Saturday, December 4, 2010

Return us to a legislature made up of civilians

American Thinker  "In the 21st century we now have a vast bloated federal bureaucracy with departments and agencies our Founders never envisioned lead by career politicians who never experience the private sector yet govern over the largest economy in the world. Wealth is earned by hard work but is now redistributed by the government from the successful to those less fortunate. This redistribution of wealth is not only between individuals but also between states. Equal opportunity has been replaced with equal results, in spite of individual involvement or causation. The scope of our federal government, intentionally kept limited, has now evolved into a behemoth gobbling up more and more of our Gross Domestic Product. Our federal government, designed to arbitrate between states, has now evolved into a permanent class of professional politicians and bureaucrats ruling over the states."

Police think fire caused by arsonists; search for suspects

Jerusalem Post  "Police found a bike, a bag, and a wig inside near a fire center in Tzur Shalom on Friday, leading them to believe that the Carmel brush-fires raging across northern Israel are being caused by an arsonist or arsonists.
"Galillee police were spread out over the area searching for suspects."

Jawa Report  "New fire identified at Na'aman Junction
" Carmel fires death toll rises to 42, Army Radio reports
"Photo Gallery: Uncontrolled blazes in the North
"In an unprecedented wave of international assistance, foreign fire fighters pour into country to help battle Carmel forest fire."

Hezbollah overjoyed by fire " "The great Carmel fire embarrassed Israel's firefighting capabilities and proved its almost complete incompetence," a report by Hezbollah's al-Manar network said. The Lebanese station said the poor performance came despite Israeli claims regarding the IDF Home Front's full readiness to cope with any emergency and face the implications of an all-out war. " Via Atlas Shrugs

Meet WikiLeaks' Likely First Victim


 Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion  "Murr's denials likely will have little impact on Hezbollah, which already is suspected of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Harriri. A likely indictment of senior Hezbollah officials in the Harriri killing has Lebanon gripped with fear of a renewed civil war, and possible Hezbollah takeover of Beirut.
"WikiLeaks has exposed Murr -- a friend of the United States -- to grave danger, and puts all of Lebanon at risk."
Photo: Reuters: Lebanon's Defence Minister Elias al-Murr (L) speaks to Commander Jean Kahwaji during an army drill in Roumiyeh, north of Beirut, August 14, 2010.

In the era of leftist political correctness, can democracies defend their security and national interests?

Jerusalem Post  "One of the most distressing aspects of the WikiLeaks operation is the impotent US response to it. This operation has been going on since April. And the US had foreknowledge of the attack in the weeks and months before it began. And yet, the US has taken no effective steps to defend itself. Pathetically, the most it has been able to muster to date is the issuance of an international arrest warrant against WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange on rape charges in Sweden."

Act of War "Whether it's an electronic intrusion, or a data dump onto a CD, the purpose is disruption of the government's ability to build international coalitions and to function in the hot war against al-Qaeda, and the not-yet-hot war against Iran and its allies Hezbollah and Hamas." William A. Jacobson, blogging at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Michigan School Ends Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in Media Award (Updated)

Newsbusters  "Wayne State University announced Friday that as a result of the anti-Semitic remarks made by the former White House correspondent the previous day, it is ending its Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity in Media award."
Photo and quote below from TheRightPerspective : "Retired White House correspondent Helen Thomas has retracted an apology she gave for saying that Israel is “occupied” by Jews who should “get the hell out” and “go back to Poland and Germany.”"

Hateful Helen Thomas continues to spew her anti-Semitic poison 
"In a speech that drew a standing ovation, Thomas talked about “the whole question of money involved in politics.”
“We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where their mouth is…We’re being pushed into a wrong direction in every way.”

ABC Announces New President

Big Journalism  "Glenn Beck had some nice things to say about newly announced ABC President Ben Sherwood today describing him as “fair.” The Freedomist notes that the Ventura Tea Party includes Sherwood’s book on its reading list."
Remember he still has the same people filing reports as before, which fortunately includes the pretty fair Jake Tapper.

Bill Clinton Has Some Advice for Charles Rangel (video and sound)

The Powers That Be  "On the Don Imus program, Bill Clinton had some advice for Charles Rangel on how to proceed with his career, post censure.
"Both here are portrayed by phony actors, but I think both are in real life, too: "
It's right after you sit through a half-minute commercial.

Pelosi Pulls One Last Political Stunt

redstate.com  "With their days numbered in control of the U.S. House, Democrats are planning a political stunt Thursday in hopes of embarrassing Republicans on a vote to raise taxes."....
"Without an opportunity to offer amendments, Republicans are expected to vote against the measure. By doing so they’ll give [Pelosi] one final opportunity to demagogue the issue. However, it will likely be a short-lived victory. The measure has little chance of passing in the Senate."
Ding, dong, wait...she's moving!

Swedish Court Confirms Arrest Warrant for WikiLeaks Founder

NY Times  "A report in the British newspaper, The Independent, on Thursday suggested that Scotland Yard’s Serious Organized Crime Agency knew the whereabouts of Mr. Assange. He is said to be in the south of England and Scotland Yard even has a telephone number for him, but they have declined to arrest him until they clarify technical difficulties with paperwork filed by the Swedish prosecutors, the report said."

By Two-to-One Margin, Voters Believe U.S. Spends More on Military than Social Security

Rasmussen Reports "In reality, the expenditure for both items is similar and the precise answer depends upon accounting issues and time frames."

Let's throw this Rasmussen stat in as well:  51% Say Leaking of U.S. Secrets Is Treason
Cartoon by Rich Terrell at terrellaftermath

Techno-physiology can stop terrorists NOW! But, TSA keeps searching for THINGS

Stephen Whitten  "These tactics are unnecessary and of questionable value because the desired screening results – identifying dangerous people – is secondary to finding things. If officials wanted to address that primary objective, they would discover that the appropriate technology is readily available and reasonably inexpensive."....
"Here is an absolute fact. A person that is knowingly attempting to board an aircraft with a bomb is scared. Detecting that fear is easily done. It’s time to stop unnecessarily assaulting law abiding passengers and focus on the terrorists. Some people at DHS know that should be an option."
Stephen Whitten is Founder and CTO of Communicated Enforcement, LLC, manufacturers of FutureSentry.com, the automated security guard.


Why TSA has no plans for finding terrorists Part 2 of previous article.  "Knocking down the World Trade Center was impressive, but the grief, horror and anger most of us felt did not represent personal fear since few Americans live or work in New York, high-rise buildings or other terrorist targets. For this reason I predicted at that time that that the terrorists would pursue a series of strategic, less dramatic attacks in the US to convince all of us that we were all in harms way. Last week’s Seattle bomb threat was among the first to work that way."