ON SYRIAN NUKES, WILL OBAMA CAVE INTO EL BARADEI AND RUSSIA AND CHINA?

JPOST:

The chief UN nuclear inspector said Monday that Syria had a right to his agency's help in planning a power-producing atomic reactor, in what diplomats described as a rejection of US-led efforts to block the aid.

The clash reflected tensions between Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear agency, and key Western nations over whether Syria should be given potentially sensitive nuclear guidance at a time when it is being investigated.

Russia, China and developing nations also back the aid project, said diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the International Atomic Energy Agency talks.

I THINK OBAMA AGREES WITH EL BARADEI AND RUSSIA AND WILL ALLOW SYRIA TO GET NUCLEAR GUIDANCE - IN ORDER TO APPEASE THEM. AT ISRAEL'S EXPENSE.

BUSH WARNS ISRAEL TO COOL IT UNTIL OBAMA IS SWORN IN

JPOST:

The US has requested that Israel refrain from embarking on any large-scale operations during the last weeks of the George W. Bush administration, Time magazine reported Monday evening.

The magazine quotes an unnamed Israeli source at the Defense Ministry as saying, "We have been warned off."

YUP: AS I'VE BLOGGED SEVERAL TIMES BFORE: DUBYA STANDS FOR WIMP.

AND THE ENEMY WINS ANOTHER ROUND... BUYING ANOTHER FEW MONTHS... AND THEN OBAMA WILL TWIST ISRAEL'S ARM TO SURRENDER TO ARAB DEMANDS...

The Climate Is Changing, The Climate Is Changing

Unlike the brains of the vaunted men of letters who sold us the bill of goods on Global Warming, the climate seems to be changing.

It's getting COLDER.

From Q and O:

New satellite data says,

at least 23 years of global cooling

Several Canadian environmental scientists agree that the new Jason satellite indicates at least a 23-year cycle of global cooling ahead.

This oceanographic satellite shows a much larger than normal persistent Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Cooler PDO phases usually last 21 to 25 years, so we should be quite chilly as a planet until at least 2030, maybe longer

A point about natural cycles:

These alternating natural climatic cycles defy the so-called "climate consensus" that human-emitted carbon dioxide was responsible totally for the recent cycle of global warming that began in the late 1970s and peaked in 1998.

The Earth's previous warming phase from 1915 through 1939, which peaked in 1936 during the infamous Dust Bowl Days, was almost as warm as the recent cycle of global warming.

[...]

The last cooler cycle of global temperatures occurred from late 1939 to early 1976, peaking (or bottoming) in 1973. The harsh winters during World War II helped the U.S. and its allies defeat the Germans and later assisted our G.I.s in the Korean War due to extremely heavy snows and subzero temperatures north of the 38th Parallel.

In the past 10 years, especially the past couple of years, the Earth's climate has begun to cool, even though CO2 emissions have soared on a worldwide scale.

Should we indeed cool down as it seems the case, the case of cyclic climate change driven by natural causes should hold sway over any "consensus science" aimed at claiming a warming cycle has been begun by man and is unstoppable.

Another scientist speaking out against the "scientific consensus" is professor Tim Patterson:

A professor from Carleton University may get the cold shoulder from environmentalists when he speaks in London tomorrow.

Tim Patterson, a paleoclimatologist from the department of Earth sciences, will give an opposing view to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Patterson is speaking at a Canadian Club of London luncheon.

He believes we should expect global cooling rather than global warming in the coming years.

"We're off on the wrong foot," he says. "There's been no global warming in the 21st century."

WHY HILLARY IS A GOOD CHOICE FOR STATE

Conventional wisdom on the right and the left doubts that HRC is a good choice for Secretary of State. Whether her nomination will be blocked by the emoluments issue is interesting, but the main problem most commentators have with her nomination, is that they feel the President must be firmly in control of the Nation's foreign policy "message," and they fear that Hillary will never be a reliable conduit for a President Obama's policies.

What they are overlooking is that State is already a rogue agency, dominated by career bureaucrats who are pushing their own euroleftoid agenda rather than the policies enunciated by those elected to the Presidency.

Obama thus has nothing to lose by appointing Hillary to lead the Department. In fact, if she acts as heavy-handedly as she is reputed to do, riding rough-shod over State's disloyal, self-serving functionaries, bringing them to heel at least to her command, if not Obama's, she will have rendered his administration a great service.

LAST FRIDAY ON "THE GATHERING STORM RADIO SHOW"

Our guest for most of the hour was Robert Spencer. WC and I discussed with him his new book Stealth Jihad, which should be required reading for students in upper high school and beyond. And for all who love America and our wonderful culture here in the United States.

The interview is HERE. Mr. Spencer joined us at the marker 7:50.

MUSLIM MAN CRUSHES FOUR-YEAR OLD JEWISH GIRLS SKULL - ASSAD AWARDS HIM SYRIA'S HIGHEST MEDAL

From Haaretz:

Syrian President Bashar Assad has awarded former Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar the country's highest medal for spending nearly three decades in an Israeli jail. 

The Syrian News Agency says Kuntar received the Syrian Order of Merit during a meeting with Assad in Damascus Monday. 

Kuntar was the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel. He was imprisoned in 1979 after he was convicted of one of the grisliest attacks in Israeli history - killing a man in front of his four-year-old daughter, and then killing the girl herself by crushing her skull.

Kuntar and four Hezbollah guerrillas were freed in July in exchange for the bodies of Ehud Goldwasswer and Eldad Regev, two Israel Defense Forces soldiers captured by the militant Hezbollah group in 2006. Their capture sparked a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Second Mann hockeystick produced entirely from a small, atypical and corrupt sub-group of proxies

Ever since his original "hockeystick" graph of the global temperature trend was discredited, Michael Mann has been trying to justify himself by producing a second, less challengeable hockeystick graph. His latest effort is dissected in the very thorough and detailed article briefly excerpted below. Excerpts below are the abstract plus mention of what the proxies central to Mann's new hockeystick consist of. By using data known to be corrupted, Mann has certainly done nothing to redeem his reputation.

by Willis Eschenbach

Abstract: A new method is proposed for determining if a group of datasets contain a signal in common. The method, which I call Correlation Distribution Analysis (CDA), is shown to be able to detect common signals down to a signal:noise ratio of 1:10. In addition, the method reveals how much of the common signal is contained by each proxy. I applied the method to the Mann et al. 2008 (hereinafter M2008) proxies. I analysed all (N=95) of the M008 proxies which contain data from 1001 to 1980. These contain a clear hockeystick shaped signal. CDA shows that the hockeystick shape is entirely due to Tiljander proxies plus high-altitude southwestern US "stripbark" pines (bristlecones, foxtails, etc). When these are removed, the hockeystick shape disappears entirely.

Mystery solved. The three in red at the top, and one further down, are all the Tiljander lake sediment series, which are known to be corrupted. Once we remove the four Tiljander proxies, it is obvious that the whole edifice is built on a few closely related high-elevation, moisture limited pine trees located in the southwestern US. These tree rings make up no less than 19 of the 21 remaining top proxies after Tiljander is removed. In other words, the bristlecones are back and with a vengeance.

I guess the deal is that no self-respecting paleoclimate reconstruction would be complete without the bristlecone pines (PILO), which make up no less than 12 of the remaining top 21 (after Tiljander is removed). In addition we have the bristlecone's cousins, the limber pine (PIFL) and the foxtail pine (PIBA). All of these records contain are from similar ecosystems and contain similar signals. The overwhelming majority were collected by Graybill. His work has been called into serious question by LInah Abadneh's thesis, wherein she was unable to replicate his results.

If I ran the zoo, I'd throw out all of those high altitude pine tree ring records. They are known to have problems, their use has been recommended against, and the principal investigator's work is under a cloud. I would omit them.

More here (See the original for links, graphics etc.)


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Wow! A piece of psychological research that favours Christians!

In the report below, it was found that Calvinist Christians were more perceptive. But I doubt the speculative explanation of that given below. So let me meander towards what I think is a more likely explanation. I had a Calvinist upbringing myself, though not a strict one.

I suspect that the real explanation has something to do with the type of people who are capable of being Calvinists. There are a lot of restrictions inculcated (on gambling, alcohol etc.) in that and in other strict Protestant religions. But I took to it like a duck to water. I became a VERY strict Protestant in my teens. I suspect that I am a born Calvinist, even though I am an atheist these days. I still occasionally pop in to a service at my old church -- which was originally "Wee Free", a very strict sect (No dancing, no "graven images" etc.).

So I am inclined to think that you are to a considerable extent BORN a Calvinist (or some similar strict Protestant religion). Calvinists and other strict Protestants are perfectly at home with Matthew 7:14. Note that the word there is "strait", not "straight". Maybe I am still a dour old Calvinist at heart, though I do have rather a weakness for Mr. John Walker of Scotland these days. But I still don't gamble! Bottom line so far: It is a lot more demanding to be any sort of strict Protestant than to be an atheist and perhaps that shows up in a general mental superiority among strict Protestants. Heh!

In case my reasoning above seems obscure, let me offer an Irish contribution to the discussion: In Ireland they always ask (if they don't know you) whether you are a Protestant or a Catholic. And if you say that you are an atheist, they ask you: "But are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?" Which is a PERFECTLY reasonable enquiry. It is an enquiry about one's origins and background. I am a Protestant atheist, and delighted to be one.

The idea that there could be a genetic difference underlying religious differences will of course seem preposterous to many but, as revelations about genetic influence pile up in both the medical genetics and behaviour genetics literature, the more one tends to throw up one's hands and exclaim: "EVERYTHING is genetic"!. Read here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here just for starters. And note that among the research revelations is a strong genetic influence on political orientation. And there is in fact specific confirmation of a genetic influence on religion.

And if one looks at the distribution of religions in Europe, the Catholic/Protestant divide is still very largely a North/South one -- with the native populations of the most Northerly (Scandinavian) countries being something like 98% Protestant (though mainly nominally so these days). And there are also clear North/South racial differences. Inhabitants of Naples and inhabitants of Oslo tend to look and behave very differently. Clearly, genetics is not the whole of it but I am still inclined to the generalization that Protestantism is a form of Christianity that the Northern Europeans evolved to suit their own natural inclinations. Luther survived where Savonarola did not because Luther's surrounding population were immediately sympathetic to his views -- and that included his King (Frederick the wise of Saxony) -- who zealously protected Luther from all those who wished him ill. And in another largely Saxon country (England) the Lollards long preceded Henry VIII.

I write at great length about apparent Teutonic (Northern) psychological differences here

It might be cliched to say that religious people see the world differently, but new research finds that Dutch Calvinists notice embedded visual patterns quicker than their atheist compatriots.

Culture has long been known to distort visual perception, says Bernhard Hommel, a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who led the new study. For example, one previous experiment found that Asians tend to dart their eyes around a photograph, while North Americans fix on specific people. To see if religious differences might skew perception, Hommel's team tested 40 Dutch atheist and Calvinist university students, who, religion aside, had similar cultural backgrounds.

On a computer screen, Hommel's team showed participants a large triangle or square made of either smaller triangles or squares. The volunteers had to focus on either the big object or its component shapes, and indicate whether they were square or triangular. Both groups recognised the large shapes more quickly than small, embedded ones, but the Calvinists picked out the smaller shapes 30 milliseconds faster than atheists, on average - a small, but significant, difference.

This could reflect a greater focus on self than external distractions for Calvinists, says Hommel. He suggests it may even be a cognitive consequence of their religion and speculates that Calvinists might be more inward looking than atheists because they have lived their whole lives with an emphasis on minding their own business.

In the future, Hommel plans to give the same test to Catholics, as well as Muslims and Jews, but he must first figure out how to eliminate other cultural differences that could mask any insights. "It doesn't make any sense to compare Iranian Muslims with Dutch atheists," he says.

"This is a thought-provoking study," says Ara Norenzayan, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. "Their finding is consistent with the literature on cross-cultural cognition - that cultural traditions involving independent view of the self, such as Calvinism, encourage a more feature-based processing style."

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

SCOWCROFTIANS: FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS SHOULD BE THE JOOOOOOZE!

THE WSJ HAS AN ARTICLE TODAY ABOUT HOW OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY TEAM IS GOING TO BE DOMINATED BY SCOWCROFTIANS.

AND WHAT DO SCOWCROFTIANS THINK SHOULD BE OBAMA'S FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS?

NOT CHINA.
NOT RUSSIA - (NOT THE PUTIN/GEORGIA/UKRAINE OR PUTIN CHAVEZ OR PUTIN IRAN MATRIX.)
NOT NORTH KOREA.
NOT PAKISTAN.
NOT IRAN - WHO HE'D LOVE TO CHAT WITH.

NOT ARABS AND THEIR OIL.

BUT ISRAEL. THE ISRAELI ARAB CONFLICT:

Mr. Scowcroft said his biggest piece of advice for the new administration was that it should make a renewed push to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He also endorsed Mr. Obama's call for diplomatic engagement with Iran.

• SCOWCROFTIANS BELIEVE THIS AS IF ISRAEL WAS THE VERY CENTER OF GLOBAL CRISIS, AS IF ALL AL QAEDA AND HAMAS AND IRAN AND HIZBALLAH WANTED WAS A "TWO-STATE SOLUTION".

• HEY SCOWCROFT: THEY WANT A FINAL SOLUTION, NOT A TWO-STATE SOLUTION!

• MAYBE SCOWCROFTIANS DO TO. MAYBE OBAMA DOES...

• I THINK OBAMA WILL PUSH FOR A DEAL ASAP - BEFORE ISRAELI ELECTIONS BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE CAN MAKE A DEAL WITH LIVNI AND OLMERT.

AND REMEMBER: THE POTUS HAS TREMENDOUS LEEWAY/INITIATIVE/PREROGATIVE WHEN IT COMES TO FOREIGN POLICY. OBAMA WILL USE THEM.

• ISRAEL GAVE ARABS GAZA WITHOUT ANY CONDITIONS.

• AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED: GAZA IS A RUIN - WORSE THAN EVER, AND ISRAEL GET'S SHELLED WITH ROCKETS FORED FROM GAZA EVERY DAY.

• SO... THEY SHOULD NOW GIVE UP THE WEST BANK AND HALF OF JERUSALEM!?!?

ONLY ANTI-SEMITES COULD EVEN ENTERTAIN SUCH A THOUGHT.

BUT IT GETS WORSE:

• SCOWCROFTIANS ALSO WANT TO INSERT NATO FORCES BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE ARABS!
• WHICH WOULD MAKE IT NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE FOR ISRAEL TO RETALIATE FOR ANY ATTACK.
• SUCH A SOLUTION WOULD LEAD TO ONLY ONE THING: DOOMSDAY.

OBAMESSIAH HASN'T ATTENDED CHURCH SINCE ELECTION...

POLITICO:

President-elect Barack Obama has yet to attend church services since winning the White House earlier this month, a departure from the example of his two immediate predecessors.

On the three Sundays since his election, Obama has instead used his free time to get in workouts at a Chicago gym.

Asked about the president-elect's decision to not attend church, a transition aide noted that the Obamas valued their faith experience in Chicago but were concerned about the impact their large retinue may have on other parishioners.

"Because they have a great deal of respect for places of worship, they do not want to draw unwelcome or inappropriate attention to a church not used to the attention their attendance would draw," said the aide.

Both President-elect George W. Bush and President-elect Bill Clinton managed to attend church in the weeks after they were elected.

THE WHOLE CHRISTIAN THING WAS A RUSE, AFETR ALL:

WHAT KIND OF MAN DOES THINGS LIKE THIS? A PSYCHOPATH:

• IN THE BIGGEST SPEECH OF HIS LIFE (UP UNTIL THEN), OBAMA SWORE HE COULD NO MORE DISOWN WRIGHT THAN HIS OWN WHITE GRANDMA - AND THEN A MERE 3 WEEKS LATER HE DISOWNED WRIGHT; (AFTER CALLING GRANDMA A TYPICAL WHITE PERSON).

• AND OBAMA DIDN'T EVEN STAY AN EXTRA DAY TO BE WITH HIS GRANDMA ON HER LAST BIRTHDAY.

• HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN DIDN'T EVEN VISIT HER AT ALL.

• AND THEY ALL SKIPPED HER MEMORIAL.

OBAMA IS A DEEPLY FLAWED AND AMORAL PERSON WITH NOT A SHRED OF INTEGRITY - HIS ATTACHMENT TO HIS BIRTH FAMILY AND TO CHRISTIANITY IS A SHAM - AND HE HAS NO CAPACITY FOR REAL SYMPATHY.

OBAMA IS A PSYCHOPATH.

BERNANKE: GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS CAUSED BY FANNIE MAE

AP:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledges he was wrong in believing that there would be limited fallout to financial markets from risky mortgages that soured after the housing market's collapse.

"I and others were mistaken early on in saying that the subprime crisis would be contained," Bernanke said in an article in the Dec. 1 issue of The New Yorker magazine.

"The causal relationship between the housing problem and the broad financial system was very complex and difficult to predict," he said in the piece titled "Anatomy of a Meltdown."

Subprime mortgages made to people with tarnished credit or low incomes were especially hard hit once the housing boom went bust. Foreclosures spiked and financial companies wracked up huge losses as these investments turned bad.

The mortgage meltdown started in the United States in the summer of 2007 and rapidly spread to other countries, as well as to other types of lending, affecting even more creditworthy customers. The problems with risky, subprime mortgages touched off what many call the worst financial crisis to hit the world since the 1930s.

To protect the economy from damage and help ease Wall Street turmoil, Bernanke and his colleagues cut a key interest rate in September 2007 - the first reduction in four years. Some critics at the time thought the Fed should have acted sooner.

Now more than a year into the crisis, Bernanke has taken a flurry of unprecedented - and some controversial - steps to help bolster the banking system and to get banks to lend money more freely again.

THE SUB-PRIME LOANS AND GREENSPAN'S RATE INCREASES DOOMED US...

• BOTTOM-LINE: FANNIE MAE IS THE ROOT OF THE SUB-PRIME FIASCO.

• IF BANKS HADN'T BEEN REQUIRED AND FORCED TO MAKE BAD LOANS THEN GREENSPAN'S INTEREST RATE INCREASES WOULDN'T HAVE MATTERED ONE IOTA.
  

• CONGRESS WAS WARNED ABOUT THIS BY BUSH AND GREENPSAN AND SNOW AND MCCAIN - STARTING IN 2003 AND RIGHT UP TO 2007.

• BUT THE DEMOCRATS BLOCKED REFORM.

• BOTTOM-LINE: BY BLOCKING REFORM OF FANNIE MAE, THE DEMOCRATS OF CONGRESS - REID, PELOSI, DODD, AND FRANK - CAUSED THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN.

• NOW, THEY'RE IN CONTROL OF THE WHITE HOUSE, TOO.

THAT'S NOT GOOD.

NEO-NAZI GANG THAT INFILTRATED ISRAEL SENTENCED TO PRISON

As far as I know, these horrormongers came from Russia, and should never have been allowed to enter. But now, they've been thrown in the cold darkness of a prison cell:

The Tel Aviv District Court sentenced eight defendants to jail terms ranging from one to seven years on Sunday, in the Neo-Nazi gang case which shocked the country just over a year ago.

All eight gang members admitted to the charges, and were convicted in plea bargains for a series of racism- and violence-related offenses.

The group was arrested in September 2007, after police followed leads on a gang acting against foreign workers and religious Israelis. The group was also accused of defacing synagogues in Petah Tikva, and of planning an attack with explosives on Tel Aviv Punk groups.

When they were arrested - three of the members still minors - photographs of the members giving the Nazi salute and wearing National Socialist insignia were found in their possession.

Judge Tzvi Gurfinkel wrote in his verdict that "this is a serious, shocking and horrifying phenomenon which reminds one of the dark events of Kristallnacht. The fact that these are Jews who came from the Former Soviet Union and socialized with elements who believe in [Nazi] racial theories is terrible, and one cannot entertain their excuse that they socialized with these elements in a bid to win their favor."

There's just one little thing: these monsters were NOT Jewish. But they ARE monsters, and they SHOULD be deported after their prison term is complete, never to return again.

REPORTS: RUSSIAN TROOPS FIRE ON PRESIDENTS OF POLAND AND GEORGIA

• CNN.
• REUTERS.
• BBC:
  

  Shots have been fired near a motorcade carrying the Georgian and Polish presidents, Georgian officials say.

  No injuries were reported in the incident, close to a checkpoint near Georgia's rebel South Ossetia region.

  Georgian officials said the shots came from inside South Ossetia. But Russia and South Ossetia denied the claim.

  President Mikhail Saakashvili and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski were visiting an area where Georgian and Russian forces clashed in August.

• TOI.
• AP.

IF THIS HAPPENED AS REPORTED, THEN CAN ANYONE DOUBT WHO WAS BEHIND IT!?

PUTIN.

• ALONG WITH NORTH KOREA, IRAN, AND VENEZUELA RUSSIA IS AN ENEMY AND PART OF THE AXIS OF EVIL.
• IN FACT, RUSSIA IS EFFECTIVELY THE HUB OF THE AXIS OF EVIL - (ARMING CHAVEZ AND SYRIA AND IRAN AND BUILDING IRAN'S NUKE REACTOR AND SELLING THEM URANIUM).
• IT'S TIME TO BRING ANOTHER, REAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION TO RUSSIA...
• HOW!?
  
• CHEAP OIL, AND MISSILE DEFENSE.
• OBAMA MUST RATCHET UP DEPLOYMENT OF MISSILE DEFENSE AND EXPAND ALL; ENERGY RESOURCES IN THE USA.

IF OBAMA DOESN'T DO THESE THINGS, THEN HE IS EFFECTIVELY SURRENDERING TO PUTIN.

ANOTHER SHOE DROPS: RANGEL CAUGHT IN ANOTHER TAX SCAM! IT'S TIME HE RESIGNED FROM CONGRESS

RANGEL IS CHAIRMAN OF THE POWERFUL HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE - THE ONE WHICH WRITES TAX LAW.

WE WERE THE FIRST TO CALL FOR RANGEL TO RESIGN - BACK IN EARLY SEPTEMBER.

WE RENEW THAT CALL.

HERE'S WHY (VIA GLENN):

Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel took a "homestead" tax break on a Washington, DC, house for years while simultaneously occupying multiple rent-stabilized apartments in New York City, possibly violating laws and regulations in both cases.

The situation raises a number of potential problems for the congressman, including:

* New York City law requires that tenants use rent-stabilized apartments as their primary residence.

* DC's real Property Homestead Deduction Act also requires that a property receiving the benefit be a primary residence.

• RANGEL IS TYPICAL DEMOCRAT LYIN'N CHEATIN' HYPOCRITICAL LIBERAL SCUM.
• HE JUST GOT CAUGHT. SO IT'S TIME FOR HIM TO GO.

IT'S TIME THAT REID AND PELOSI - WHO SAID THEY WERE GOING TO "RUN THE MOST HONEST CONGRESS EVER" - AND FOR OBAMA TO CALL FOR HIM TO STEP DOWN.

MARC RICH AND FALN MEAN THAT ERIC HOLDER IS TOAST

GATEWAY HAS THE FALN VIDEO.

NYT HAS THE MARC RICH OP-ED.

• THESE EPISODES SEVERELY TAINT HOLDER.

• I THINK THIS MEANS THAT HOLDER'S NOMINATION IS FATALLY POISONED BY HIS CLINTONIANISM.

• ISN'T THERE ANOTHER BLACK MAN OBAMA CAN NOMINATE!? (OBAMA OBVIOUSLY WANTS TO NOMINATE THE FIRST BLACK TO BE USA AG.)
  
• I BET THERE IS.

OBAMA: PULL THE PLUG ON HOLDER.

Finally! A comic book hero for the Age of Obama...

Related: Hank Paulson's DNA.

RUMMY ON WW4

RUMSFELD WAS ONE OF THE BEST SEC DEFS WE EVER HAD.

READ HIS NYTIMES OP-ED.

OBAMA PAL AND ARCH LIB NICK KRISTOFF ADVOCATES PULLING THE PLUG ON PAKISTAN LIKE THE DEMOCRAT CONGRESS DID TO SOUTH VIETNAM IN 1975

FACT: THE LAST COMBAT USA TROOP LEFT VIETNAM ON 3/29/73.

March 29, 1973 - The last remaining American troops withdraw from Vietnam as President Nixon declares "the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come."

America's longest war, and its first defeat, thus concludes.

MORE...

September 1974 - The U.S. Congress appropriates only $700 million for South Vietnam.

This leaves the South Vietnamese Army under-funded and results in a decline of military readiness and morale.

• THAT'S RIGHT: THE LAST US TROOPS LEFT IN 1973.
• AND SAIGON DIDN'T FALL UNTIL 1975.
• THAT'S RIGHT: 1975 - LESS THAN A YEAR AFTER THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT DOVES OF CONGRESS PULLED THE PLUG ON FINANCING THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT.

  • Historians have directly attributed the fall of Saigon in 1975 to the cessation of American aid. Without the necessary funds, South Vietnam found it logistically and financially impossible to defeat the North Vietnamese army.
    

  • Moreover, the withdrawal of aid encouraged North Vietnam to begin an effective military offensive against South Vietnam.
    

  • Given the monetary and military investment in Vietnam, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage compared the American withdrawal to “a pregnant lady, abandoned by her lover to face her fate.” 2
    

  • Historian Lewis Fanning went so far as to say that “it was not the Hanoi communists who won the war, but rather the American Congress that lost it.” 3

• ONLY THEN DID THE NORTH VIOLATE THE TERMS OF THE PEACE TREATY AND INVADE ON TOPPLE THE SOUTH.

FAST FORWARD.... NOW - 2008: NYTIMES COLUMNIST NICHOLAS KRISTOF --

• A LONGTIME SUPPORTER OF OBAMA - (WHO ONCE WROTE A COLUMN INN WHICH HE QUOTED OBAMA CALLING THE MUSLIM CALL TO PRAYER ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SOUNDS IN THE WORLD, AND THEN PROCEEDED TO SING IT BY HEART! A COLUMN NOW CONVENIENTLY DELETED FROM THE NYTIMES' ARCHIVES!) --

• YES: NICHOLAS KRISTOF - WHOSE COLUMN SPEAKS FOR THE DOVES WHO PULLED THE PLUG ON SP8TH VIETNAM, AND WHO CONTROL THE CONGRESS ONCE AGAIN - IS NOW ADVOCATING THE USA PULL THE PLUG ON PAKISTAN!

QUOTE: "First, we should slow the financial flow to Pakistan’s government and military."

YUP: KRISTOF WANTS US TO SLOW AID TO AN ALLY ON THE MOST IMPORTANT FRONT IN THE WAR!!

• THE DOVES OF THE LEFT THEY NEVER FUCKIN' LEARN. ASSHOLES. IT'S AS IF THEY WANT PAKISTAN'S NUKES TO FALL INTO JIHADISTS' HANDS.

• THE FALL OF SOUTH VIETNAM LED TO 4 MILLION DEATHS: 3.5 MILLION AT THE HANDS OF LEFTIST POL POT AND 500,000 WHO DIED FLEEING SOUTH VIETNAM AS IT FELL UNDER NORTH VIETNAM'S LEFTIST TYRANNY.

• ALL FOUR MILLION OF THESE DEAD - ALL THEIR BLOOD IS ON THE HANDS OF THE DEMOCRAT DOVES OF THE CONGRESS OF 1975.

• IF THEY DO THE SAME THING AGAIN - IF OBAMA TAKES KRISTOF'S ADVICE - THEN TODAY'S BLOODBATH IN SOUTH ASIA WILL MAKE THE ONE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE LATE 1970'S LOOK LIKE A PIN-PRICK.

• HOW SAD AND SENSELESS, HOW UTTERLY UNNECESSARY. HOW TYPICAL OF THE LEFT: UNABLE TO LEARN FROM HISTORY.

IF YOU REALLY WANT PEACE, THEN YOU SHOULD BE A HAWK BECAUSE PEACE IS A BY-PRODUCT OF VICTORY.

WE NEED TO CRUSH THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA, NOT FINANCIALLY SQUEEZE OR ABANDON OUR SHAKY ALLIANCE WITH THE PAKISTANIS.

• WE CAN DEMAND MORE AND MORE, BUT NOT THREATEN THEM - THAT WOULD BE LIKE CUTTING OFF OUR OWN NOSE.

• OBAMA AND THE LEFTIE DOVES OF CONGRESS ARE PROBABLY GOING TO FOLLOW KRISTOF'S ADVICE AND GET TOUGHER ON OUR ALLIES WHO ARE ON THE FRONT LINES IN WW4, (IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, PAKISTAN - EVEN ISRAEL) AND APPEASE THE ENEMY.

IT'S A RECIPE FOR DISASTER. ONE THE LEFTIE DOVE OBAMA IS LIKELY TO REPEAT...

*******MORE ON THIS HERE.

US FOILED NORTH KOREAN MISSILE SHIPMENT TO IRAN... IN AUGUST

JPOST:

A few weeks before dropping North Korea from the United States' list of countries that sponsor terrorism, the Bush administration succeeded in thwarting a shipment of missile parts, possibly including gyroscopes for guidance systems, from the far eastern country to Iran, the weekly news magazine Newsweek reported Sunday quoting US officials.

On August 4, an aircraft operated by Pyongyang's state-controlled airline was given permission by India to fly from Burma to Teheran, traversing Indian airspace.

On August 7, The Indian Express newspaper reported that the office of India's prime minister "hurriedly" asked authorities to withdraw the clearance.

The US officials said that clearance was annulled following a request from Washington.

The US then removed Korea from its state sponsor of terror status in October, after Pyongyang agreed to halt its nuclear program. But what seemed a brisk start began to stutter as Japanese and South Korean officials publicly proclaimed that the North stopped the process of decommissioning its reactor and was not standing up to other sides of its agreement with the US.

US officials believe that when Kim Jong Il passes away North Korea would be ruled by a collective of bureaucrats, military commanders and Communist Party functionaries, at least one of them related to Kim's family.

THE PHRASE WHICH STARTED A LOT OF ANTI-BUSH SENTIMENT - "THE AXIS OF EVIL" - IS STILL AN ACCURATE PHRASE.

• DOVES AND LOONY-LEFT APPEASERS WHO DISLIKE THE PHRASE ARE IN DENIAL, AT BEST.

• I HOPE OBAMA DOESN'T EVEN TRY APPEASE THEM;
  

• I FEAR HE - AND BIDEN AND SCOWCROFT AND ZBIG AND ANTHONY LAKE AND SAMANTHA POWER, AND ROBERT MALLEY (AND THE REST OF OBAMA'S FLOCK OF DOVES) - WILL.

• APPEASEMENT ONLY ENCOURAGES THE ENEMY TO UNDERTAKE BOLDER ACTIONS.

• PEACE COMES AFTER STRENGTH AND AS A RESULT OF VICTORY.

• WHICH IS WHY WE NEED TO CRANK THINGS UP AND GET TOUGHER WITH RUSSIA AND IRAN AND CHAVEZ, NOT MORE "ACCOMMODATING".
  

THANKS FOR THE LINK ACE! ACE MAKES AN IMPORTANT POINT.

In Defense of "The Oogedy-Boogedy Branch of the GOP"

Every time the GOP takes a beating at the ballot box there are calls to get rid of those doggone social conservatives -- or as Kathleen Parker refers to them, the "oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP." This is a fascinating argument -- well, fascinating if you like watching people who don't even realize that they're doing little more than projecting their own personal biases onto the Republican Party and calling it political strategy.

Atheists, agnostics, Elvis worshippers, Jedis, Satanists -- it doesn't matter; they're all welcome in the Republican Party (Ok, not the Satanists so much. They're creepy losers). However, we live in an overwhelmingly Christian nation founded on Christian principles -- and reaching out to people who have Christian values makes so much sense that even the Democrats hold their nose and do it -- a little.

Additionally, maybe it's just my imagination, but didn't we just run a candidate for President who's notoriously unfriendly to social conservatives? I'm also pretty sure I remember some sort of "wrinkly white haired guy" who almost completely ignored issues like gay marriage and abortion on the campaign trail, even though Obama had huge weaknesses on those issues. So, if a non-socially conservative GOP is such a huge winner at the polls, shouldn't John McCain be gleefully preparing to knife the conservative movement in the back from the White House -- as opposed to gleefully preparing to knife the conservative movement in the back from the Senate?

I guess that's one of those questions we'll never be able to answer. You know, sort of like: if socially conservative issues like opposition to gay marriage are such huge political losers, how is it that those issues keep winning at the ballot box? Moreover, why is it that Barack Obama -- who has done everything except be a flower girl at a gay wedding to let people know that he really supports gay marriage -- adamantly claims to believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman? This is not exactly up there with the Bermuda Triangle on the mystery meter, my friends....

If the GOP is going to tell 26% of American voters to take a hike, who, pray tell, are we going to replace them with? The 500,000 people who voted for Bob Barr? Maybe we can get Scott McClellan, Colin Powell, and Christopher Buckley to start voting Republican again. That's not quite 26%, but it's a start, right?

It's also worth noting that if the GOP wants to reach out to demographic groups that we're not doing very well with, like Hispanics and black Americans, socially conservative issues are one of the best ways to do it. "About one-third of Catholics in the United States are now Hispanic." Moreover, 90% of Hispanics are members of some branch of the Christian faith. The same goes for black Americans, "85 percent (of whom) say religion is very important in their lives."

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Lessons from Britain Could Save the GOP?

Much has been written lately regarding how the Republican Party might re-form itself into a winning operation. Of course, this debate has been around for a long time, but our recent losses have reignited the debate. This time, however (perhaps having learned from liberals that "progressive" sounds better) -- the moderates have re-branded themselves as "modernizers", "reformers", or "pragmatists". And to give their revolution some historical credibility, they have given themselves a new hero: British Conservative Party Leader David Cameron.

Cameron has repositioned his party closer to the center of the political spectrum. However, moderation in itself has not always worked for him. In fact, one of his biggest plans to seize the middle-ground blew up in his face. After his election as party leader, Cameron almost immediately adopted environmentalism as his key issue and launched a new party slogan: "Go Green, Vote Blue" (Blue being the color symbolic of the party). That slogan is long gone today (it's one of the few pieces of the Cameron experiment not to have succeeded). Now, to be sure, environmentalism is still a big part of the party's appeal. Actually, the party has always been seen as strong on that front considering the left-wing Labour Party's association with not-so-green labor interests such as coal miners. However, it is still safe to say that the "Go Green" marketing gimmick flopped.

Most of the program did, however, succeed. If you go to the party's website or watch their ads you will see a much more hopeful message than you did a few years ago. Gone is the old logo, a rather intimidating hand grasping a torch. It has been replaced by a very happy-looking tree. Everything about the new message is hopeful, sunny, and forward looking -- and the focus is now on "quality of life" issues like family, healthcare and education. Granted, the old "taxes and national security" message is still there, but it comes packaged as part of a larger message that the Conservative Party cares about people. Cameron also makes a point of being modern and tech-savvy, as illustrated by his "WebCameron" video blogs. These are all fantastic moves, and the Republican Party should move quickly to implement them (of course, technology is philosophically neutral). By the way, the people who are broadening this discussion here in America are conservative governors like Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal. They are the real "American Camerons" in my mind.

Another big part of the Cameron approach was solidify and reassure all wings of his party, including the "traditionalist" right wing. In fact, one of the first moves was to give plum positions in his "Shadow Cabinet" (essentially the cabinet in-waiting) to the two right wingers he defeated to win the party leadership. Runner-up David Davis was given the hugely powerful post of Shadow Home Secretary, while third place candidate Liam Fox became Shadow Secretary of State for Defense. Furthermore, two of Cameron's predecessors as party leader scored influential positions as well, with William Hague (leader from 1997-2001) becoming Shadow Foreign Secretary and Iain Duncan Smith (leader from 2001-2003) heading up the party's new Social Justice Policy Group. All of these people became genuine players on the Cameron team, and Cameron has benefited from this inclusive approach. Far from jettisoning the right wing or the traditional leaders, Cameron has made a point of including them in his revolution.

Another thing that David Cameron would never consider is taking social issues off the table. In fact, he is largely responsible for putting them back on the table as a way of making his party look more compassionate than the left wing alternatives. Now, the Brits don't deal with the same social issues we do - abortion is considered a non-issue and the main issue is keeping marriages and families from breaking apart rather than debating gay marriage. However, Cameron has revolutionized the social debate by hijacking the left wing term "social justice" and lumping the protection of marriage and the family in with other "social justice" issues such as healthcare and education. Of course, that wasn't really a Cameron idea. It was the brainchild of the more "traditionalist" former party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who founded the "Centre for Social Justice".

Cameron saw the genius of Duncan Smith's idea, made it a major piece of the platform, and put Duncan Smith himself in charge of party policy on that front. So, again, Cameron didn't throw the SoCons overboard - he incorporated them, revitalized them, and utilized them to his advantage. In fact, family issues seem to animate Cameron like few others. Watch his recent rant about a high-profile domestic violence case and British social services - I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that this man doesn't care about social issues.

On some issues, Cameron has even put forward some proposals that (for Britain) are extremely conservative. For instance, he has been extremely solid on reforming the UK's bloated welfare state. Instead of swinging to the center and embracing these big government programs, Cameron is proposing a welfare-to-work program he says is "the biggest shake-up of the welfare state for 60 years." One might point out that Margaret Thatcher took office only 29 years ago, so if Cameron can live up to his rhetoric, then he actually intends to go further than Thatcher in his crusade to get Brits off welfare.

The key thing to remember about David Cameron is that he dramatically changed the way his party approaches the issues. He shifted the focus onto new issues and made conservatives think of themselves as smiling, forward-looking change agents rather than brooding, tax-obsessed fear-mongers. Still, he didn't change the basic values that the party holds dear. In a lot of ways he's like Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Both are seen as a little moderate because they try to be optimistic pragmatists rather than ideologues, but they also fit into the broad conservative mainstream in their respective nations.

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

BRITISH LABOUR PM VOWS TO CUT TAXES - so... er um, how can Obama raise them!?!?

HAYEK, REAGAN AND THATCHER ARE STILL WINNING:

PUTIN ANNOUNCED HE WOULD CUT TAXES LAST WEEK.

NOW BRITISH LABOUR JOINS IN: BBC: VAT 'to be cut in rescue package'

The government is widely expected to cut VAT by 2.5% in Monday's pre-Budget report, as part of an emergency package aimed at kick-starting the economy.

Business secretary Lord Mandelson told BBC One's Andrew Marr show action was needed to stop a "very deep recession".

... Vince Cable, for the Liberal Democrats, said any tax cuts should be permanent.

Planned giveaways

The specifics of Chancellor Alistair Darling's recovery plan will remain under wraps until Monday.

But widespread press reports suggest VAT could temporarily drop by 2.5% to 15% - the lowest level allowed under EU law - in an effort to get consumers spending again.

However, it is not known if the cut would come into effect before Christmas.

Taken together with other planned giveaways, it would mark the biggest shift in Labour's economic policy since it came to power in 1997.

• I HOPE OBAMA IS LISTENING!

• WE NEED TO CUT ALL TAXES.

• ELIMINATE THE CAPITAL GAINS TAX.

• IF OBAMA RAISES ANY TAXES NOW, THEN MONEY WILL JUIST TAKE FLIGHT TO NATIONS LIKE RUSSIA AND THE UK WHICH ARE CUTTING TAXERS!

• WE NEED TO CUT TAXES, AND GIVE TAXPAYERS VOUCHERS IN STEAD OF GIVING CORPORATIONS BAILOUTS.

REPEAT: VOUCHERS, NOT BAILOUTS!

TAX CUTS AND VOUCHERS - NOT "REDISTRIBUTION" AND BAILOUTS!