Want real hope and change? Try Louisiana

Keep an eye on this guy.

I think he is the "next Reagan"


"There once was a man who campaigned on a message of hope and change. In his victory speech he promised never to succumb to a worldview in which “lobbyists begin to look larger and the people begin to look smaller.” In exchange, he asked voters to help him “defeat cynicism” by believing in him and themselves.

For schools, for government, for business, “change is not just on the way…Change begins tonight,” he proclaimed, his quick grin and young family breathing life back into a process gone sour, his unique life story bringing voters from unexpected backgrounds.


Governor Bobby Jindal waves to the crowd during his inauguration ceremonies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana January 14, 2008. Jindal is the first Indian-American elected Governor of a U.S. state.

Sound familiar? It should. You’ve heard the media tell the story a thousand times a day. They’re just telling it about the wrong guy.

These days, Bobby Jindal is working for change in a city that could eat the ethical foibles of Obama’s Chicago for breakfast, like so many shrimp upon a bed of grits. Elected governor of Louisiana in 2007, he replaced the politically deflated Kathleen Blanco, who did not see"

continue at
Townhall.com By Mary Katharine Ham:

Superdelegates are Another Dysfunctional Liberal Fix

The most striking thing about the Democrat's superdelegate fiasco is how typical it is of liberalism. If modern liberalism -- the style of liberalism that has existed since FDR's New Deal -- is characterized by anything, it's the fixation on addressing "problems" with massive, grotesque, Rube Goldberg schemes that simply don't work.


continue at
American Thinker

Patriot Post

"What, really, is Mrs. Clinton doing? She is having the worst case of cognitive
dissonance in the history of modern politics. She cannot come up with a
credible, realistic path to the nomination. She can't trace the line from
'this moment's difficulties' to 'my triumphant end.' But she cannot admit
to herself that she can lose. Because Clintons don't lose. She can't figure
out how to win, and she can't accept the idea of not winning. She cannot
accept that this nobody from nowhere could have beaten her, quietly and
silently, every day. (She cannot accept that she still doesn't know how he
did it!) She is concussed. But she is a scrapper, a fighter, and she's doing
what she knows how to do: scrap and fight. Only harder." ---Peggy
Noonan

‘Clean Energy Scam’: TIME Reporter Says Renewable Fuel ‘Just Sounds Good’

Treasury Dept. Plan Would Give Fed Wide New Power

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the nation’s hodgepodge of financial regulatory agencies, which many experts say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they set off what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.

Democratic lawmakers are all but certain to say the proposal does not go far enough in restricting the kinds of practices that caused the financial crisis. Many of the proposals, like those that would consolidate regulatory agencies, have nothing to do with the turmoil in financial markets. And some of the proposals could actually reduce regulation.

According to a summary provided by the administration, the plan would consolidate an alphabet soup of banking and securities regulators into a powerful trio of overseers responsible for everything from banks and brokerage firms to hedge funds and private equity firms.

New York Times

Hillary: Swiftboated!

March 26, 2008

By Ann Coulter
Legal Affairs Correspondent, Human Events

Hillary is being "swiftboated"!

She claimed that she came under sniper fire when she visited in Bosnia in 1996, but was contradicted by videotape showing her sauntering off the plane and stopping on the tarmac to listen to a little girl read her a poem.

Similarly, John Kerry's claim to heroism in Vietnam was contradicted by 264 Swift Boat Veterans who served with him. His claim to having been on a secret mission to Cambodia for President Nixon on Christmas 1968 was contradicted not only by all of his commanders -- who said he would have been court-martialed if he had gone anywhere near Cambodia -- but also the simple fact that Nixon wasn't president on Christmas 1968.

If Foreigners Could Vote in '08

Presidential Candidates
Inspire Allegiances
On Every Continent

By DAVID LUHNOW in Rio de Janeiro,
JOHN W. MILLER in Brussels,
and SARAH CHILDRESS in Nairobi
March 26, 2008; Page A5

For America's presidential candidates, the global electoral map is looking as divided as the domestic one.

When foreigners look at the three contenders, Sen. Barack Obama seems to have the lead among Europeans and Africans. Sen. Hillary Clinton is popular among Mexicans and Chinese. Sen. John McCain just returned from a campaign swing through the Middle East and Europe.

U.S. presidential contests often attract interest from foreign countries. The world's sole superpower has such an impact on the globe that, as a Belgian newspaper recently suggested, the rest of the world may feel it should be allowed to vote, too.

This time around, all three candidates have made restoring America's stature abroad a key part of their foreign-policy platforms, making overseas opinions of the U.S. of greater interest to American voters. And the fact that Sen. Obama -- a man with African and Muslim roots and an Arabic middle name, Hussein -- could become U.S. president has created buzz around the world. In Germany, the title of a recent book, "Obama: the Black Kennedy," echoes frequent newspaper headlines comparing Sen. Obama with Germany's favorite former U.S. president. In Kenya, the homeland of Sen. Obama's father, people order the local beer, Senator, by asking for an "Obama."

.

Look Who's Talking

from Investor's Business Daily -- Look Who's Talking

Look Who's Talking

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, May 21, 2007 4:20 PM PT

Leadership: So Jimmy Carter calls the Bush administration "the worst in history."

This from the man who wrecked the world's greatest economy and

made a nuclear Iran and North Korea possible.

The United States Chess Federation

Interview with a "Mad Men" Chessplayer

"You know who you just played, don't you?" a friend asked as I rolled up the chess board and put the pieces back in my chess bag.

"No idea," I replied, "but it's not like he was a GM or anything."

"You honestly don't know?", he screeched with a rising combination of frustration and bewilderment in his voice.

Hillary will say anything

News Flash

Supreme Court mulls ‘right to bear arms’

By Patti Waldmeir in Washington

Published: March 18 2008 20:20

The US Supreme Court appears ready to rule that Americans have a constitutional right to keep a gun in their home for self-defence, a ruling that could help Republicans in the upcoming presidential election.

Hearing the most important gun rights case in nearly 70 years, the justices on Tuesday spent 98 minutes engrossed in a lively debate about British and American legal traditions relating to the right to bear arms, especially in self-defence.

Race and Politics

There is something both poignant and galling about the candidacy of Barack Obama. Any American, regardless of party or race, has to find it heartening that the country has reached the point where a black candidate for President of the United States sweeps so many primaries in states where the overwhelming majority of the population is white.

++ Read More

The Lawyers' Party

I said at the end of Bill Clinton's presidency that I believed that he was the last president to be a lawyer.
I may have been wrong. There might be one more, unfortunately.


The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer and so is his wife Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate.) Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Benson, went to law school. Look at the Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.

The Republican Party is different. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen. The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers. Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an exterminator; and Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.

Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford, who left office thirty-one years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976. The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work. The Democratic Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history like Gingrich.

The Lawyers' Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And so we have seen the procession of official enemies in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party grow. Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.

Read the rest at
American Thinker

Tibet Protests Spread to Other Provinces

TONGREN, China (AP) - Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces Sunday as Tibetans defied a Chinese government crackdown, while the Dalai Lama decried what he called the "cultural genocide" taking place in his homeland.

Demonstrations widened to Tibetan communities in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, forcing authorities to mobilize security forces across a broad expanse of western China.

In Qinghai province, riot police sent to prevent protests set off tensions when they took up positions outside a monastery in Tongren. Dozens of monks, defying a directive not to gather in groups, marched to a hill where they set off fireworks and burned incense in what one monk said was a protest, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

In a sign that authorities were preparing for trouble, AP and other foreign journalists were ordered out of the Tibetan parts of Gansu and Qinghai provinces by police who told them it was for their "safety."

Meanwhile, police in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, searched buildings as a Monday deadline loomed for people who took part in a violent anti- Chinese uprising last week to surrender or face severe punishment.

Obama's Church: Cauldron of Division

Back in August Jim Davis went, as a reporter for Newsmax, to see Rev. Wright and guess who was there?
That's right Barack. Now Obama is saying that he never heard Wright say anything controversial.
This is not looking good.
I am worried that it will end his campaign and Hillary will sneak in.
Then I will have to vote for the Manchurian candidate!

Jim Davis
Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007

Presidential candidate Barack Obama preaches on the campaign trail that America needs a new consensus based on faith and bipartisanship, yet he continues to attend a controversial Chicago church whose pastor routinely refers to "white arrogance" and "the United States of White America."

In fact, Obama was in attendance at the church when these statements were made on July 22.

Obama has spoken and written of his special relationship with that pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

The connection between the two goes back to Obama's days as a young community organizer in Chicago's South Side when he first met the charismatic Wright. Obama credited Wright with converting him, then a religious skeptic, to Christianity.

Obama's Church: Cauldron of Division

The definition of hypocrasy

Ted Kennedy Dumps Fuel into Nantucket Sound

Newsmax.com -

Just believe!

Sounds vaguely familiar.
I think it was said about 2000 years ago.

This is a disaster for Hillary Clinton.

"According to the wiretaps, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was delighted to be getting the prostitute "Kristen" again. At least he knew her name. It took Monica Lewinsky's boyfriend six sexual encounters to remember her name (raising his lifetime average to 8.2).

You know that queasy feeling you get thinking about Bill Clinton back in the White House again? Now you remember why. Hillary Clinton couldn't feel worse about the Spitzer case if she were an actual New Yorker."

Ann Coulter

The Clintons, a horror film that never ends

It’s alive! We thought it might be over but some of us never dared fully believe it. Last week was like one of those moments in a horror movie when the worst terror recedes, the screen goes blank and then reopens on green fields or a lover’s tender embrace. Drained but still naive audiences breathe a collective sigh of relief. The plot twists have all been resolved; the threat is gone; the quiet spreads. And then . . .

Put your own movie analogy in here. Glenn Close in the bathtub in Fatal Attraction – whoosh! she’s back at your throat! – has often occurred to me when covering the Clintons these many years. The Oscars host Jon Stewart compares them to a Terminator: the kind that is splattered into a million tiny droplets of vaporised metal . . . only to pool together spontaneously and charge back at you unfazed.

The Clintons have always had a touch of the zombies about them: unkillable, they move relentlessly forward, propelled by a bloodlust for Republicans or uppity Democrats who dare to question their supremacy. You can’t escape; you can’t hide; and you can’t win. And these days, in the kinetic pace of the YouTube campaign, they are like the new 28 Days Later zombies. They come at you really quickly, like bats out of hell. Or Ohio, anyway.| Andrew Sullivan - Times Online

It's going to come down to the wire.
And don't count Hilary out yet.

Hillary Clinton and the Worship of Power

Right Wing News : Christopher Hitchens.

"Hillary is the next president, he told radio's Hugh Hewitt, because, 'there's something horrible and undefeatable about people who have no life except the worship of power . . . people who don't want the meeting to end, the people who just are unstoppable, who only have one focus, no humanity, no character, nothing but the worship of money and power. They win in the end.'"

Whither Osama?

An excellent look at the possibilities, well thought out and rational.


By Jon Caruthers

That's the $25 million question, isn't it? For six years now, pundits, bloggers, media vetted 'experts,' politicians, columnists, and all sorts, kinds, and flavors of prognosticators have weighed in on the subject with the general consensus being that he's just on the Pakistani side of the Tora Bora mountains in the federally administrated tribal areas (FATA). After giving the US military the slip in late 2001, Osama and company have seemingly disappeared into the ether, reconstituting periodically to give the metaphorical digit to the American people and giving the left more ammunition to fire at the Bush administration. Although the question seems largely to have been settled in the media, taking a fresh look at the question of our age is instructive for understanding more about Al Qaeda and specifically why we've not seen another attack on American soil."

read the rest here
American Thinker

Our Tax System Explained: "Bar Stool Economics"

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go
something like this:

The first four men (The poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all
such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily
beer by $20." Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the
first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they
divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They
realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from
everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up
being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be
fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded
to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to
drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare
their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to
the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth
man. "I only saved a dollar, too It's unfair that he got ten times more than
I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back
when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute,"
yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The
system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down
and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they
discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of
them for even half of the bill!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how
our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most
benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being
wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start
drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics University of Georgia

Palestinian Militants Hail Massacre at Jerusalem Seminary

FOXNews.com -

"'This heroic attack in Jerusalem is a normal response
to the crimes of the occupier and its murder of civilians,'
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Hamas stopped just short of claiming responsibility for the Jerusalem shootings.
'We bless the operation. It will not be the last,'
Hamas said in a statement sent to reporters by text message."

I love dogs but you know when they arrest people for dog fighting and they bring out the pit bulls?
And they have to put the animals down because there is no way that they could ever reenter society, they could never be around other dogs anymore. These damaged animals are disposed of. I don't know why I thought of that just know but anyway, food for thought.

Has anyone noticed a war may be breaking out?

Colombia takes more heat from Latin America left | Reuters: "By Fiona Ortiz

CARACAS (Reuters) - Latin America's leftist leaders heaped more criticism on Colombia, leaving it increasingly isolated on Thursday in a crisis that has threatened political stability in the Andes.

Colombia, the United States' closest ally in South America, set off a major diplomatic crisis on Saturday when its army crossed into Ecuador to kill Colombian Marxist guerrillas just across the border."


Venezuela has begun mobilizing its forces by air, land and sea in a dispute with Columbia, the Venezuelan defense minister said Wednesday.

This move escalates a regional crisis, and according to The Associated Press, the movement of troops near the Columbia-Venezuela border is mostly completed.

Columbia, similarly, has also deployed thousands of troops to the border.

The conflict was reportedly escalated when Columbia found a set of documents discovered on a slain rebel leader’s laptop. The South American country claims the documents prove that leftist guerrillas and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez are linked.

Ecuador, according to MSNBC.com, has rejected a Colombian apology for the cross-border strike and is attempting to rally opposition during an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington.

President Bush Tuesday supported Columbia and accused Chavez of “provocative maneuvers.”

Patriot post

"'Bill and Hillary [are now] faced with this problem: If they continue to
utilize all of the tools available---including urging a large percentage
of the 796 super delegates to ignore the will of the majority of the
elected delegates---they will likely dismantle the 70-year-long Democratic
coalition. Now, there's a legacy for you.' ---Rich Galen"

Breitbart.tv » Clinton: ‘We’re Going On, We’re Going Strong and We’re Going All the Way’

Clinton scores 3 wins; McCain clinches - Yahoo! News

"WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton scored three victories in a night of revival that denied Barack Obama a ripe opportunity to drive her from the Democratic presidential race. Clarity came only to the Republican side, where John McCain made the nomination his own."

The soap Opera continues! It will get bloody now.
Hillary will beat up Obama which is good because
McCain does not have the balls to do it!

Obama's as comander and chief

McCain criticized Obama for saying in Tuesday night's Democratic debate that, after U.S. troops were withdrawn, as president he would act "if al-Qaida is forming a base in Iraq."

"I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. It's called 'al-Qaida in Iraq,' " McCain told a crowd in Tyler, Texas, drawing laughter at Obama's expense. He said Obama's statement was "pretty remarkable."

Obama's response to McCain, described in the same AP dispatch, makes even less sense:

"I do know that al-Qaida is in Iraq and that's why I have said we should continue to strike al-Qaida targets," he told a rally at Ohio State University in Columbus.

"But I have some news for John McCain," Obama added. "There was no such thing as al-Qaida in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq. . . . They took their eye off the people who were responsible for 9/11 and that would be al-Qaida in Afghanistan, that is stronger now than at any time since 2001."

Obama said he intended to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq "so we actually start going after al-Qaida in Afghanistan and in the hills of Pakistan like we should have been doing in the first place."

Here's the recap of what Obama's position is:

Al Qaeda in Iraq isn't worth fighting because it wouldn't be there if it weren't for Bush and McCain. Obama is going to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq to go fight in Afghanistan and Pakistan, although he will send them back to Iraq if al Qaeda are there, even though he now wants to withdraw notwithstanding al Qaeda's presence.

Yes, we can!

The danger of Obama's amateur diplomacy

Thomas Lifson

After suggesting that he would invade our ally Pakistan and talk to our enemy Iran, Barack Obama has moved on to potentially damage our relations with Canada, our friendly neighbor and number one foreign oil supplier.

Under the terms of NAFTA, Canada is prohibited from cutting off oil exports to the US if there is a worldwide shortage or supply disruption unless supplies are also rationed to Canadian consumers by the same amount.

After the Hillary/Obama debate, Canada's trade minister pointed out that if NAFTA is re-opened, Canada might want to opt out of this clause, which would then leave Canada free to sell its oil to any other country for whatever price it could get.

Both Clinton and Obama have made a big issue out President Bush's alleged insensitivies to other countries. And now these two geniuses are blithely talking about canceling a trade agreement with our two neighbors on which both their economies now depend.



.

Bill wants you to vote for Obama!

It's Clinton's 4th rule of politics.

Turkish trrops in Iraq

In this report they say that the Turkish troops could be in Iraq for 2 weeks!.
This is a dangerous game they are playing but obviously they have had the old wink and a nob from the U.S. on this one.

Getting desperate

Today's quote

"I had always hoped that the younger generation receiving their
early impressions after the flame of liberty had been kindled in every
breast... would have sympathized with oppression wherever found, and proved
their love of liberty beyond their own share of it." ---Thomas
Jefferson (http://PatriotPost.US/fqd/)





.

A new country!

Full text: Kosovo declaration
Here is the text of Kosovo's declaration of independence, signed in parliament by Speaker Jakup Krasniqi, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and President Fatmir Sejdiu:

Read entire declaration here

Answering the call of the people to build a society that honours human dignity and affirms the pride and purpose of its citizens,

Kosovo's parliament unanimously approved the historic declaration

Committed to confront the painful legacy of the recent past in a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness,

Dedicated to protecting, promoting and honouring the diversity of our people,

Reaffirming our wish to become fully integrated into the Euro-Atlantic family of democracies,

The middle class getting squeezed?
The left wing media sure wants you to think times are tough.
watch this video and become enlightened.
reject the left brainwashing techniques.

A must read

The U.S.-Iranian Negotiations: Beyond the Rhetoric

Tehran has announced that Iran and the United States will hold a new round of talks on the future of Iraq at some point next week. The Iranians said that the “structure of the discussions have been finalized but the level of participation has not yet been agreed.” Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Iraq before March 20, the Iranian New Year. The United States has not denied either of these reports. There thus appears to be some public movement occurring in the U.S.-Iranian talks over Iraq.

Interesting piece about the "Manchurian candidate"

If Hillary is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster, with Republicans ferociously opposing her, followed by Republicans zooming back into power, as we did in 1980 and 1994, and 2000. (I also predict more Oval Office incidents with female interns.)

If McCain is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster, with the Republicans in Congress co-opted by "our" president, followed by 30 years of Democratic rule.

There's your choice, America.
Ann Coulter

Don't be afraid to see what you see.

Ronald Reagan

Now is the Winter of Our Conservative Discontent

The prospect of John McCain as Republican nominee is inspiring sometimes angry resistance from millions of conservative stalwarts. Ann Coulter's famous support for Hillary Clinton threatens to spark a wave of conservative "suicide voters" if the Arizona Senator gets the nomination.

I said it on the radio and I say it here.
"I will not vote for John McCain."

The double talk express

From Goldwater Girl to Hillary Girl
By Ann Coulter
Legal Affairs Correspondent, Human Events

Nominating McCain is the gesture of a desperate party.

Republicans are so shell-shocked and demoralized by the success of the Bush Derangement Syndrome, they think they can fool the voters by nominating an open-borders, anti-tax cut, anti-free speech, global-warming hysteric, pro-human experimentation "Republican." Which is to say, a Democrat.

As the expression goes, given a choice between a Democrat and a Democrat, voters will always choose the Democrat. The only question remaining is: Hillary or Obama?

On the litmus test issues of our time, only partially excluding Iraq, McCain is a liberal.

read the rest of the article here

What Kind of 'Experience'?
By Thomas Sowell
February 5, 2008

The front-runners in both political parties -- that is, Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- are making "experience" their big talking point. But what kind of "experience"?

Both have been around in politics for decades. But just what did they accomplish -- and how did it benefit the country?

Whether in Arkansas or in Washington, Hillary Clinton has spent decades parlaying her husband's political clout into both money and power. How did that benefit anybody but the Clintons?

For those people whose memories are short, go on the Internet and look up Whitewater, the confidential raw FBI files on hundreds of Republican politicians that somehow -- nobody apparently knows how -- ended up in the Clinton White House illegally.

Look up the sale of technology to China that can enable them to more accurately hit American cities with nuclear missiles. Then look up the money that found its way to the Clintons through devious channels.

Look up Bill Clinton's firing of every single U.S. Attorney in the country, which of course included those who were investigating him for corruption as governor of Arkansas.

It may be old-fashioned to talk about character and integrity but they can have a lot more to do with the fate of this nation than "experience" at playing political games.

More to the point, Presidents of the United States lacking character and integrity have inflicted lasting damage on the office they held and on the nation.

The country has never trusted Presidents as much as they did before Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon betrayed that trust. Trust, like other features and powers of the Presidency, is not simply a benefit to the particular incumbent.

The nation as a whole is stronger when it can trust its President who, after all, has vastly more knowledge available on both domestic and international problems and threats.

It would be hard to find two people less trustworthy than the Clintons or with a longer trail of sleaze and slime.

Senator John McCain is also touting his "experience," both in politics and in the military.

Senator McCain's political record is full of zig-zags summarized in the word "maverick." That is another way of saying that you don't know what he is going to do next, except that it will be in the interests of John McCain.

While you are on the Internet looking up the record of the Clintons, look up John McCain's record, including the Keating Five, the McCain-Feingold bill, and the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill.

Senator McCain's trump card is his military experience. Some say his military experience is especially valuable when we are under threat from terrorists. But is it?

John McCain's military service was both honorable and heroic. But let's not confuse that with experience relevant to being President of the United States.

John McCain was a naval aviator, an important and demanding job. But a naval aviator is not like Patton or Eisenhower.

page 2

From The Sunday Times
February 3, 2008
Flawed Cindy McCain has a grudge list
Tony Allen-Mills

ON almost every step of his march towards the Republican nomination, John McCain has relied on the support of his glamorous second wife Cindy. Yet she has not always been a political asset. A Republican victory in November would bring to the White House a formidable but flawed first lady.

McCain’s marriage has long attracted attention both for the 18-year age gap between husband and wife and for their adopted Asian daughter, who became the focus of one of the most vicious dirty tricks of the 2000 presidential campaign.

The couple have also overcome daunting health problems that included McCain’s bouts with skin cancer, a stroke suffered by Cindy in 2004, and her admission a decade earlier that she had become so addicted to painkillers that she was stealing them from a medical charity she ran.

Yet somehow the McCains have emerged as a potent and durable political partnership. Cindy McCain was at her husband’s side last week as he celebrated the Florida primary victory that has put him at the front of the Republican field.

A former Arizona rodeo beauty queen and daughter of a millionaire Phoenix businessman, Cindy McCain was 25 when she met her future husband at a cocktail party in Hawaii. John McCain was a 43-year-old naval liaison officer travelling with a congressional delegation, his sights already set on a political career.

He was also still married to his first wife Carol, although the couple had recently separated. Carol later attributed the breakdown of the marriage to “John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again”. McCain fell like a brick for Cindy, who was the heir to a brewery distribution business worth millions. For several years afterwards the McCains endured Washington gossip that he had dumped his first wife - who had been crippled in a car accident - in favour of a trophy bride to enhance his political ambitions.

It was in the late 1980s, after a series of miscarriages and giving birth to three children, that Cindy developed spinal problems and was prescribed painkillers after surgery. Her husband and family had no idea she was secretly taking pills stolen from a charity she had created called the American Voluntary Medical Team, which sent mobile surgical units to war zones. When federal agents began to investigate gaps in the charity’s records, Cindy telephoned her husband, a senator in Washington, and confessed.

She admitted at the time that the 1994 episode had “nearly destroyed both of us”. But she underwent treatment and attended meetings of Narcotics Anonymous as part of a deal with prosecutors who dropped charges.

A few years earlier she had visited Bangladesh with a different charity and decided on the spur of the moment to help a little girl with a cleft palate whom she met in Mother Teresa’s orphanage.

The McCains eventually adopted the girl, named her Bridget and raised her as their daughter. She is now 16, but during McCain’s ugly presidential primary fight against George W Bush in 2000, voters in South Carolina began receiving telephone calls suggesting the senator had fathered an illegitimate black child.

The authors of the smear have never been identified, but Bush was the beneficiary and went on to win the South Carolina primary and the Republican nomination. The McCains have never publicly blamed Bush and their relations have been outwardly cordial. But Cindy recently admitted that she keeps a “grudge list”.

Cindy McCain, now 53, claims she has no interest in policy making - “I am not the legislator in this family. He is” - and that she intends to keep busy running her charities and her family’s company. As first lady, it is clear that she would play a key role. Acknowledging that McCain had made many enemies in Republican ranks, she added: “The only person my husband can trust is me.”

McCain: "I Assume That I Will Get the Nomination"

The Manchurian candidate is scaring me.

Listen to me on the radio.
Wnyc New York the Brian Lehrer show (very liberal radio)
A round table of New Jersey republicans
talking about the presidential primaries.

I was so nervous, but I think I did OK.

Click here to listen in
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2008/02/01
Then click on "are you the one? New Jersey republicans.

"Turn on any cable news show right now, and you will see Democratic pundits
attacking Romney, calling him a 'flip-flopper,' and heaping praise on
McCain and Huckleberry---almost as if they were reading some sort of
'talking points.' Doesn't that raise the tiniest suspicions in any of
you? Are you too busy boning up on Consumer Reports' reviews of microwave
ovens to spend one day thinking about who should be the next leader
of the free world? Are you familiar with our 'no exchange/no return'
policy on presidential candidates? Voting for McCain because he was a
POW a quarter-century ago or Huckabee because he was a Baptist preacher
is like buying a new car because you like the color. The candidate
Republicans should be clamoring for is the one liberals are feverishly
denouncing. That is Mitt Romney by a landslide." ---Ann
Coulter (http://PatriotPost.US/opinion/entrylist.asp?source_id=45)

And the left thinks that we should 'talk' to them!
More diplomacy.
America has done them wrong.
We just don't understand them.
RIGHT!

Mentally Retarded Women Used in Bombings

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Part 1


Part 2

Ahmadinejad tells West: Accept Israel's 'imminent collapse'
By DPA and Haaretz Services
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Iran, Israel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the West Wednesday to acknowledge Israel's "imminent collapse."

Speaking to a crowd on a visit to the southern port of Bushehr, where Iran's first light-water nuclear power plant is being built by Russia, Ahmadinejad further incited his listeners to "stop supporting the Zionists, as [their] regime reached its final stage."

"Accept that the life of Zionists will sooner or later come to an end," the Iranian president said in a televised speech.

He added, "What we have right now is the last chapter [of Israeli atrocities] which the Palestinians and regional nations will confront and eventually turn in Palestine's favor."

read the rest of the story here

"A liberal is a man who will give away everything he doesn't own."
---Frank Dane

John McCain is Bob Dole minus the charm, conservatism and youth. Like McCain, pollsters assured us that Dole was the most "electable" Republican. Unlike McCain, Dole didn't lie all the time while claiming to engage in Straight Talk.

Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination after enthusiastically promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, Social Security credit for illegal aliens, criminal trials for terrorists, stem-cell research on human embryos, crackpot global warming legislation and free speech-crushing campaign-finance laws.
Ann Coulter

the German Workers Party political platform,

The rise of fascism and the Nazi party started with this platform.
It sounds strangely familiar.
Substitute "Christian" for "Secular humanist" and "jew" for "white man"
Then head on over to Hillary's website and read her platform.

Therefore we demand:

That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished.

Since every war imposes on the people fearful sacrifices in blood and treasure, all personal profit arising from the war must be regarded as treason to the people. We therefore demand the total confiscation of all war profits.

We demand the nationalization of all trusts.

We demand profit-sharing in large industries.

We demand a generous increase in old-age pensions.

We demand the creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class, the immediate communalization of large stores which will be rented cheaply to small tradespeople, and the strongest consideration must be given to ensure that small traders shall deliver the supplies needed by the State, the provinces and municipalities.

We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.

We demand that ruthless war be waged against those who work to the injury of the common welfare. Traitors, usurers, profiteers, etc., are to be punished with death, regardless of creed or race.

We demand that Roman law, which serves a materialist ordering of the world, be replaced by German common law.

In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State.

The State has the duty to help raise the standard of national health by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor, by increasing physical fitness through the introduction of compulsory games and gymnastics, and by the greatest possible encouragement of associations concerned with the physical education of the young.

We demand the abolition of the regular army and the creation of a national (folk) army.

We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press. In order to make possible the creation of a German press, we demand:

(a) All editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens.

(b) Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State. They must not be published in the German language.

(c) All financial interests in or in any way affecting German newspapers shall be forbidden to non-Germans by law, and we demand that the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper and the expulsion of the non-Germans from the Reich.

Newspapers transgressing against the common welfare shall be suppressed. We demand legal action against those tendencies in art and literature that have a disruptive influence upon the life of our folk, and that any organizations that offend against the foregoing demands shall be dissolved.

We demand freedom for all religious faiths in the state, insofar as they do not endanger its existence or offend the moral and ethical sense of the Germanic race.

The party as such represents the point of view of a positive Christianity without binding itself to any one particular confession. It fights against the Jewish materialist spirit within and without, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our folk can only come about from within on the pinciple:

COMMON GOOD BEFORE INDIVIDUAL GOOD

In order to carry out this program we demand: the creation of a strong central authority in the State, the unconditional authority by the political central parliament of the whole State and all its organizations.

The formation of professional committees and of committees representing the several estates of the realm, to ensure that the laws promulgated by the central authority shall be carried out by the federal states.

The leaders of the party undertake to promote the execution of the foregoing points at all costs, if necessary at the sacrifice of their own lives.

Try to figure this one out:

"I want to make change, but I've already made
change. I will continue to make change. I'm not just running on a promise of
change. I'm running on 35 years of change." ---Hillary ++ Sort of getting
it right: "One of my opponents said we can't just, you know, offer the
American people false hopes about what we can get done. The real gamble
in this election is to do the same things, with the same folks, playing
the same games over and over and over again and somehow expect a different
result." ---Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton

Republican Race Clear as Mud after Iowa
Posted by Bobby Eberle
January 4, 2008 at 7:41 am


The results are in, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was the big winner in the Iowa caucuses on Thursday. Garnering 34% of the vote, Huckabee outpaced all other Republican contenders, but rather than help clarify the race to the Republican presidential nomination, the win and the results of the other Republican candidates only helped muddy the field.

Buoyed by overwhelming support from evangelicals, Huckabee scored the win that he needed. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 25% of the vote, followed by Sen. John McCain and former Sen. Fred Thompson, each with 13%. Now, the candidates move to New Hampshire which will hold its primary on January 8. Following Iowa's results, the dynamics and expectations for New Hampshire have changed dramatically.


Huckabee is definitely the surprise candidate of any Republican or Democrat in the race for the White House. This past summer, he was on no one's radar screen and was near the bottom of the polls. But his performance in the debates and other public events and his building following among Christian conservatives helped turned the tide. Romney, who was expected to win in Iowa, saw his lead shrink in recent weeks. His second-place finish is directly due to the influx of evangelicals into the caucuses... a group who turned away from Romney and went for Huckabee.

As noted in the Washington Post, participation in the Iowa caucuses was at an all-time high. Over 125,000 caucusgoers participating, far out-distancing the previous record of 87,000 voters. According to the Post report, "Sixty percent of Republican caucusgoers described themselves as evangelicals, according to entrance polls. Those voters went for Huckabee over Romney by more than 2 to 1."

The results are more than interesting, and they beg the question, "What are evangelicals looking for and why did they turn to Huckabee?" As I wrote yesterday, some of the most important issues for me and other conservatives are "smaller government, lower taxes, and secure borders." On these issues -- core issues for conservatives -- Huckabee simply does not warrant the support he has received.

Huckabee has been blasted by the conservative Club for Growth on his tax and big government record:

"Over the past ten months, Governor Huckabee's embrace of his liberal economic record as governor and his populist, protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail has only confirmed the Club for Growth's original assessment," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. "Huckabee himself admits that he is a ‘different kind of Republican,' a code word for more government involvement, less personal freedom, and greater dependence on government bureaucrats."

Conservative icon Richard Viguerie, in a statement released after the Iowa caucuses, says, "Mike Huckabee's victory in the Iowa caucuses is bad news for the Republican Party. Mike Huckabee is a Christian socialist. He is a good man, but with a Big Government heart. He is the most liberal of all the Republican presidential candidates on economic issues. Huckabee's approach to every problem or perceived problem is to pass a law and launch another government program."

And then there is the illegal immigration issue. An analysis of the candidates' record on illegal immigration by Numbers USA gives Huckabee a "bad" in the category "Assessment of Past Immigration Actions in Political Office." In contrast, both Romney and Rep. Ron Paul received marks of "good," and Reps. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter received marks of "excellent."

I sincerely hope that evangelicals are looking at more than the fact that Huckabee is Baptist minister, but the results in Iowa, given the well documented records of all the Republican candidates are surprising. But then again, it's hard to say how much of the record was really known. Huckabee has enjoyed being spared intense review of his record until just the past few weeks.

Romney's second-place finish means that a New Hampshire victory is nearly essential. He banked on a more traditional "momentum" strategy, so not winning Iowa was definitely a set back. In New Hampshire, he and McCain are battling for the top spot. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in third place in most polls, followed by Huckabee, Paul, and Thompson. Romney needs a big finish to generate some momentum for the South Carolina primary on January 19. In that race, Huckabee is leading thanks again to strong evangelical support. Romney is polling second followed by Thompson, McCain, Giuliani, and Paul. If Romney can't generate some wins in the next few weeks, the chances for his nomination decrease significantly.

Giuliani, who leads most national polls, did not even campaign in Iowa. In fact, his last event prior to the Iowa caucuses was in Florida. So, his finishing sixth in Iowa is no surprise. His strategy, however, is something different and a huge gamble, to say the least. He has written-off the early state contests in favor of a strong showing in the larger states such as Florida and then on Super Tuesday (February 5). Will the strategy work? It remains to be seen, but by not coming out strongly and showing some results early, it could affect fundraising and the ability to come on strong in so many states.

Thompson is also banking on support later on and is putting his focus on South Carolina. A win there could generate some momentum for him. McCain's finish in Iowa and a strong finish in New Hampshire could give him an even larger boost than he has seen recently. He has definitely risen in recent weeks and a win in New Hampshire could put him back in the mix. However, McCain has just been on the opposite side of too many issues that are important to conservatives (judges, taxes, illegal immigration) for him to get the nomination.

As for Ron Paul, I'm not sure what he's doing with his $20 million that he raised last quarter. Consistently polling fifth in Iowa polls, the congressman finished fifth. For the last two days, GOPUSA ran an unscientific web poll, asking web site visitors to indicate who they thought would win in Iowa. As with many online polls on GOPUSA and other web sites, Ron Paul supporters hit the poll in force. Again, the poll did not ask which candidate they supported, but rather, which candidate they thought would win in Iowa. Paul finished first with 34%. Romney was in second with 24% followed by Huckabee with 23%.

Again and again and again, I receive e-mails from Paul supporters saying that the system is rigged and polls don't indicate what's really going on. They say things like, "Paul supporters are more tech-savy. They use cell phones not land lines, so they can't be polled." However, the polls indicated a fifth place finish, and that's what happened. The finish was not good for Ron Paul no matter how you spin it.

The race for the Republican nomination is still wide open. I continue to hope that once the process is complete, we will all rally around the nominee and help defeat the Democrat. I also hope that during the process, voters will review the records of the candidates and make decisions based on the facts.

The Loft

Romney's Speech on Religion
December 6, 2007
Republican Mitt Romney, confronting voters' skepticism about his Mormon faith, gave a speech Thursday about his views on religious tolerance and how faith would inform his presidency if elected. Here's the full text of his remarks, as prepared for delivery.

"Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind introduction.

"It is an honor to be here today. This is an inspiring place because of you and the First Lady and because of the film exhibited across the way in the Presidential library. For those who have not seen it, it shows the President as a young pilot, shot down during the Second World War, being rescued from his life-raft by the crew of an American submarine. It is a moving reminder that when America has faced challenge and peril, Americans rise to the occasion, willing to risk their very lives to defend freedom and preserve our nation. We are in your debt. Thank you, Mr. President.

"Mr. President, your generation rose to the occasion, first to defeat Fascism and then to vanquish the Soviet Union. You left us, your children, a free and strong America. It is why we call yours the greatest generation. It is now my generation's turn. How we respond to today's challenges will define our generation. And it will determine what kind of America we will leave our children, and theirs.

"America faces a new generation of challenges. Radical violent Islam seeks to destroy us. An emerging China endeavors to surpass our economic leadership. And we are troubled at home by government overspending, overuse of foreign oil, and the breakdown of the family.

"Over the last year, we have embarked on a national debate on how best to preserve American leadership. Today, I wish to address a topic which I believe is fundamental to America's greatness: our religious liberty. I will also offer perspectives on how my own faith would inform my Presidency, if I were elected.

"There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator. And further, they discovered the essential connection between the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. In John Adams' words: 'We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people.'

"Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.

"Given our grand tradition of religious tolerance and liberty, some wonder whether there are any questions regarding an aspiring candidate's religion that are appropriate. I believe there are. And I will answer them today.

"Almost 50 years ago another candidate from Massachusetts explained that he was an American running for president, not a Catholic running for president. Like him, I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith.

"Let me assure you that no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions. Their authority is theirs, within the province of church affairs, and it ends where the affairs of the nation begin.

"As governor, I tried to do the right as best I knew it, serving the law and answering to the Constitution. I did not confuse the particular teachings of my church with the obligations of the office and of the Constitution -- and of course, I would not do so as President. I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law.

"As a young man, Lincoln described what he called America's 'political religion' -- the commitment to defend the rule of law and the Constitution. When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God. If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest. A President must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States.

"There are some for whom these commitments are not enough. They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers -- I will be true to them and to my beliefs.

"Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people. Americans do not respect believers of convenience.

Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world.

"There is one fundamental question about which I often am asked. What do I believe about Jesus Christ? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. My church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths. Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These are not bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree.

"There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.

"I believe that every faith I have encountered draws its adherents closer to God. And in every faith I have come to know, there are features I wish were in my own: I love the profound ceremony of the Catholic Mass, the approachability of God in the prayers of the Evangelicals, the tenderness of spirit among the Pentecostals, the confident independence of the Lutherans, the ancient traditions of the Jews, unchanged through the ages, and the commitment to frequent prayer of the Muslims. As I travel across the country and see our towns and cities, I am always moved by the many houses of worship with their steeples, all pointing to heaven, reminding us of the source of life's blessings.

"It is important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the affairs of our nation are concerned, it's usually a sound rule to focus on the latter -- on the great moral principles that urge us all on a common course. Whether it was the cause of abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people.

"We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism. They are wrong.

"The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation 'Under God' and in God, we do indeed trust.

"We should acknowledge the Creator as did the Founders -- in ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places. Our greatness would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation of faith upon which our constitution rests. I will take care to separate the affairs of government from any religion, but I will not separate us from 'the God who gave us liberty.'

"Nor would I separate us from our religious heritage. Perhaps the most important question to ask a person of faith who seeks a political office, is this: does he share these American values: the equality of human kind, the obligation to serve one another, and a steadfast commitment to liberty?

"They are not unique to any one denomination. They belong to the great moral inheritance we hold in common. They are the firm ground on which Americans of different faiths meet and stand as a nation, united.

"We believe that every single human being is a child of God -- we are all part of the human family. The conviction of the inherent and inalienable worth of every life is still the most revolutionary political proposition ever advanced. John Adams put it that we are 'thrown into the world all equal and alike.'

"The consequence of our common humanity is our responsibility to one another, to our fellow Americans foremost, but also to every child of God. It is an obligation which is fulfilled by Americans every day, here and across the globe, without regard to creed or race or nationality.

"Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government. No people in the history of the world have sacrificed as much for liberty. The lives of hundreds of thousands of America's sons and daughters were laid down during the last century to preserve freedom, for us and for freedom loving people throughout the world. America took nothing from that Century's terrible wars – no land from Germany or Japan or Korea; no treasure; no oath of fealty. America's resolve in the defense of liberty has been tested time and again. It has not been found wanting, nor must it ever be. America must never falter in holding high the banner of freedom.

"These American values, this great moral heritage, is shared and lived in my religion as it is in yours. I was taught in my home to honor God and love my neighbor. I saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in leading national volunteer movements. I am moved by the Lord's words: 'For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me...'

"My faith is grounded on these truths. You can witness them in Ann and my marriage and in our family. We are a long way from perfect and we have surely stumbled along the way, but our aspirations, our values, are the self-same as those from the other faiths that stand upon this common foundation. And these convictions will indeed inform my presidency.

"Today's generations of Americans have always known religious liberty. Perhaps we forget the long and arduous path our nation's forbearers took to achieve it. They came here from England to seek freedom of religion. But upon finding it for themselves, they at first denied it to others. Because of their diverse beliefs, Ann Hutchinson was exiled from Massachusetts Bay, a banished Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, and two centuries later, Brigham Young set out for the West. Americans were unable to accommodate their commitment to their own faith with an appreciation for the convictions of others to different faiths. In this, they were very much like those of the European nations they had left.

"It was in Philadelphia that our founding fathers defined a revolutionary vision of liberty, grounded on self evident truths about the equality of all, and the inalienable rights with which each is endowed by his Creator.

"We cherish these sacred rights, and secure them in our Constitutional order. Foremost do we protect religious liberty, not as a matter of policy but as a matter of right. There will be no established church, and we are guaranteed the free exercise of our religion.

"I'm not sure that we fully appreciate the profound implications of our tradition of religious liberty. I have visited many of the magnificent cathedrals in Europe. They are so inspired … so grand … so empty. Raised up over generations, long ago, so many of the cathedrals now stand as the postcard backdrop to societies just too busy or too 'enlightened' to venture inside and kneel in prayer. The establishment of state religions in Europe did no favor to Europe's churches. And though you will find many people of strong faith there, the churches themselves seem to be withering away.

"Infinitely worse is the other extreme, the creed of conversion by conquest: violent Jihad, murder as martyrdom... killing Christians, Jews, and Muslims with equal indifference. These radical Islamists do their preaching not by reason or example, but in the coercion of minds and the shedding of blood. We face no greater danger today than theocratic tyranny, and the boundless suffering these states and groups could inflict if given the chance.

"The diversity of our cultural expression, and the vibrancy of our religious dialogue, has kept America in the forefront of civilized nations even as others regard religious freedom as something to be destroyed.

"In such a world, we can be deeply thankful that we live in a land where reason and religion are friends and allies in the cause of liberty, joined against the evils and dangers of the day. And you can be certain of this: Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion -- rather, we welcome our nation's symphony of faith.

"Recall the early days of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, during the fall of 1774. With Boston occupied by British troops, there were rumors of imminent hostilities and fears of an impending war. In this time of peril, someone suggested that they pray. But there were objections. 'They were too divided in religious sentiments', what with Episcopalians and Quakers, Anabaptists and Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Catholics.

"Then Sam Adams rose, and said he would hear a prayer from anyone of piety and good character, as long as they were a patriot.

"And so together they prayed, and together they fought, and together, by the grace of God ... they founded this great nation.

"In that spirit, let us give thanks to the divine 'author of liberty.' And together, let us pray that this land may always be blessed, 'with freedom's holy light.'

"God bless the United States of America."

Yesterday, while campaigning for his wife, Bill said that he was never for the the war in Iraq.
The question is, Can the Clintons ever tell the truth about what they have said or done?



Clinton defends successor's push for war
Says Bush 'couldn't responsibly ignore' chance Iraq had WMDs
Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Posted: 7:55 AM EDT (1155 GMT)


(CNN) -- Former President Clinton has revealed that he continues to support President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq but chastised the administration over the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.
"I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over," Clinton said in a Time magazine interview that will hit newsstands Monday, a day before the publication of his book "My Life."
Clinton, who was interviewed Thursday, said he did not believe that Bush went to war in Iraq over oil or for imperialist reasons but out of a genuine belief that large quantities of weapons of mass destruction remained unaccounted for.
Noting that Bush had to be "reeling" in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Clinton said Bush's first priority was to keep al Qaeda and other terrorist networks from obtaining "chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material."
"That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for," Clinton said in reference to Iraq and the fact that U.N. weapons inspectors left the country in 1998.
"So I thought the president had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, 'Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process.' You couldn't responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks," Clinton said.
Pressed on whether the Iraq war was worth the cost to the United States, Clinton said he would not have undertaken the war until after U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix "finished his job."
Weapons inspectors led by Blix scoured Iraq for three and a half months before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 but left after President Bush issued an ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave the country.
"I want it to have been worth it, even though I didn't agree with the timing of the attack," Clinton said.
Clinton blamed the Abu Ghraib prison abuses on poorly trained National Guard personnel and higher-ups in the Bush administration.
The former president said he was not surprised by the abuses committed by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib but that he was surprised by their extent.
"There is no excuse for that," Clinton said.
Clinton blamed the abuses on the higher echelons of the Bush administration.
"The more we learn about it, the more it seems that some people fairly high up, at least, thought that this was the way it ought to be done," he said.
Implying that the United States should lead by example, Clinton said of the abuses, "No. 1, we can't pull stunts like that, and No. 2, when we do, whoever is responsible has to pay."

"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairsof cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalryof schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition,and there is great danger that our people will lose our independenceof thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, andsink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects hisgovernment to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribewhen his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulateevery act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the mannerin which he may seek future admission to paradise." ---MarkTwain (http://PatriotPost.US/histdocs/quotes/twain.asp)

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this groundthat 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution,nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to thepeople.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawnaround the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless fieldof power, not longer susceptible of any definition." ---ThomasJefferson

(http://PatriotPost.US/fqd/)

Texas Homeland Security Chief: 'Terrorists Crossed Border' -- MSM Ignores News
By Warner Todd Huston September 19, 2007 - 03:53 ET
On Sept. 13th, Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw announced in a speech to the North Texas Crime Commission that Texas authorities had apprehended terrorist suspects who were sneaking across the Mexico/U.S. border. Shouldn't such a report be running through the MSM like wildfire? Yet, the MSM seems to be ignoring this explosive report with only local Texas news sources, a few Jihad watchers and bloggers having picked up the Director's statements.
The AP did have a report, shockingly enough, but few other MSM services seem to have found it as of yet... even though the story is about a week old.

DALLAS - Texas' top homeland security official said Wednesday that terrorists with ties to Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida have been arrested crossing the Texas border with Mexico in recent years.


via Newsbusters.org

http://www.investors.com/editorial/cartoon.asp

(CNN) -- Iran wants "peace and friendship for all," the country's president said Wednesday while again denying Western assertions his nation is pursuing nuclear weapons and trying to destabilize Iraq.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the Natanz nuclear facility in April.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a hard line against Israel, calling it "an invader" and saying it "cannot continue its life."
Asked if Iran had launched a proxy war in Iraq -- something the U.S. ambassador and top military commander there both asserted this week -- Ahmadinejad said the United States is merely seeking a scapegoat for its failing campaign in Iraq.
"Forces have come into Iraq and destroyed the security, and many people are killed," the Iranian president told Britain's ITN during an interview in the garden of the Iranian presidential palace in Tehran.
"And there are some claims that may seem very funny and ridiculous. Those who have lots of weaponry and warfare and thousands of soldiers -- if they are defeated, they blame others. There is no way to escape for peace."
Iranians do not believe in war and consider it a "last resort," he said.

Memorializing 9/11 is more vital than ever, as the emotion and sense of purpose that swept over this country in 2001 dissipate. But PJM’s David Rusin writes that remembering the events in sadness is not enough. We must also remain angry.
read it here

HILLARY'S DIRTY MONEY
The campaign of Hillary Clinton, the presidential candidate just endorsed byCommunist dictator Fidel Castro, turned over $23,000 in campaign donations tocharity this week after learning that the donor of the money, Norman Hsu,has a warrant out for his arrest that dates back to the 1990s. Hsu wasarrested in 1991 for collecting $1 million from investors for a contractthat didn't exist. (Hsu's lawyer says his client doesn't recall pleading nocontest to grand theft, or being obliged to serve three years' prison time. Howconvenient.) While he's been on the lam, Hsu has been one of Clinton's biggestfundraisers and contributors. The FEC reports Hsu has given $119,000 since2004, but there is sure to be much more money with his fingerprints on it.The Wall Street Journal found that Hsu might have been circumventinglegal limits by donating cash under other names. A family living in a"working-class" neighborhood outside of San Francisco has donated $45,000 toClinton in the last two years. The level of their donations clearly does notmatch the 64-year-old father's $49,000 annual income as a letter carrier. (Itreminds one of Al Gore's "no controlling legal authority" trip to a Buddhisttemple in 1996, at which he raked in plenty of cash laundered by one JohnHuang.) Documents are likely to prove that Hsu, who once listed that modesthouse as an address, donated the money under the family name.Clinton, a shrewd campaigner in every respect, promptly threw some of Hsu'smoney out the window after the Journal broke the story, but there is likelyplenty more to be found. Expect the Clinton machine to go into overdriveworking to sweep another scandal under the rug.
http://PatriotShop.US/

"Hillary Clinton doesn't have to prove she's a man. She has to prove she's
a woman. She doesn't have to prove to people that she's tough enough or
aggressive enough to be commander in chief. She doesn't have to show she could
and would wage a war. She has to prove she has normal human warmth, a normal
amount of give, of good nature, that she is not, at bottom, grimly combative
and rather dark. This is the woman credited with starting and naming the War
Room. Her staff has nicknamed her 'The Warrior.' Get in her way and she'd
squish you like a bug. This has been her reputation for 20 years. And it is
her big problem. People want a president to be strong but not hard... Back
[in 1992], when the Clintons were newly famous, their consultants were alarmed
to find the American people did not believe Hillary was a mother. They thought
she was a person with breasts in a suit. She had a briefcase and a latte and
was late for the meeting, but no way did she have a child... The Sopranos
video the Clintons made and released this week was smart and well done... It
addressed yet again the likability problem, but from a new angle... The
film jokingly acknowledges what the Clintons well know: that a certain
portion of the voting population sees them as... well, as gangsterish. As
dark, and dishonest to a degree more extreme than is usual even in political
figures. By putting these perceptions so colorfully on the table, they make fun
of them. And they invite their foes to go too far, at just the right moment,
a year before the 2008 presidential race really begins."
---Peggy Noonan