelligence officers in the Middle East. Simultaneously, he was teaching Islamist militants in the United States — including the cell that carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing — how to shoot and blow things up. Later, he became al-Qaeda’s chief military expert.

"How might the Army have known to distrust this man? Well, he had been expelled from the Egyptian army because of his terrorist sympathies, and Egypt warned the United States about him." But, but our diversity program needs him.

10 Failures of US Government on Domestic Islamist Threat  "It should also be noted that each of these cases has been brought to the public and elected officials’ attention before. In most cases, no action was taken despite public outcry. We hope that the winners of last week’s election will finally take responsibility for the nation’s security and take action against this threat of Shariah and Islamic terrorism. Sources are provided so anyone—media, public, and policymaker—can understand the extent of the problem and investigate how our political, civic and religious leadership have allowed this threat to advance so far."
by Patrick Poole Center for Security Policy Nov 12, 2010

Demagoguery Unanswered / Do Republicans understand that “demagoguery beats data”?

Thomas Sowell  "As for “the rich” — who really were rich in those days, when $100,000 was worth more than a million dollars is worth today — those in the highest income brackets paid 30 percent of all taxes in 1920 and 65 percent of all taxes by 1929, after “tax cuts for the rich.”
"How can that be? Because high tax rates on paper — which many people avoid — often do not bring in as much tax revenue as lower tax rates, which more people actually pay, because it is safe to come out of tax shelters and earn higher rates of taxable income.
"The investors do this because it makes them better off, on net balance, even after they pay more money in taxes on incomes that have gone up. More important, the economy benefits when there is more investment in things that create more jobs and greater output."  Emphasis added.
Hey, I was an hourly employee who carried a toolbag at work. If I can see this, why can't our elites and intellectuals? More to the point; why do they choose NOT to?

Jerry Brown’s Last Hurrah

Victor Davis Hanson "Both conservatives and liberals agree that Brown will probably do what California’s progressive voters elected him to do: keep government and its services big and find the necessary revenue from corporations and more affluent individuals to pay for it. The real debate is whether he can pull that off in recessionary times."

Missile Malpractice

Andy McCarthy   "On New START, as on many other matters, the Obama administration has demonstrated that it is not to be trusted. That’s bad — no matter who the president is, we want to be able to credit him on vital issues of national defense. Nevertheless, when we hear these incessant Democratic invocations of the Gipper’s bon mot, “Trust but verify,” we ought to be thinking Barack Obama, not Vladimir Putin."  Via National Review

Friday Morning at the Pentagon



The Pentagon

 Michael Yon  "They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along.... Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly." 
Hat tip to Jerry Bentley, Lompoc, Ca.

 

Bozell Column: Shock Art and 'Social Dignity'

Newsbusters  "It's mind-boggling that the same people who so quickly screech at the first sign of a religion near a government building don't get the point that it should be equally wrong to have a sign of anti-religion in a government building.

"And don’t they see the richest irony of them all? There is that which they find offensive – a creche with the Baby Jesus on government property, and that which they celebrate and defend as “art” – a sacrilegious defamation of Jesus Christ, crucified. If it's wrong to promote the Christian religion with tax dollars, isn’t it many times worse to trash the Christian religion with tax dollars?

"Like the public broadcasters, the public gallery operators hunger to rise above the dreary, pedestrian tastes of those rubes in middle America who revere Jesus and aren’t captivated by the “creative resistance” of the gay artistic vanguard. They demand “equality” and “inclusion” for the gay lobby, but there is no inclusion for the rest of us when it comes to what art they will declare advances the cause of “justice.” Curators ought to be wise enough to know there are limits of government-funded art."

At Friday Prayers… Muslim Cleric Offers $6,000 Reward to Anyone Who Murders Jailed Christian Mother Asia Bibi

Gateway Pundit  " “Whoever kills Asia Bibi – he continued – will be given a reward of 500 thousand rupees from the Mohabat Khan mosque”. The imam said that if the appeals court judge Asia Bibi innocent, the mujahideen will kill her."

Any chance this guy will make Olbermann's Worst Person list?

WTC Minarets ...... New Turkish film highlights "America's paranoia with the Islamic world after 9/11" (Updated)

Atlas Shrugs  "Five Minarets in New York" ;   "Check out the trailer here (thanks to Philip). The movie is clearly an orgy of Muslim victimhood, complete with a villainous U.S. law enforcement officer (played by Robert Patrick) stalking into a mosque during prayers and making statements about Islam that no actual American law enforcement official has ever dreamed of uttering in today's hyper-PC environment.

"Interesting to note also Gina Gershon's and Danny Glover's presence in the film. Probably Hollywood's fashionable Leftism made acting in this America-hating screed seem to them to be a moral duty."