Recession, Depression, What, Michelle Worry?
July 7, 2009
Dr. Paul L. Williams
“In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much,” she said. “See, that’s why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service, “ Michelle Obama
No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn’t perform any official duties. But this hasn’t deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession. Just think Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. And Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary.
How things have changed! If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans facing certain destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, prepare to scream and then come to realize that the benefit package for these servants of Miz Michelle are the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by John Q. Public:
1. $172,2000 - Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2. $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Policy And Projects For The First Lady)
3. $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary)
4. $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady)
5. Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6. $90,000 - Medina, David S. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
11. Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
12. $62, 000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady)
13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)
14. Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady)
16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)
18. Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21. Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
22. Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
Copyright 2009 Canada Free Press.Com Article
There has never been anyone in the White House at any time that has created such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady's social life. One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President's own pocket.
Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom travelled aboard Air Force One to Europe.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Goodbye 39
[We appear to have fought the Slugs to a draw.
I sprinkle salt at the borders of the walk and they don’t cross. I tried sprinkling them directly with salt. It kills them but the salt preserves the corpses which don’t decompose. I also used shallow dishes of beer, the idea being they would crawl onto the dishes and drown. This is a method purportedly successful both in Staten Island and New Jersey. Except that these Hamas-trained slimies drink the beer, then crawl away. Even the rare specimens that drown die with a look of happiness that doesn’t suit me at all.
So we’ll have to settle for a draw.
Next: The roach invasion. For now, just let me say that next to the roaches, the slugs are lovable.]
[The highlight of this summer’s cultural activities is the visit of La Scala. They are led by that great humanitarian, Citizen of the World and Honorary Citizen of Palestine, Daniel Barrenbum. Two Verdi works are scheduled, the Requiem and La Forza del Destino. The latter is translated into English as The Force of Destiny. Had it been translated into Yiddish, it would be The Fart of Destiny.
Too bad Maestro B wasn’t around two generations ago. He probably would have put together an orchestra of concentration camp guards and concentration camp survivors, to show us how well we can get along when we put aside petty prejudices.]
[Some of you were rather upset that I denigrated the police and IDF. “They’re your brothers, Moshe. They’re Jews.”
Do you know that the KGB had a department, the Yevsektsia, all Jews, whose job was to spy on Jews? Our General Security Services has such a department as well. They did yeoman work getting us out of Gush Katif.
During the expulsion of Jews from Amona, one of our kids said to a policeman beating him, “Brother, why are you hitting me?” The reply, delivered by the crucifix-wearing beater in heavily Russian accented Hebrew, was “I’m not your brother, you Jew bastard.”
Special units of seemingly-sympathetic soldiers and soldierettes were formed to stay with the families of those whose loved ones were to be disinterred from the Gush Katif cemetery. They wept with the families and acted in every way as family members. Their purpose: to keep the families from ‘over-reacting’ at the disinterment and thereby embarrassing the government.
Following one disinterment a bereaved mother came upon ‘her’ soldiers and soldierettes. They were laughing excitedly and giving each other high-fives.
One explained: “Our units were supposed to be broken up. But we did so well the army is keeping us together for future expulsions.”]
[Of the many comments on Goodbye 38, this is my favorite: “Most people lead lives of quiet desperation. Why do you have to be so damned noisy?”]
GOODBYE 39 NOTHING BUT GOOD CHEER
“Do you have any idea what it’s like, living with someone who is clinically depressed?” Rachel was finally blowing her stack. “You cry most of the time. You are negative all the time. You twist even good things to look bad.”
In my defense I pointed to my work as laundryman, chauffeur, shopper, gofer, typist, secretary, gardener, provider of personal services. To no avail.
“You are a black fog smothering the fun out of everything! Have you completely forgotten how to be happy?”
In the spirit of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, written as “a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism”, I hereby give you ‘Nothing But Good Cheer’, four tales of joy.
One of my favorite films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, had just begun on tv when my son and eldest grandson arrived for a visit. While Rachel prepared lunch we three males sat and watched the film. Of the three, the twelve year old is the closest thing to genius in the family. [The writer places a distant last in this respect.]
My son knows the film well, and enjoys it even though he is more grounded in the real world than his father.
To watch my grandson’s delight at discovering it made my heart soar. A rare feeling these days. With his imagination he will lose himself in the film in ways that I could only dimly imagine. And being so much more intelligent than I he will develop without my many defects.
A dear friend has a connection at the Israel Philharmonic that allows him to attend rehearsals, which he prefers to concerts. He took Rachel and me along twice recently, and both were sheer pleasure.
The first delight is the acoustic. In a packed or nearly packed hall the bodies absorb the sound. In a nearly empty hall the reverberation is spectacular. Not to mention that in a crowded hall you are trapped in your seat while an empty hall allows you to move around freely.
The atmosphere was also a cause for delight. Dress is casual to the point of ridiculous. Some of the ladies looked more like streetwalkers, and many of the men appeared to have been dragged out of dumpsters.
The nature of a rehearsal, as opposed to a concert, was a concern. I feared there would be much starting, stopping, passages repeated and repeated. But in both rehearsals pieces were generally played straight through, and only then were particular passages repeated. I ascribe this to the professionalism of the players.
The first of the rehearsals – we three were almost alone in the audience – was a relaxed affair led by a young and very talented French Canadian, and included works by Richard Strauss, Liszt and Ravel. For Rachel and our host the Liszt was the highlight, as they were able to move about to watch the pianist’s excellent playing. This was also the highlight for me, but not for the music. The pianist, a middle-aged Frenchman, sashayed onto the stage, dramatically maneuvered his tush until he was comfortable, pursed his lips and threw kisses in all directions.
The second rehearsal we attended was rather different in that there were almost fifty observers spread around the hall, fitting in that the stars were Maestro Mehta and pianist Murray Perahia. Missing was the relaxed atmosphere. The playing was still wonderful – Richard Strauss, Mozart and an Israeli piece being given its premiere – but with tv cameras and journalists and still photographers and public relations flacks the tension was palpable. The non-musical highlight for me was the Israeli piece which had a large choir, soloists and a platoon of a dozen Oriental-style drummers. Though purportedly on a theme of Brotherhood and Peace [is there no escape?] it sounded like the film score for the epic “Tarzan and the Treasure of the Lost Kishka”. A great time was had by all.
Two dear American Christian friends of long-standing, both pastors, visited one evening. Sitting around the table, in addition to Rachel and I and the pastors, were three local friends who had brought the pastors up from Jerusalem.
I don’t recall what we were talking about, though I remember the atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed.
Suddenly Pastor J, at my right, lowered his eyes and whispered to himself “gather at the river”. I had no idea what he was thinking but the effect on me was electric. One of my favorite pieces is Aaron Copland’s OLD AMERICAN SONGS, the ninth of which is “At the River”.
I started to sing it – the first lines are “We shall gather at the river/
The beautiful, the beautiful river/
We shall gather at the river/
That flows by the throne of God”.
I sang, Pastor J joined in, then Pastor V, and finally Rachel joined in.
I sang with a fervor I rarely feel for anything anymore, and the tears flowed down my face, and I felt what can only be described as exaltation. I was aware that the other three at the table were staring, incredulous, but I couldn’t stop because it seemed a great weight of misery had been lifted off me.
There was an embarrassed silence when we stopped, and the weight settled back on me, but the simple memory of it continues to draw tears of comfort.
Rachel received a call telling her the tractors have begun working on the roads and infrastructure in Lachish. She was ecstatic. To see her that way filled me, a major cause of her unhappiness, with great joy.
I may not – given my view on the State of Israel’s imminent demise – wax enthusiastic about the Lachish project, but I can’t help being affected by her hope and enthusiasm. Even at her worst Rachel is never less than attractive. Aglow, as she is over Lachish, she is radiantly beautiful.
[I was very upset yesterday to receive several emails with photos of demonstrators in New York carrying signs that read CLOSE GUANTANAMO. REOPEN AUSCHWITZ.
But Rachel explained it to me. It was a request to move all the ‘guests’ at Guantanamo to a reopened Auschwitz. I am much relieved.]
[The Fast of the Ninth of Av, when Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed, starts in a few hours. One is not permitted to say ‘have an easy fast’, so I’ll close with ‘have a meaningful fast”.]
moshe
I sprinkle salt at the borders of the walk and they don’t cross. I tried sprinkling them directly with salt. It kills them but the salt preserves the corpses which don’t decompose. I also used shallow dishes of beer, the idea being they would crawl onto the dishes and drown. This is a method purportedly successful both in Staten Island and New Jersey. Except that these Hamas-trained slimies drink the beer, then crawl away. Even the rare specimens that drown die with a look of happiness that doesn’t suit me at all.
So we’ll have to settle for a draw.
Next: The roach invasion. For now, just let me say that next to the roaches, the slugs are lovable.]
[The highlight of this summer’s cultural activities is the visit of La Scala. They are led by that great humanitarian, Citizen of the World and Honorary Citizen of Palestine, Daniel Barrenbum. Two Verdi works are scheduled, the Requiem and La Forza del Destino. The latter is translated into English as The Force of Destiny. Had it been translated into Yiddish, it would be The Fart of Destiny.
Too bad Maestro B wasn’t around two generations ago. He probably would have put together an orchestra of concentration camp guards and concentration camp survivors, to show us how well we can get along when we put aside petty prejudices.]
[Some of you were rather upset that I denigrated the police and IDF. “They’re your brothers, Moshe. They’re Jews.”
Do you know that the KGB had a department, the Yevsektsia, all Jews, whose job was to spy on Jews? Our General Security Services has such a department as well. They did yeoman work getting us out of Gush Katif.
During the expulsion of Jews from Amona, one of our kids said to a policeman beating him, “Brother, why are you hitting me?” The reply, delivered by the crucifix-wearing beater in heavily Russian accented Hebrew, was “I’m not your brother, you Jew bastard.”
Special units of seemingly-sympathetic soldiers and soldierettes were formed to stay with the families of those whose loved ones were to be disinterred from the Gush Katif cemetery. They wept with the families and acted in every way as family members. Their purpose: to keep the families from ‘over-reacting’ at the disinterment and thereby embarrassing the government.
Following one disinterment a bereaved mother came upon ‘her’ soldiers and soldierettes. They were laughing excitedly and giving each other high-fives.
One explained: “Our units were supposed to be broken up. But we did so well the army is keeping us together for future expulsions.”]
[Of the many comments on Goodbye 38, this is my favorite: “Most people lead lives of quiet desperation. Why do you have to be so damned noisy?”]
GOODBYE 39 NOTHING BUT GOOD CHEER
“Do you have any idea what it’s like, living with someone who is clinically depressed?” Rachel was finally blowing her stack. “You cry most of the time. You are negative all the time. You twist even good things to look bad.”
In my defense I pointed to my work as laundryman, chauffeur, shopper, gofer, typist, secretary, gardener, provider of personal services. To no avail.
“You are a black fog smothering the fun out of everything! Have you completely forgotten how to be happy?”
In the spirit of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, written as “a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism”, I hereby give you ‘Nothing But Good Cheer’, four tales of joy.
One of my favorite films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, had just begun on tv when my son and eldest grandson arrived for a visit. While Rachel prepared lunch we three males sat and watched the film. Of the three, the twelve year old is the closest thing to genius in the family. [The writer places a distant last in this respect.]
My son knows the film well, and enjoys it even though he is more grounded in the real world than his father.
To watch my grandson’s delight at discovering it made my heart soar. A rare feeling these days. With his imagination he will lose himself in the film in ways that I could only dimly imagine. And being so much more intelligent than I he will develop without my many defects.
A dear friend has a connection at the Israel Philharmonic that allows him to attend rehearsals, which he prefers to concerts. He took Rachel and me along twice recently, and both were sheer pleasure.
The first delight is the acoustic. In a packed or nearly packed hall the bodies absorb the sound. In a nearly empty hall the reverberation is spectacular. Not to mention that in a crowded hall you are trapped in your seat while an empty hall allows you to move around freely.
The atmosphere was also a cause for delight. Dress is casual to the point of ridiculous. Some of the ladies looked more like streetwalkers, and many of the men appeared to have been dragged out of dumpsters.
The nature of a rehearsal, as opposed to a concert, was a concern. I feared there would be much starting, stopping, passages repeated and repeated. But in both rehearsals pieces were generally played straight through, and only then were particular passages repeated. I ascribe this to the professionalism of the players.
The first of the rehearsals – we three were almost alone in the audience – was a relaxed affair led by a young and very talented French Canadian, and included works by Richard Strauss, Liszt and Ravel. For Rachel and our host the Liszt was the highlight, as they were able to move about to watch the pianist’s excellent playing. This was also the highlight for me, but not for the music. The pianist, a middle-aged Frenchman, sashayed onto the stage, dramatically maneuvered his tush until he was comfortable, pursed his lips and threw kisses in all directions.
The second rehearsal we attended was rather different in that there were almost fifty observers spread around the hall, fitting in that the stars were Maestro Mehta and pianist Murray Perahia. Missing was the relaxed atmosphere. The playing was still wonderful – Richard Strauss, Mozart and an Israeli piece being given its premiere – but with tv cameras and journalists and still photographers and public relations flacks the tension was palpable. The non-musical highlight for me was the Israeli piece which had a large choir, soloists and a platoon of a dozen Oriental-style drummers. Though purportedly on a theme of Brotherhood and Peace [is there no escape?] it sounded like the film score for the epic “Tarzan and the Treasure of the Lost Kishka”. A great time was had by all.
Two dear American Christian friends of long-standing, both pastors, visited one evening. Sitting around the table, in addition to Rachel and I and the pastors, were three local friends who had brought the pastors up from Jerusalem.
I don’t recall what we were talking about, though I remember the atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed.
Suddenly Pastor J, at my right, lowered his eyes and whispered to himself “gather at the river”. I had no idea what he was thinking but the effect on me was electric. One of my favorite pieces is Aaron Copland’s OLD AMERICAN SONGS, the ninth of which is “At the River”.
I started to sing it – the first lines are “We shall gather at the river/
The beautiful, the beautiful river/
We shall gather at the river/
That flows by the throne of God”.
I sang, Pastor J joined in, then Pastor V, and finally Rachel joined in.
I sang with a fervor I rarely feel for anything anymore, and the tears flowed down my face, and I felt what can only be described as exaltation. I was aware that the other three at the table were staring, incredulous, but I couldn’t stop because it seemed a great weight of misery had been lifted off me.
There was an embarrassed silence when we stopped, and the weight settled back on me, but the simple memory of it continues to draw tears of comfort.
Rachel received a call telling her the tractors have begun working on the roads and infrastructure in Lachish. She was ecstatic. To see her that way filled me, a major cause of her unhappiness, with great joy.
I may not – given my view on the State of Israel’s imminent demise – wax enthusiastic about the Lachish project, but I can’t help being affected by her hope and enthusiasm. Even at her worst Rachel is never less than attractive. Aglow, as she is over Lachish, she is radiantly beautiful.
[I was very upset yesterday to receive several emails with photos of demonstrators in New York carrying signs that read CLOSE GUANTANAMO. REOPEN AUSCHWITZ.
But Rachel explained it to me. It was a request to move all the ‘guests’ at Guantanamo to a reopened Auschwitz. I am much relieved.]
[The Fast of the Ninth of Av, when Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed, starts in a few hours. One is not permitted to say ‘have an easy fast’, so I’ll close with ‘have a meaningful fast”.]
moshe
Monday, July 27, 2009
Disclaimer
Dear Cranks,
From time to time I will get a snippy comment from someone that I have a date wrong, or a word misspelled, or a comma is out of place.
Get over yourself. This is not a 'Serious News Reporting Agency' nor is it written for you to govern your life by it.
Most of this stuff is copied and pasted verbatim with links in the header to the source. If you can't bother to track back to the source, then you should not bother with trying to insult me.
For me this is merely a hobby where I try to get basic facts and ideas out there to people who will give a damn and maybe research it further. You should crawl up out of your mammas' basement occasionally and smell the air.
Thanks for reading. Constructive comments always welcome.
From time to time I will get a snippy comment from someone that I have a date wrong, or a word misspelled, or a comma is out of place.
Get over yourself. This is not a 'Serious News Reporting Agency' nor is it written for you to govern your life by it.
Most of this stuff is copied and pasted verbatim with links in the header to the source. If you can't bother to track back to the source, then you should not bother with trying to insult me.
For me this is merely a hobby where I try to get basic facts and ideas out there to people who will give a damn and maybe research it further. You should crawl up out of your mammas' basement occasionally and smell the air.
Thanks for reading. Constructive comments always welcome.
Gush Katif Viewpoint 154
I would like to share my thoughts with you. This talk was given at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem on July 26 to commemorate the expulsion of the Jews from their Gazan and Northern Shomron communities. The evening was hosted by the the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel and the worldwide Young Israel Movement.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REMEMBERING GUSH KATIF: FOUR YEARS LATER
“Don’t whine, Rachel!” my friend admonished. “It’s over. You’re not going back. There is no way you will ever see Gush Katif again, or what remains of it. Just stop whining. Look to the future. Talk only about your future. No one cares about you anymore. You’re history. You’re yesterday’s news. No one cares about your problems. Talk about Lachish. Forget Gush Katif. Forget Gush Katif!”
Forget Gush Katif?
Can we as a Jewish nation forget Tish’a b’Av and our expulsion from Eretz Yisrael?
Can we forget our wandering from land to land as edict after edict turned us into a homeless people?
The creation of the Jewish State was to change this history of wandering. The days of the edicts of expulsion were no longer to be part of our history. The story of Gush Katif proved us wrong. A national Jewish tragedy took place with the expulsion of the Jews from Gush Katif.
Just as we, as a collective Jewish nation, feel the pain of each calamity that befalls us, the calamity of Gush Katif has affected each and every one of us.
This was not the personal tragedy of Rachel and Moshe Saperstein, or of the people of Gush Katif. This was a national tragedy that affected each Jew whether in Israel or abroad.
Once again we were not safe.
Our homes were not sacred.
Our synagogues were burned.
Our graves were violated.
Israel was no longer a refuge for the wandering Jew. A Jewish Prime Minister, aided by
a Jewish Knesset,
a Jewish Supreme Court,
a Jewish army and a Jewish police force,
trained by a perverted band of Jewish psychiatrists and psychologists,
did what the non-Jewish world had done generation after generation – the expulsion of Jews from their homes.
And as Israel was capable of expelling its Jews from Gush Katif, is it any wonder that the government of the United States of America is demanding the same expulsions in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem?
When a nation is willing to give away its God-given land for no purpose at all…
When a nation is willing to allow its citizens to live under fire for eight years (!) without retaliation…
that is a nation willing to commit suicide in order to win favor in the eyes of its so-called allies.
“Stop whining, Rachel” my friend said.
Don’t talk about your life in the refugee camp, in the temporary plasterboard structures that have housed your people for four years. Don’t talk about the inadequate compensation – inadequate even by the standards of those giving it to you! – that you had to beg for and is slowly disappearing because there are no jobs and the families need food.
Don’t talk about the people who are still paying off mortgages on the homes their own government destroyed.
Don’t talk about men and women who still wake up in the middle of the night, shaking, because they still see the soldiers surrounding their homes.
Don’t talk about the one hundred and twenty families still collecting food from the gemach each month.
Don’t talk about the Bridal Showers for Gush Katif Brides and Grooms because the families cannot afford to buy pots and pans for their soon-to-be-wed children.
Stop whining, Rachel!
Talk about the future, Rachel. Talk about the future.
Okay. Let me talk about the future. Many of our people will be living in Nitzan. Some, like myself, will be moving to Lachish. After four years of negotiations Motti Shomron – a man of vision, strength and enormous faith – called to say that the tractors had finally begun to prepare the infrastructure for our new town.
Where is Lachish?, you ask. Right smack in the middle of the country. Lachish is south of Beit Shemesh, north of Kiryat Gat. Few Jews live there. Facing the Hebron Hills, one sees the encroachment of Arab housing moving towards Lachish. So in Lachish, as in Gush Katif, we will fulfill a vital national role.
Lachish is the site of the caves inhabited by Bar Kochba fighters after their expulsion from Jerusalem. We, the remnants of the Gush Katif expulsion, will settle this land. The area is grape-growing country and one sees the vineyards stretching for kilometers. Our town will be called Bnei Dekalim and will be home to five hundred families.
We will build a five-star hotel, a spa, a retirement village, and cottages for rabbis on Sabbatical. A world-class Judaica library will be built to serve them, and us.
Our spa will be the first truly Jewish spa in the world, teaching the Jewish route to good health both physically and spiritually.
Lachish is an area for migratory birds and we will encourage bird-watchers to visit.
Biblical Lachish will come alive as you discover sites mentioned in the Torah since the days of Joshua.
Our Lachish will be as one with its natural surroundings. Wind and sun will be used to give us energy. Even the wildflowers uprooted during construction will be saved and re-planted.
Don’t whine, Rachel. There are wonderful days ahead as long as you stay within the parameters set by US President Barack Hussein Obama.
I have lived in Israel for over forty years. I lived in Yerushalayim for close to thirty years, in Gush Katif for eight years, in a tiny hotel room for nine months, and in the refugee camp for three years. I hope to finally put down my roots in Lachish. I’ll be well over seventy then.
It will be exciting to see a town built from its beginnings. Will I stop whining? Probably not.
And if the Almighty wills it, my friends, I will return to Gush Katif.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REMEMBERING GUSH KATIF: FOUR YEARS LATER
“Don’t whine, Rachel!” my friend admonished. “It’s over. You’re not going back. There is no way you will ever see Gush Katif again, or what remains of it. Just stop whining. Look to the future. Talk only about your future. No one cares about you anymore. You’re history. You’re yesterday’s news. No one cares about your problems. Talk about Lachish. Forget Gush Katif. Forget Gush Katif!”
Forget Gush Katif?
Can we as a Jewish nation forget Tish’a b’Av and our expulsion from Eretz Yisrael?
Can we forget our wandering from land to land as edict after edict turned us into a homeless people?
The creation of the Jewish State was to change this history of wandering. The days of the edicts of expulsion were no longer to be part of our history. The story of Gush Katif proved us wrong. A national Jewish tragedy took place with the expulsion of the Jews from Gush Katif.
Just as we, as a collective Jewish nation, feel the pain of each calamity that befalls us, the calamity of Gush Katif has affected each and every one of us.
This was not the personal tragedy of Rachel and Moshe Saperstein, or of the people of Gush Katif. This was a national tragedy that affected each Jew whether in Israel or abroad.
Once again we were not safe.
Our homes were not sacred.
Our synagogues were burned.
Our graves were violated.
Israel was no longer a refuge for the wandering Jew. A Jewish Prime Minister, aided by
a Jewish Knesset,
a Jewish Supreme Court,
a Jewish army and a Jewish police force,
trained by a perverted band of Jewish psychiatrists and psychologists,
did what the non-Jewish world had done generation after generation – the expulsion of Jews from their homes.
And as Israel was capable of expelling its Jews from Gush Katif, is it any wonder that the government of the United States of America is demanding the same expulsions in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem?
When a nation is willing to give away its God-given land for no purpose at all…
When a nation is willing to allow its citizens to live under fire for eight years (!) without retaliation…
that is a nation willing to commit suicide in order to win favor in the eyes of its so-called allies.
“Stop whining, Rachel” my friend said.
Don’t talk about your life in the refugee camp, in the temporary plasterboard structures that have housed your people for four years. Don’t talk about the inadequate compensation – inadequate even by the standards of those giving it to you! – that you had to beg for and is slowly disappearing because there are no jobs and the families need food.
Don’t talk about the people who are still paying off mortgages on the homes their own government destroyed.
Don’t talk about men and women who still wake up in the middle of the night, shaking, because they still see the soldiers surrounding their homes.
Don’t talk about the one hundred and twenty families still collecting food from the gemach each month.
Don’t talk about the Bridal Showers for Gush Katif Brides and Grooms because the families cannot afford to buy pots and pans for their soon-to-be-wed children.
Stop whining, Rachel!
Talk about the future, Rachel. Talk about the future.
Okay. Let me talk about the future. Many of our people will be living in Nitzan. Some, like myself, will be moving to Lachish. After four years of negotiations Motti Shomron – a man of vision, strength and enormous faith – called to say that the tractors had finally begun to prepare the infrastructure for our new town.
Where is Lachish?, you ask. Right smack in the middle of the country. Lachish is south of Beit Shemesh, north of Kiryat Gat. Few Jews live there. Facing the Hebron Hills, one sees the encroachment of Arab housing moving towards Lachish. So in Lachish, as in Gush Katif, we will fulfill a vital national role.
Lachish is the site of the caves inhabited by Bar Kochba fighters after their expulsion from Jerusalem. We, the remnants of the Gush Katif expulsion, will settle this land. The area is grape-growing country and one sees the vineyards stretching for kilometers. Our town will be called Bnei Dekalim and will be home to five hundred families.
We will build a five-star hotel, a spa, a retirement village, and cottages for rabbis on Sabbatical. A world-class Judaica library will be built to serve them, and us.
Our spa will be the first truly Jewish spa in the world, teaching the Jewish route to good health both physically and spiritually.
Lachish is an area for migratory birds and we will encourage bird-watchers to visit.
Biblical Lachish will come alive as you discover sites mentioned in the Torah since the days of Joshua.
Our Lachish will be as one with its natural surroundings. Wind and sun will be used to give us energy. Even the wildflowers uprooted during construction will be saved and re-planted.
Don’t whine, Rachel. There are wonderful days ahead as long as you stay within the parameters set by US President Barack Hussein Obama.
I have lived in Israel for over forty years. I lived in Yerushalayim for close to thirty years, in Gush Katif for eight years, in a tiny hotel room for nine months, and in the refugee camp for three years. I hope to finally put down my roots in Lachish. I’ll be well over seventy then.
It will be exciting to see a town built from its beginnings. Will I stop whining? Probably not.
And if the Almighty wills it, my friends, I will return to Gush Katif.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Goodbye 38
Subject: GOODBYE 38
[I awoke at 2am to test the plumbing. The plumbing passed the test. Would that my own plumbing were as reliable.
I thought I might as well destroy the ozone layer for a few minutes before returning to sleep. I grabbed a stogie and a transistor and stepped outside. Slugs adorned the screen door, the walls, the walk. I returned for bug spray.
After dispatching loathsome creatures to the Great Wormhole in Space I lit my cigar and turned on the transistor. It was the classical music midnight to 6am program. As happens with disconcerting regularity a symphony had just begun. I know every note but could not remember if it was Schumann or Mendelssohn or Schubert or Shicklegruber. A sigh escaped as I realized I’ll have to wait for the announcement at the conclusion. Unless, with my luck, two or three symphonies are being played in succession. With no announcement until all are done.
The air was thick with bug spray and cigar smoke when Muffy and Chaleria made their appearance. I went back inside to get their food. Muffy has a new wound on her throat, doubtless the result of rough sex. She also has three kittens in tow. Where and when and by whom is a mystery. The kittens are impossible to differentiate, except for one who has only one eye. Naturally I am smitten with that one.
Rachel appeared saying the bedroom seems empty without her own 800lb gorilla. I beat my chest and went inside.
Dawns early light. Another day of non-stop fun in the refugee camp is about to begin.]
[Had my ancestors swung on the trees of Britain rather than Bialystok, had they been landed gentry rather than landless grubbers, we would likely have a family crest. On that crest would be crossed salamis under a pickled herring. And the engraved motto would be – in Yiddish, of course – ‘No Moment Spent Sleeping is Ever Wasted’.
There is another motto equally valid: ‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished’.
We had guests on a recent Shabbat. With Oshri on duty, Tamar brought the Wrecking Crew. Rachel invited an old friend and colleague. They had taught together at various schools for over fifteen years, and despite our leaving Jerusalem had never lost touch. The guest was coming by bus and I was to pick her up in Ashkelon. It was late and I was anxious to be on my way but Rachel remembered something she needed from our grocery.
The grocery was closing its doors when I arrived but they gave me what I needed. A woman was standing next to my car when I turned to leave, a case of Cola beside her. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“Ashkelon” I replied.
“Could you just drop me at my house? I can’t carry this..”
With every nerve in my body screaming ‘SAY NO!’ I smiled and said “Yes.”
My punishment was not long in coming.
She opened a rear door, put the case on the back seat, said “Excuse me” and returned to the grocery, emerging with a second case which she also put on the back seat. This was repeated over and over in what seemed like slow-motion until there were four cases on the back seat, three cases in the trunk, plus five or six plastic bags of junk food.
By the time she got into the car I was apoplectic.
Of course everything turned out alright. But my already delicate mental state was sorely bruised.]
[Thanks to those of you who expressed concern over my bowels. Something exceeding strange has happened. A dear friend, visiting with a group, took me aside and handed me a plastic bottle marked Triphala. “Take these and your problems will disappear.” From that day on I have had few recurrences of earlier problems.
Why, you ask, do I say ‘exceeding strange’? Because I have never taken the pills. I haven’t even removed the seal on the bottle. The bottle simply stands on a shelf in the toilet, in full view, and just staring at it has the desired effect. On those occasions when something more is needed, I reach out and touch the bottle and the problem disappears.
So thanks again, Helen and Charlie!]
[I am well known here as the King of Laundry. This is not a compliment but a term of derision. In this society ‘real men’ don’t do laundry. That our laundry lines abut a well-used walking path behind our caravilla only adds to my notoriety. Children stop to watch the One-Armed Wonder at work. Women smile, men sneer. I ignore them all. I love doing laundry.
The shirt was bright red. Whatever had possessed me to buy it? I had only worn it to please Rachel, who is always at me for how drab my clothes are. Now it was time to wash it. Having bought it at my favorite El Cheapo shop I realized that the color would run and accordingly, washed it only with very dark items. Without mishap. The second washing, assuming that whatever was going to run had already ran, I didn’t hesitate to mix it with a variety of items. Alas and alack! Everything was bright pink. Some, Rachel insisted on throwing away. Others, I hid before she could dispose of them.
At a Kiddush in our synagogue one recent morning someone bumped into me and a quantity of schnapps was spilled on my shirt. I unbuttoned the shirt and there was a deathly silence as my bright pink ritual fringes and undershirt came into view. I should simply have explained what happened, but those standing closest were well-known nudniks who would have bombarded me with “Why didn’t you do this…” or “You should have done that…”
To preclude conversation I smiled and said “I’m wearing these in honor of Gay Pride week in Tel Aviv.”
Now, when doing laundry, I notice that among passersby, Women sneer, Men smile.]
GOODBYE 38 WHEN THE SPINELESS LEAD THE BRAINLESS…HOPELESS
Poor Netanyahu. Not only spineless, but clueless as well. His last day in the States included a visit with Jewish members of Congress. Most, of course, are Democrats and supporters – enthusiastically or with misgivings – of the Anointed One’s policies toward Israel. Even those who see where it is all heading are too cowed to speak.
The situation today, absurd as it may seem, is that believing Christians in Congress are far more supportive of Israel than are Jews. And far more reliable.
Whether or not the American President is The Manchurian Candidate [or, as some of my Christian friends believe, the Anti-Christ] is irrelevant. Indisputable is his fawning on Muslims and his animus to the State of Israel.
Whether or not his principal enablers and supporters, American Jews, are naïve or self-hating is irrelevant. Indisputable is that their efforts are leading to the destruction of the State of Israel. And, eventually, of themselves.
Much of the blame lies with Israel. If you wear a sign saying KICK ME, how can you be surprised when you get kicked? And after the big boys kick you, and you don’t respond, the normally quiescent realize its open season and there are no consequences to kicking you, so they join the jamboree. Some years ago I described Israel as a Felafel Republic, the Middle Eastern equivalent of a Banana Republic.
I want to apologize to any and all Banana Republics. Even the most pathetic pretends to have some self-respect. Not Israel.
It wasn’t long after the Six Day War that Israel allowed itself to be turned into a vassal state of the Americans. One example:
Israel Aircraft Industries developed a fighter plane, the Lavi, a generation ahead of anything being done by the US or USSR. The US, to protect Grumman or McDonnel-Douglas or whoever else was building fighters, demanded Israel cease the project. Like an obedient canine, it did. And we have seen over the years how the US regularly steps in and orders Israel to cancel contracts for military equipment made with other countries.
It was the Red Chinese, I believe, who developed the term Paper Tiger for the US and its allies. Well, for all Israel’s supposed military prowess, it is a Toilet Paper Tiger. If you have the capacity to win, but won’t use what you have, you might as well not have it.
When the Oslo Accords were signed by Rabin, in the ruling elite’s mindset the Arabs ceased being the enemy. They might still be killing us, but it was no longer necessary to defeat them, merely to contain them until a deal could be made.
The entire military establishment was corrupted by the leftist mantra that ‘there is no military solution to the problem’. No one can advance in a military career unless he subscribes to this belief.
But if the Arabs were no longer the enemy, who was? The religious settlers.
One example: A young man of my acquaintance, a kippa-wearing lieutenant, had just completed his doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies. He was asked to give a lecture at the War College. The room was filled with officers from the rank of major and up. Before he could speak an officer stood and said “Where do you live?”
The young lieutenant named a community north of Jerusalem.
“We’re not interested in anything a religious settler has to say”. And all rose and left the room. If you think this just anecdotal, consider the army’s performance during the Second Lebanon War and it’s refusal to smash Hamas during the recent Gaza festivities.
Some of you will be upset by my comment that American Jews are as doomed as their Israeli counterparts.
Rabbi Meir Kahane, of blessed memory, wrote in the 1970’s that if you walk into a bar anywhere in the States, you can hear the Jews being cursed. As long as the patrons have jobs and homes they can vent their Jew-hatred verbally. But if the economy should take a dive, as is happening now, the verbal may become physical.
We are told unemployment is 9.5%. But if you include former full-time workers now working part-time, and those too disheartened to seek work at all, the figure is 20%.
With the Anointed One’s administration top-heavy with Jews, and with Jews seeming to be involved in every new scandal, the feces will soon be hitting the fan.
It is a miniscule step from ‘the Jews are as corrupt as everybody else’ to ‘the Jews corrupt everybody else’.
While I might get some perverse pleasure watching my liberal American co-religionists grovel apologetically, a performance that they have turned into an art, I doubt any of us in Israel will still be alive to enjoy it.
Some of you have complained that my hatred of the army and police – actually, I don’t discriminate and hate pretty much everybody, with the army and police at the top of the list – is grossly overdone. Even given that they took away my home, my sense of purpose, my sense of belonging, my pride and self-respect… even if they made the physical suffering I underwent, and continue to undergo every waking moment, once a source of pride, now a source of bitter regret… the intensity of my anger seems over the top. I have given it much thought.
I had an epiphany. An epiphany is fraught with light. Mine was fraught with darkness. I finally came to understand that the reason I hate so fiercely is that the one I hate most is my self.
It was by accident, not by design, that the fat, forever frightened New York Jew was transmogrified into Super M in Israel. Not that I took it seriously. But as time wore on, and I became less uncomfortable in my new skin, my behavior followed suit and I acted in ways that would have given my former self cardiac arrest. Without even a hint of false modesty, I say that I carried it off with aplomb.
Then came the period of the expulsion, during most of which I acted in ways befitting my new persona.
Unfortunately there were two incidents that made me realize what I had been is what I still was.
The first was during what passed for our struggle to save Gush Katif.
I would be out nightly driving the roads, hoping to find supporters to smuggle into the Gush. As a resident I could pass the many police and army roadblocks, and I was armed with i.d.’s from Gush residents that I could give to suitable infiltrators. I had many adventures but limited success, which didn’t bother me as the real pleasure was just being out of a house already bursting with supporters.
Now it was midday Friday and I had picked up the sons of a couple already at our home. Each of the boys now had the i.d. of a Gush Katif resident. We were stopped at the last and busiest checkpoint and it was clear there would be a long wait. I left the boys in or near the car and got out to stretch my legs and destroy the ozone layer. Walking around, I came upon a scene that has left me with nightmares to this day.
Alongside a string of pre-fabs housing police offices, there was a small compound where people caught attempting to infiltrate – mostly teenagers – were being held. Seated in one corner was a girl about sixteen, very thin, very pretty, very modestly dressed. Hulking over her, screaming, clenched fists waving menacingly, was a plainclothes policeman about thirty. He was almost incoherent with rage. Though he never touched her she was clearly being assaulted. She was crying and appeared frightened to the point of collapse. Everyone stopped to watch. Even the police stepped out of their offices. Not a smirk. Not a smile. Just stares ranging from discomfort to horror.
I wanted to rush forward, tell him to leave the girl alone, to pick on someone his own size. What’s the worst that could have happened? He’d hit me? He couldn’t damage me any more than bombs and bullets already had. He’d arrest me? Think of what a great letter a Shabbat in jail would have produced.
Instead I just stood there, trembling with fright and self-loathing. Of course I justified my inaction by telling myself I had a responsibility to get the boys to their waiting parents. But I knew the truth:
Super M had reverted to Forever Frightened Fatboy.
The second incident took place about ten days after our expulsion. Individuals were allowed back in to complete the packing so moving vans could remove their belongings before the bulldozers leveled our homes. Rachel’s broken ankle kept her in the hotel. As a cripple I9 was permitted to have someone accompany me. That someone was Ari, who drove our car.
At the Kissufim checkpost [also the site of the first incident] vehicles were backed up for two kilometers. Slowly we crawled forward. About two hundred yards from the crossing I got out and walked, telling Ari I would wait for him to catch up. At the checkpost there was a scene to match the scene of the first incident.
A pickup truck was trying to get through. The driver was middle-aged, with the weather-worn face of a farmer. In the passenger seat was a boy, about fourteen. The passenger door was open and leaning inside was a police officer. The officer was short, thin, gray-haired, and in one hand he had a baton. With the other hand he was trying to drag the boy out of the vehicle. The father was crying, holding on to the boy. “Please, I need him to help me pack” he wept. The policeman was whacking both father and son with the baton. He was as hysterical as the plainclothes cop in the first incident.
“This is a country of laws” he screamed. “The boy – whack! – is not on the list – whack! – so he is not going through. We have – whack! – LAWS! WE HAVE LAWS!”
The scene was not only heartbreaking. It was obscene. Not twenty feet away stood a gaggle of army officers, all high-ranking, all pot-bellied, all bald or nearly so. And these Sharon-clones were watching and laughing hysterically. These bastards had killed us and now they were pissing on our graves.
I wanted to yell at them “You couldn’t beat the Arabs so you’re beating the Jews.” I wanted to drag the cop off the kid, to beat him with his baton.
As before, I did nothing, justifying my inaction with the thought that if I created a scene my son would intervene and I didn’t want to see him hurt or arrested.
But I knew the truth…
These two scenes are nightmares that don’t fade or disappear.
Now that I have been epiphanized, and understand the reason for the intensity of hatred, has that intensity lessened? Not in the least. Though I remain besotted with Rachel, and my passion for the children and grandchildren is undiminished, I believe it is the hatred that keeps me alive.
[Rachel has amazed me once again. I heard her playing an unfamiliar piece on the electric organ. It was very attractive and I asked her what it was. She blushed, and said she had written it herself. I was flabbergasted!
What an amazing couple we are:
Rachel is composing.
I am decomposing.]
moshe
[I awoke at 2am to test the plumbing. The plumbing passed the test. Would that my own plumbing were as reliable.
I thought I might as well destroy the ozone layer for a few minutes before returning to sleep. I grabbed a stogie and a transistor and stepped outside. Slugs adorned the screen door, the walls, the walk. I returned for bug spray.
After dispatching loathsome creatures to the Great Wormhole in Space I lit my cigar and turned on the transistor. It was the classical music midnight to 6am program. As happens with disconcerting regularity a symphony had just begun. I know every note but could not remember if it was Schumann or Mendelssohn or Schubert or Shicklegruber. A sigh escaped as I realized I’ll have to wait for the announcement at the conclusion. Unless, with my luck, two or three symphonies are being played in succession. With no announcement until all are done.
The air was thick with bug spray and cigar smoke when Muffy and Chaleria made their appearance. I went back inside to get their food. Muffy has a new wound on her throat, doubtless the result of rough sex. She also has three kittens in tow. Where and when and by whom is a mystery. The kittens are impossible to differentiate, except for one who has only one eye. Naturally I am smitten with that one.
Rachel appeared saying the bedroom seems empty without her own 800lb gorilla. I beat my chest and went inside.
Dawns early light. Another day of non-stop fun in the refugee camp is about to begin.]
[Had my ancestors swung on the trees of Britain rather than Bialystok, had they been landed gentry rather than landless grubbers, we would likely have a family crest. On that crest would be crossed salamis under a pickled herring. And the engraved motto would be – in Yiddish, of course – ‘No Moment Spent Sleeping is Ever Wasted’.
There is another motto equally valid: ‘No Good Deed Goes Unpunished’.
We had guests on a recent Shabbat. With Oshri on duty, Tamar brought the Wrecking Crew. Rachel invited an old friend and colleague. They had taught together at various schools for over fifteen years, and despite our leaving Jerusalem had never lost touch. The guest was coming by bus and I was to pick her up in Ashkelon. It was late and I was anxious to be on my way but Rachel remembered something she needed from our grocery.
The grocery was closing its doors when I arrived but they gave me what I needed. A woman was standing next to my car when I turned to leave, a case of Cola beside her. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“Ashkelon” I replied.
“Could you just drop me at my house? I can’t carry this..”
With every nerve in my body screaming ‘SAY NO!’ I smiled and said “Yes.”
My punishment was not long in coming.
She opened a rear door, put the case on the back seat, said “Excuse me” and returned to the grocery, emerging with a second case which she also put on the back seat. This was repeated over and over in what seemed like slow-motion until there were four cases on the back seat, three cases in the trunk, plus five or six plastic bags of junk food.
By the time she got into the car I was apoplectic.
Of course everything turned out alright. But my already delicate mental state was sorely bruised.]
[Thanks to those of you who expressed concern over my bowels. Something exceeding strange has happened. A dear friend, visiting with a group, took me aside and handed me a plastic bottle marked Triphala. “Take these and your problems will disappear.” From that day on I have had few recurrences of earlier problems.
Why, you ask, do I say ‘exceeding strange’? Because I have never taken the pills. I haven’t even removed the seal on the bottle. The bottle simply stands on a shelf in the toilet, in full view, and just staring at it has the desired effect. On those occasions when something more is needed, I reach out and touch the bottle and the problem disappears.
So thanks again, Helen and Charlie!]
[I am well known here as the King of Laundry. This is not a compliment but a term of derision. In this society ‘real men’ don’t do laundry. That our laundry lines abut a well-used walking path behind our caravilla only adds to my notoriety. Children stop to watch the One-Armed Wonder at work. Women smile, men sneer. I ignore them all. I love doing laundry.
The shirt was bright red. Whatever had possessed me to buy it? I had only worn it to please Rachel, who is always at me for how drab my clothes are. Now it was time to wash it. Having bought it at my favorite El Cheapo shop I realized that the color would run and accordingly, washed it only with very dark items. Without mishap. The second washing, assuming that whatever was going to run had already ran, I didn’t hesitate to mix it with a variety of items. Alas and alack! Everything was bright pink. Some, Rachel insisted on throwing away. Others, I hid before she could dispose of them.
At a Kiddush in our synagogue one recent morning someone bumped into me and a quantity of schnapps was spilled on my shirt. I unbuttoned the shirt and there was a deathly silence as my bright pink ritual fringes and undershirt came into view. I should simply have explained what happened, but those standing closest were well-known nudniks who would have bombarded me with “Why didn’t you do this…” or “You should have done that…”
To preclude conversation I smiled and said “I’m wearing these in honor of Gay Pride week in Tel Aviv.”
Now, when doing laundry, I notice that among passersby, Women sneer, Men smile.]
GOODBYE 38 WHEN THE SPINELESS LEAD THE BRAINLESS…HOPELESS
Poor Netanyahu. Not only spineless, but clueless as well. His last day in the States included a visit with Jewish members of Congress. Most, of course, are Democrats and supporters – enthusiastically or with misgivings – of the Anointed One’s policies toward Israel. Even those who see where it is all heading are too cowed to speak.
The situation today, absurd as it may seem, is that believing Christians in Congress are far more supportive of Israel than are Jews. And far more reliable.
Whether or not the American President is The Manchurian Candidate [or, as some of my Christian friends believe, the Anti-Christ] is irrelevant. Indisputable is his fawning on Muslims and his animus to the State of Israel.
Whether or not his principal enablers and supporters, American Jews, are naïve or self-hating is irrelevant. Indisputable is that their efforts are leading to the destruction of the State of Israel. And, eventually, of themselves.
Much of the blame lies with Israel. If you wear a sign saying KICK ME, how can you be surprised when you get kicked? And after the big boys kick you, and you don’t respond, the normally quiescent realize its open season and there are no consequences to kicking you, so they join the jamboree. Some years ago I described Israel as a Felafel Republic, the Middle Eastern equivalent of a Banana Republic.
I want to apologize to any and all Banana Republics. Even the most pathetic pretends to have some self-respect. Not Israel.
It wasn’t long after the Six Day War that Israel allowed itself to be turned into a vassal state of the Americans. One example:
Israel Aircraft Industries developed a fighter plane, the Lavi, a generation ahead of anything being done by the US or USSR. The US, to protect Grumman or McDonnel-Douglas or whoever else was building fighters, demanded Israel cease the project. Like an obedient canine, it did. And we have seen over the years how the US regularly steps in and orders Israel to cancel contracts for military equipment made with other countries.
It was the Red Chinese, I believe, who developed the term Paper Tiger for the US and its allies. Well, for all Israel’s supposed military prowess, it is a Toilet Paper Tiger. If you have the capacity to win, but won’t use what you have, you might as well not have it.
When the Oslo Accords were signed by Rabin, in the ruling elite’s mindset the Arabs ceased being the enemy. They might still be killing us, but it was no longer necessary to defeat them, merely to contain them until a deal could be made.
The entire military establishment was corrupted by the leftist mantra that ‘there is no military solution to the problem’. No one can advance in a military career unless he subscribes to this belief.
But if the Arabs were no longer the enemy, who was? The religious settlers.
One example: A young man of my acquaintance, a kippa-wearing lieutenant, had just completed his doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies. He was asked to give a lecture at the War College. The room was filled with officers from the rank of major and up. Before he could speak an officer stood and said “Where do you live?”
The young lieutenant named a community north of Jerusalem.
“We’re not interested in anything a religious settler has to say”. And all rose and left the room. If you think this just anecdotal, consider the army’s performance during the Second Lebanon War and it’s refusal to smash Hamas during the recent Gaza festivities.
Some of you will be upset by my comment that American Jews are as doomed as their Israeli counterparts.
Rabbi Meir Kahane, of blessed memory, wrote in the 1970’s that if you walk into a bar anywhere in the States, you can hear the Jews being cursed. As long as the patrons have jobs and homes they can vent their Jew-hatred verbally. But if the economy should take a dive, as is happening now, the verbal may become physical.
We are told unemployment is 9.5%. But if you include former full-time workers now working part-time, and those too disheartened to seek work at all, the figure is 20%.
With the Anointed One’s administration top-heavy with Jews, and with Jews seeming to be involved in every new scandal, the feces will soon be hitting the fan.
It is a miniscule step from ‘the Jews are as corrupt as everybody else’ to ‘the Jews corrupt everybody else’.
While I might get some perverse pleasure watching my liberal American co-religionists grovel apologetically, a performance that they have turned into an art, I doubt any of us in Israel will still be alive to enjoy it.
Some of you have complained that my hatred of the army and police – actually, I don’t discriminate and hate pretty much everybody, with the army and police at the top of the list – is grossly overdone. Even given that they took away my home, my sense of purpose, my sense of belonging, my pride and self-respect… even if they made the physical suffering I underwent, and continue to undergo every waking moment, once a source of pride, now a source of bitter regret… the intensity of my anger seems over the top. I have given it much thought.
I had an epiphany. An epiphany is fraught with light. Mine was fraught with darkness. I finally came to understand that the reason I hate so fiercely is that the one I hate most is my self.
It was by accident, not by design, that the fat, forever frightened New York Jew was transmogrified into Super M in Israel. Not that I took it seriously. But as time wore on, and I became less uncomfortable in my new skin, my behavior followed suit and I acted in ways that would have given my former self cardiac arrest. Without even a hint of false modesty, I say that I carried it off with aplomb.
Then came the period of the expulsion, during most of which I acted in ways befitting my new persona.
Unfortunately there were two incidents that made me realize what I had been is what I still was.
The first was during what passed for our struggle to save Gush Katif.
I would be out nightly driving the roads, hoping to find supporters to smuggle into the Gush. As a resident I could pass the many police and army roadblocks, and I was armed with i.d.’s from Gush residents that I could give to suitable infiltrators. I had many adventures but limited success, which didn’t bother me as the real pleasure was just being out of a house already bursting with supporters.
Now it was midday Friday and I had picked up the sons of a couple already at our home. Each of the boys now had the i.d. of a Gush Katif resident. We were stopped at the last and busiest checkpoint and it was clear there would be a long wait. I left the boys in or near the car and got out to stretch my legs and destroy the ozone layer. Walking around, I came upon a scene that has left me with nightmares to this day.
Alongside a string of pre-fabs housing police offices, there was a small compound where people caught attempting to infiltrate – mostly teenagers – were being held. Seated in one corner was a girl about sixteen, very thin, very pretty, very modestly dressed. Hulking over her, screaming, clenched fists waving menacingly, was a plainclothes policeman about thirty. He was almost incoherent with rage. Though he never touched her she was clearly being assaulted. She was crying and appeared frightened to the point of collapse. Everyone stopped to watch. Even the police stepped out of their offices. Not a smirk. Not a smile. Just stares ranging from discomfort to horror.
I wanted to rush forward, tell him to leave the girl alone, to pick on someone his own size. What’s the worst that could have happened? He’d hit me? He couldn’t damage me any more than bombs and bullets already had. He’d arrest me? Think of what a great letter a Shabbat in jail would have produced.
Instead I just stood there, trembling with fright and self-loathing. Of course I justified my inaction by telling myself I had a responsibility to get the boys to their waiting parents. But I knew the truth:
Super M had reverted to Forever Frightened Fatboy.
The second incident took place about ten days after our expulsion. Individuals were allowed back in to complete the packing so moving vans could remove their belongings before the bulldozers leveled our homes. Rachel’s broken ankle kept her in the hotel. As a cripple I9 was permitted to have someone accompany me. That someone was Ari, who drove our car.
At the Kissufim checkpost [also the site of the first incident] vehicles were backed up for two kilometers. Slowly we crawled forward. About two hundred yards from the crossing I got out and walked, telling Ari I would wait for him to catch up. At the checkpost there was a scene to match the scene of the first incident.
A pickup truck was trying to get through. The driver was middle-aged, with the weather-worn face of a farmer. In the passenger seat was a boy, about fourteen. The passenger door was open and leaning inside was a police officer. The officer was short, thin, gray-haired, and in one hand he had a baton. With the other hand he was trying to drag the boy out of the vehicle. The father was crying, holding on to the boy. “Please, I need him to help me pack” he wept. The policeman was whacking both father and son with the baton. He was as hysterical as the plainclothes cop in the first incident.
“This is a country of laws” he screamed. “The boy – whack! – is not on the list – whack! – so he is not going through. We have – whack! – LAWS! WE HAVE LAWS!”
The scene was not only heartbreaking. It was obscene. Not twenty feet away stood a gaggle of army officers, all high-ranking, all pot-bellied, all bald or nearly so. And these Sharon-clones were watching and laughing hysterically. These bastards had killed us and now they were pissing on our graves.
I wanted to yell at them “You couldn’t beat the Arabs so you’re beating the Jews.” I wanted to drag the cop off the kid, to beat him with his baton.
As before, I did nothing, justifying my inaction with the thought that if I created a scene my son would intervene and I didn’t want to see him hurt or arrested.
But I knew the truth…
These two scenes are nightmares that don’t fade or disappear.
Now that I have been epiphanized, and understand the reason for the intensity of hatred, has that intensity lessened? Not in the least. Though I remain besotted with Rachel, and my passion for the children and grandchildren is undiminished, I believe it is the hatred that keeps me alive.
[Rachel has amazed me once again. I heard her playing an unfamiliar piece on the electric organ. It was very attractive and I asked her what it was. She blushed, and said she had written it herself. I was flabbergasted!
What an amazing couple we are:
Rachel is composing.
I am decomposing.]
moshe
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Where's The Outrage?
This letter was sent to the Wall Street Journal on August 8, 2008 by Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Of Beverly Hills, CA . in response to the Wall Street Journal article titled "Where's The Outrage?" that appeared July 31, 2008.
Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am I?
I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement.
I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press to promote political candidates. I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public.
The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change.
Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America, is in a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's fair.
Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment?
When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died in our country.
I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants.
I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally. That the Los Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my child to private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you want to continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I call the bank, the phone company , or similar business, I hear "press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish." WHY? This is America, our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English.
I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee. Tennessee, last I checked, is still part of the United States. If Muslims want to live and work here, they should be required to live and work by our American Laws and not impose their will on our long history.
In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the publication of The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, Aisha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built this country.
I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran 's nuclear program? Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews - one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end?
As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment: I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit. But when and where does the lunacy stop?Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no longer knows right from wrong, good from evil. So what does California do? Tax grocery bags.
So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree with me.
Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Beverly Hills , California
There are a lot more out there, including myself, who think just like Alisa Wilson. The only difference is that she put her thoughts in an email that will reach thousands. I would like to keep this going in the hope that, eventually, WE will again become become the Majority and help to return our nation to the values it was founded upon. How about YOU ?
Really. I can tell you where the outrage is. The outrage is here, in this middle-aged, well-educated, upper-middle class woman. The outrage is here, but I have no representation, no voice. The outrage is here, but no one is listening for who am I?
I am not a billionaire like George Soros that can fund an entire political movement.
I am not a celebrity like Barbra Streisand that can garner the attention of the press to promote political candidates. I am not a film maker like Michael Moore or Al Gore that can deliver misleading movies to the public.
The outrage is here, but unlike those with money or power, I don't know how to reach those who feel similarly in order to effect change.
Why am I outraged? I am outraged that my country, the United States of America, is in a state of moral and ethical decline. There is no right or wrong anymore, just what's fair.
Is it fair that millions of Americans who overreached and borrowed more than they could afford are now being bailed out by the government and lending institutions to stave off foreclosure? Why shouldn't these people be made to pay the consequences for their poor judgment?
When my husband and I purchased our home, we were careful to purchase only what we could afford. Believe me, there are much larger, much nicer homes that I would have loved to have purchased. But, taking responsibility for my behavior and my life, I went with the house that we could afford, not the house that we could not afford. The notion of personal responsibility has all but died in our country.
I am outraged, that the country that welcomed my mother as an immigrant from Hitler's Nazi Germany and required that she and her family learn English now allows itself to be overrun with illegal immigrants and worse, caters to those illegal immigrants.
I am outraged that my hard-earned taxes help support those here illegally. That the Los Angeles Public School District is in such disarray that I felt it incumbent to send my child to private school, that every time I go to the ATM, I see "do you want to continue in English or Spanish?", that every time I call the bank, the phone company , or similar business, I hear "press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish." WHY? This is America, our common language is English and attempts to promote a bi- or multi-lingual society are sure to fail and to marginalize those who cannot communicate in English.
I am outraged at our country's weakness in the face of new threats on American traditions from Muslims. Just this week, Tyson's Food negotiated with its union to permit Muslims to have Eid-al-Fitr as a holiday instead of Labor Day. What am I missing? Yes, there is a large Somali Muslim population working at the Tyson's plant in Tennessee. Tennessee, last I checked, is still part of the United States. If Muslims want to live and work here, they should be required to live and work by our American Laws and not impose their will on our long history.
In the same week, Random House announced that they had indefinitely delayed the publication of The Jewel of Medina, by Sherry Jones, a book about the life of Mohammed's wife, Aisha due to fear of retribution and violence by Muslims. When did we become a nation ruled by fear of what other immigrant groups want? It makes me so sad to see large corporations cave rather than stand proudly on the principles that built this country.
I am outraged because appeasement has never worked as a political policy, yet appeasing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is exactly what we are trying to do. An excellent article, also published recently in the Wall Street Journal, went through over 20 years of history and why talking with Iran has been and will continue to be ineffective. Yet talk, with a madman no less, we continue to do. Have we so lost our moral compass and its ability to detect evil that we will not go in and destroy Iran 's nuclear program? Would we rather wait for another Holocaust for the Jews - one which they would be unlikely to survive? When does it end?
As if the battle for good and evil isn't enough, now come the Environmentalists who are so afraid of global warming that they want to put a Bag tax on grocery bags in California; to eliminate Mylar balloons; to establish something as insidious as the recycle police in San Francisco. I do my share for the environment: I recycle, I use water wisely, I installed an energy efficient air conditioning unit. But when and where does the lunacy stop?Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, the California economy is being overrun by illegal immigrants, and the United States of America no longer knows right from wrong, good from evil. So what does California do? Tax grocery bags.
So, America , although I can tell you where the outrage is, this one middle-aged, well-educated, upper middle class woman is powerless to do anything about it. I don't even feel like my vote counts because I am so outnumbered by those who disagree with me.
Alisa Wilson, Ph.D. Beverly Hills , California
There are a lot more out there, including myself, who think just like Alisa Wilson. The only difference is that she put her thoughts in an email that will reach thousands. I would like to keep this going in the hope that, eventually, WE will again become become the Majority and help to return our nation to the values it was founded upon. How about YOU ?
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Terrorists Have Rights?
Obama's Assistant Attorney General Tells Senate:
Terrorists Captured on Battlefield Have Constitutional Rights
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) – At a Senate hearing Tuesday on the use of military commissions to prosecute terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, some members of the Armed Services Committee took offense at the Obama administration’s view that the detainees should have the same legal protections under the Constitution as U.S. citizens.
Ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) questioned Assistant Attorney General David Kris about his remarks on the appropriateness of administering the Miranda warning to terrorist suspects captured abroad. "It is the administration's view that there is a serious risk that courts would hold that admission of involuntary statements of the accused in military commission proceedings is unconstitutional," Kris said in his opening statement.
“Does that infer that these individuals have constitutional rights?” McCain asked Kris.
“Ah, yes,” Kris answered.
“What are those constitutional rights of people who are not citizens of the United States of America, who were captured on a battlefield committing acts of war against the United States?” McCain asked.
“Our analysis, Senator, is that the due process clause applies to military commissions and imposes a constitutional floor on the procedures that the government sets on such commissions …” Kris said.
“So you are saying that these people who are at Guantanamo, who were part of 9/11, who committed acts of war against the United States, have constitutional rights under the Constitution of the United States of America?” McCain asked.
“Within the framework I just described, the answer is yes, the due process clause guarantees and imposes some requirements on the conduct of (military) commissions,” Kris said.
“The fact is they are entitled to protections under the Geneva Convention, which apply to the rules of war,” McCain said. “I do not know of a time in American history where enemy combatants were given rights under the United States Constitution.”
Kris and Jeh C. Johnson, general counsel for the Department of Defense, said that military commissions were a viable “alternative” but that prosecuting terror suspects as criminals in U.S. federal courts was preferable – a position Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) took issue with at the hearing.
“Why would anyone prefer to try people apprehended for violations of the law of war?” Lieberman asked. “The fact is that from the beginning of our country, from the Revolutionary War, we’ve used military tribunals to try war criminals, or people we have apprehended, captured for violations of the law of war.
“Again, I think the unique circumstances of this war on terrorists, against the people who attacked us on 9/11, have taken us down, including the Supreme Court, some roads that are not only to me ultimately unjust but inconsistent with the long history of military commissions,” Lieberman said.
“Why would you say the administration prefers to bring before our federal court system instead of military commissions that are really today’s version of the tribunals that we’ve used throughout our history to deal in a just way with prisoners of war?” Lieberman asked.
“I applaud this committee’s initiative to reform the military commission act. I think the military commission should be a viable ready alternative for national security reasons to deal with those who violate the laws of war, and I’m glad we’re having this discussion right now, and I thank the committee,” Johnson said.
“When you’re dealing with terrorists whose, and I’m going to say this on behalf of the administration, one of their fundamental aims is to kill innocent civilians, and so it is the administration’s view that direct violence on innocent civilians, let’s say in the continental United States, it might be appropriate that that person be brought to justice in a civilian public forum in the continental United States,” Johnson said.
“Because the act of violence that was committed here was a violation of Title 18 (federal criminal law), as well as the law of war, so we feel strongly that both alternatives should exist,” Johnson added.
“Well, I respectfully disagree,” Lieberman said. “These are people we believe are war criminals; that’s why we captured them. The greater legal protections of the terrorists because they have chosen to do something that pretty much has not been done before in our history to attack Americans, to kill people here in America, as they did on 9/11, civilians, innocents, it doesn’t matter, and to do it outside of uniform.
“So it puts us in a very odd position, giving these terrorists greater protections in our federal courts than we’ve given war criminals in any other time throughout our history, even though, in my opinion, they are at least as brutal and inhumane, probably more brutal and inhumane than any war criminals,” Lieberman said.
“Yes, it might also be an act of murder that killed people who were in the Trade Towers on 9/11, but it was an act of war,” Lieberman said. “And the people who did that do not deserve the same constitutional protections of those accused of murder in New York City.”
The hearing focused on the military commissions portion of the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2010, which includes changes to the Military Commission Act of 2006.
Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) summarized the changes in his opening statement.
Relative to the admissibility of coerced testimony, the provision in our bill would eliminate the double standard in existing law, under which coerced statements are admissible if they were obtained prior to Dec. 30, 2005.
Relative to the use of hearsay evidence, the provision in our bill would eliminate the extraordinary language in the existing law which places the burden on detainees to prove that hearsay evidence introduced against them is not reliable and probative.
Relative to the issue of access to classified evidence and exculpatory evidence, the provision in our bill would eliminate the unique procedures and requirements which have hampered the ability of defense teams to obtain information and led to so much litigation.
We would substitute more established procedures based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), with modest changes to ensure that the government cannot be required to disclose classified information to unauthorized persons.
“Of great importance, the provision in our bill would reverse the existing presumption in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that rules and procedures applicable to trials by courts martial would not apply,” Levin said.
“Our new language says, by contrast, that ‘Except as otherwise provided ... the procedures and rules of evidence applicable in trials by general courts-martial of the United States shall apply in trials by military commission under this chapter.’ The exceptions to this rule are, as suggested by the Supreme Court, carefully tailored to the unique circumstances of the conduct of military and intelligence operations during hostilities.”
Despite the ongoing debate, on June 25 the committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the full Senate for consideration. Staff at the Armed Services Committee press office could not say when the Senate will take up the bill.
Terrorists Captured on Battlefield Have Constitutional Rights
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer
(CNSNews.com) – At a Senate hearing Tuesday on the use of military commissions to prosecute terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, some members of the Armed Services Committee took offense at the Obama administration’s view that the detainees should have the same legal protections under the Constitution as U.S. citizens.
Ranking member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) questioned Assistant Attorney General David Kris about his remarks on the appropriateness of administering the Miranda warning to terrorist suspects captured abroad. "It is the administration's view that there is a serious risk that courts would hold that admission of involuntary statements of the accused in military commission proceedings is unconstitutional," Kris said in his opening statement.
“Does that infer that these individuals have constitutional rights?” McCain asked Kris.
“Ah, yes,” Kris answered.
“What are those constitutional rights of people who are not citizens of the United States of America, who were captured on a battlefield committing acts of war against the United States?” McCain asked.
“Our analysis, Senator, is that the due process clause applies to military commissions and imposes a constitutional floor on the procedures that the government sets on such commissions …” Kris said.
“So you are saying that these people who are at Guantanamo, who were part of 9/11, who committed acts of war against the United States, have constitutional rights under the Constitution of the United States of America?” McCain asked.
“Within the framework I just described, the answer is yes, the due process clause guarantees and imposes some requirements on the conduct of (military) commissions,” Kris said.
“The fact is they are entitled to protections under the Geneva Convention, which apply to the rules of war,” McCain said. “I do not know of a time in American history where enemy combatants were given rights under the United States Constitution.”
Kris and Jeh C. Johnson, general counsel for the Department of Defense, said that military commissions were a viable “alternative” but that prosecuting terror suspects as criminals in U.S. federal courts was preferable – a position Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) took issue with at the hearing.
“Why would anyone prefer to try people apprehended for violations of the law of war?” Lieberman asked. “The fact is that from the beginning of our country, from the Revolutionary War, we’ve used military tribunals to try war criminals, or people we have apprehended, captured for violations of the law of war.
“Again, I think the unique circumstances of this war on terrorists, against the people who attacked us on 9/11, have taken us down, including the Supreme Court, some roads that are not only to me ultimately unjust but inconsistent with the long history of military commissions,” Lieberman said.
“Why would you say the administration prefers to bring before our federal court system instead of military commissions that are really today’s version of the tribunals that we’ve used throughout our history to deal in a just way with prisoners of war?” Lieberman asked.
“I applaud this committee’s initiative to reform the military commission act. I think the military commission should be a viable ready alternative for national security reasons to deal with those who violate the laws of war, and I’m glad we’re having this discussion right now, and I thank the committee,” Johnson said.
“When you’re dealing with terrorists whose, and I’m going to say this on behalf of the administration, one of their fundamental aims is to kill innocent civilians, and so it is the administration’s view that direct violence on innocent civilians, let’s say in the continental United States, it might be appropriate that that person be brought to justice in a civilian public forum in the continental United States,” Johnson said.
“Because the act of violence that was committed here was a violation of Title 18 (federal criminal law), as well as the law of war, so we feel strongly that both alternatives should exist,” Johnson added.
“Well, I respectfully disagree,” Lieberman said. “These are people we believe are war criminals; that’s why we captured them. The greater legal protections of the terrorists because they have chosen to do something that pretty much has not been done before in our history to attack Americans, to kill people here in America, as they did on 9/11, civilians, innocents, it doesn’t matter, and to do it outside of uniform.
“So it puts us in a very odd position, giving these terrorists greater protections in our federal courts than we’ve given war criminals in any other time throughout our history, even though, in my opinion, they are at least as brutal and inhumane, probably more brutal and inhumane than any war criminals,” Lieberman said.
“Yes, it might also be an act of murder that killed people who were in the Trade Towers on 9/11, but it was an act of war,” Lieberman said. “And the people who did that do not deserve the same constitutional protections of those accused of murder in New York City.”
The hearing focused on the military commissions portion of the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2010, which includes changes to the Military Commission Act of 2006.
Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) summarized the changes in his opening statement.
We would substitute more established procedures based on the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), with modest changes to ensure that the government cannot be required to disclose classified information to unauthorized persons.
“Of great importance, the provision in our bill would reverse the existing presumption in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that rules and procedures applicable to trials by courts martial would not apply,” Levin said.
“Our new language says, by contrast, that ‘Except as otherwise provided ... the procedures and rules of evidence applicable in trials by general courts-martial of the United States shall apply in trials by military commission under this chapter.’ The exceptions to this rule are, as suggested by the Supreme Court, carefully tailored to the unique circumstances of the conduct of military and intelligence operations during hostilities.”
Despite the ongoing debate, on June 25 the committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the full Senate for consideration. Staff at the Armed Services Committee press office could not say when the Senate will take up the bill.
Oklahoma Does It Anyway
OKLAHOMANS DO IT ANYWAY
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” Benjamin Franklin
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Let’s hear it for Oklahoma …
A BIG SALUTE TO OKLAHOMA AND ALL THE OKIES! GOOD JOB!
An update from Oklahoma
The state law passed today, 37 to 9, had a few liberals in the mix, an amendment to place the Ten Commandments on the front entrance to the state capitol. The Feds in DC, along with the ACLU, said it would be a mistake. Hey, this is a conservative state, based on Christian values…! Guess what…We did it anyway.
We recently passed a law in the state to incarcerate all illegal immigrants, and ship them back to where they came from unless they want to get a green card and become an American citizen.. They all scattered. Hope we didn’t send any of them to your state. This was against the advice of the Federal Government, and the ACLU. They said it would be a mistake. Guess what…..we did it anyway.
Yesterday, we passed a law to include DNA samples from any and all illegal’s to the Oklahoma database for criminal investigative purposes. Pelosi said it was unconstitutional. Guess what…..We did it anyway..
Several weeks ago, we passed a law declaring Oklahoma as a Sovereign state, not under the Federal Government directives.
That makes Oklahoma and Texas the only states to do so. Guess what…..More states are likely to follow. Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, both Carolina’s, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia, just to name a few. ShouldMississippi act, so will Florida . It appears the South is about to rise up once again. [Hopefully these and other states will get some ‘guts’ to stand up for their rights.]
The Federal Government has made bold steps to take away our guns. Oklahoma, a week ago, passed a law confirming people in this state have the right to bear arms and transport them in their vehicles. I’m sure that was a set back for the Kennedy’s and Ms. Pelosi. Guess what…..We did it anyway.
By the way, Obama does not like any of this. Guess what……we don’t care…..we’re doing it anyway
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” Benjamin Franklin
GOD BLESS AMERICA
Let’s hear it for Oklahoma …
A BIG SALUTE TO OKLAHOMA AND ALL THE OKIES! GOOD JOB!
An update from Oklahoma
The state law passed today, 37 to 9, had a few liberals in the mix, an amendment to place the Ten Commandments on the front entrance to the state capitol. The Feds in DC, along with the ACLU, said it would be a mistake. Hey, this is a conservative state, based on Christian values…! Guess what…We did it anyway.
We recently passed a law in the state to incarcerate all illegal immigrants, and ship them back to where they came from unless they want to get a green card and become an American citizen.. They all scattered. Hope we didn’t send any of them to your state. This was against the advice of the Federal Government, and the ACLU. They said it would be a mistake. Guess what…..we did it anyway.
Yesterday, we passed a law to include DNA samples from any and all illegal’s to the Oklahoma database for criminal investigative purposes. Pelosi said it was unconstitutional. Guess what…..We did it anyway..
Several weeks ago, we passed a law declaring Oklahoma as a Sovereign state, not under the Federal Government directives.
That makes Oklahoma and Texas the only states to do so. Guess what…..More states are likely to follow. Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, both Carolina’s, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, West Virginia, just to name a few. ShouldMississippi act, so will Florida . It appears the South is about to rise up once again. [Hopefully these and other states will get some ‘guts’ to stand up for their rights.]
The Federal Government has made bold steps to take away our guns. Oklahoma, a week ago, passed a law confirming people in this state have the right to bear arms and transport them in their vehicles. I’m sure that was a set back for the Kennedy’s and Ms. Pelosi. Guess what…..We did it anyway.
By the way, Obama does not like any of this. Guess what……we don’t care…..we’re doing it anyway
Monday, July 20, 2009
Islamists Urge Sharia Over Constitution
Hizb Ut-Tahrir: Shariah Takes Precedence over U.S. Constitution
Imam Promises to Fight "Until Islam Becomes Victorious or We Die in the Attempt"
IPT News
July 20, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1100/hizb-ut-tahrir-shariah-takes-precedence-over-us
Oak Lawn, Illinois - Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the international movement to re-establish an international Islamic state or Caliphate - kicked off a new campaign to win American recruits Sunday afternoon in this Chicago suburb. Nearly 300 people packed the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel for its Khalifah Conference on "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" to listen to listen to HT ideologues blame capitalism for World War I and World War II; the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown; the current violence in Iraq and Afghanistan; world poverty and malnutrition and inner-city drug use.
A speaker identified as Abu Atallah even blamed capitalism for the late singer Michael Jackson's decision "to shed his black skin."
Hizb ut-Tahrir aims to restore the Caliphate that existed during the Ottoman Empire in Turkey. Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk abolished it in 1924 in an effort to create a secular, Europeanized state.
Security at the conference was very tight. Oak Lawn police maintained a checkpoint outside the Hilton, and local police and HT's own security people had a substantial presence inside the hotel. In the ballroom where the conference took place, men and women were largely segregated, with men in the front and women in the back. This became a significant point of contention between HT supporters and several members of the audience who objected to this arrangement. At one point, an unidentified Hizb ut-Tahrir speaker became flustered over this line of questioning.
"Men and women," he blurted out, must be kept separate "to prevent people from behaving like animals."
A woman in the audience responded: "How does intermingling between men and women make you animals?" HT panelists didn't have a persuasive answer, and soon adjourned that session.
The conference was sometimes poorly organized. There was no list of speakers, forcing reporters to sometimes guess at the spelling of speakers' names. But HT certainly appeared to be serious about working for the larger goals of the conference: abolishing capitalism and imposing Caliphate rule over the world.
According to Hizb ut-Tahrir, the world's social and economic problems will not be fixed until the world is governed by Shariah and the government controls all major industries. Lenders would no longer be able to charge interest, which one speaker decried as a "poisonous concept." Charity, or zakat, was advertised as the way to alleviate "economic inequality."
"Secular capitalism has made me devalue my skin" and "has kept my family in ghettos," said one speaker, an African-American who went on to blame it for the fact that he smoked marijuana and his grandmother played the lottery. Capitalism, he added, is a form of economic "terrorism" and "causes us to be sent to mental hospitals." Barack Obama's presidency, he said, "is only a scheme or con" to trick people into thinking that things will get better under capitalism.
But time and again on Sunday, Hizb ut-Tahrir officials seemed to be playing slippery rhetorical games of their own - particularly when it came to the behavior of despotic Muslim regimes and terrorists. When a few skeptical audience members pressed speakers over the fact that Islamic governments in Iran and Saudi Arabia are despotic, conference speakers claimed those weren't "authentic" Muslim governments and that the CIA (and by implication, the capitalist U.S. government) was to blame for the problems in those countries. In an interview with WBBM-TV in Chicago, HT deputy spokesman Mohammad Malkawi refused to specifically condemn Al Qaida and the Taliban.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has not been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government and it insists it is only interested in instituting radical change by nonviolent means. But HT's alumni include 9/ll mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the late Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi and would-be Hamas suicide bombers, and the group's pro-jihadist rhetoric has led critics to label it a "conveyor belt for terrorists."
One Muslim American group issued a statement in advance of the conference condemning Hizb ut-Tahrir's radical ideology and challenging others to follow suit.
"Hizb ut-Tahrir preaches an ideology that calls for the destruction of the principles that America is founded on," said Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy. "While their words are protected by our First Amendment, their actions and movement must not be allowed to take hold. The silence of American Islamist organizations like [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] CAIR and [the Islamic Society of North America] ISNA in condemning the ideologies of Hizb ut-Tahrir and their agenda of insurgency in America speaks volumes to their own, albeit, more camouflaged Islamist agenda."
HT's efforts to rehabilitate its image won't be helped by the menacing tone on display Sunday. One late-afternoon panelist suggested that modern industrial powers could fall to Muslims the way Mecca fell to Mohammed nearly 1,400 years ago.
A speaker identified by conference organizers as Imam Jaleel Abdul Razek said that if they offer us the sun, or the moon, or a nice raise, or a passport, or a house in the suburbs or even a place to pray at the job, on the condition that we stop calling for Islam as a complete way of life - we should never do that, ever do that - unless and until Islam becomes victorious or we die in the attempt." (To see the clip, click here.)
Later, the following dialogue ensued between the imam and a member of the audience over whether Shariah or the Constitution should be the supreme law of the land in the United States (click here to see the clip):
Audience member: "Would you get rid of the Constitution for Shariah, yes or no?"
Imam: "Over the Muslim world? Yes, it would be gone."
Audience Member: And so if the United States was a Muslim world, the Constitution would be gone?"
Imam: "If the United States was in the Muslim world, the Muslims who are here would be calling and happy to see the Shariah applied, yes we would."
Audience Member: "And the Constitution gone. That's all."
Imam: "Yes, as Muslims they would be long gone."
While Hizb ut-Tahrir's controversial message attracted demonstrators and some media attention, the group at least is open about its ambitions. It not only is determined to destroy capitalism — it would shred the United States Constitution as well in favor of Shariah law.
Imam Promises to Fight "Until Islam Becomes Victorious or We Die in the Attempt"
IPT News
July 20, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/1100/hizb-ut-tahrir-shariah-takes-precedence-over-us
Oak Lawn, Illinois - Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the international movement to re-establish an international Islamic state or Caliphate - kicked off a new campaign to win American recruits Sunday afternoon in this Chicago suburb. Nearly 300 people packed the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel for its Khalifah Conference on "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam" to listen to listen to HT ideologues blame capitalism for World War I and World War II; the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown; the current violence in Iraq and Afghanistan; world poverty and malnutrition and inner-city drug use.
A speaker identified as Abu Atallah even blamed capitalism for the late singer Michael Jackson's decision "to shed his black skin."
Hizb ut-Tahrir aims to restore the Caliphate that existed during the Ottoman Empire in Turkey. Turkish leader Kemal Ataturk abolished it in 1924 in an effort to create a secular, Europeanized state.
Security at the conference was very tight. Oak Lawn police maintained a checkpoint outside the Hilton, and local police and HT's own security people had a substantial presence inside the hotel. In the ballroom where the conference took place, men and women were largely segregated, with men in the front and women in the back. This became a significant point of contention between HT supporters and several members of the audience who objected to this arrangement. At one point, an unidentified Hizb ut-Tahrir speaker became flustered over this line of questioning.
"Men and women," he blurted out, must be kept separate "to prevent people from behaving like animals."
A woman in the audience responded: "How does intermingling between men and women make you animals?" HT panelists didn't have a persuasive answer, and soon adjourned that session.
The conference was sometimes poorly organized. There was no list of speakers, forcing reporters to sometimes guess at the spelling of speakers' names. But HT certainly appeared to be serious about working for the larger goals of the conference: abolishing capitalism and imposing Caliphate rule over the world.
According to Hizb ut-Tahrir, the world's social and economic problems will not be fixed until the world is governed by Shariah and the government controls all major industries. Lenders would no longer be able to charge interest, which one speaker decried as a "poisonous concept." Charity, or zakat, was advertised as the way to alleviate "economic inequality."
"Secular capitalism has made me devalue my skin" and "has kept my family in ghettos," said one speaker, an African-American who went on to blame it for the fact that he smoked marijuana and his grandmother played the lottery. Capitalism, he added, is a form of economic "terrorism" and "causes us to be sent to mental hospitals." Barack Obama's presidency, he said, "is only a scheme or con" to trick people into thinking that things will get better under capitalism.
But time and again on Sunday, Hizb ut-Tahrir officials seemed to be playing slippery rhetorical games of their own - particularly when it came to the behavior of despotic Muslim regimes and terrorists. When a few skeptical audience members pressed speakers over the fact that Islamic governments in Iran and Saudi Arabia are despotic, conference speakers claimed those weren't "authentic" Muslim governments and that the CIA (and by implication, the capitalist U.S. government) was to blame for the problems in those countries. In an interview with WBBM-TV in Chicago, HT deputy spokesman Mohammad Malkawi refused to specifically condemn Al Qaida and the Taliban.
Hizb ut-Tahrir has not been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government and it insists it is only interested in instituting radical change by nonviolent means. But HT's alumni include 9/ll mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the late Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi and would-be Hamas suicide bombers, and the group's pro-jihadist rhetoric has led critics to label it a "conveyor belt for terrorists."
One Muslim American group issued a statement in advance of the conference condemning Hizb ut-Tahrir's radical ideology and challenging others to follow suit.
"Hizb ut-Tahrir preaches an ideology that calls for the destruction of the principles that America is founded on," said Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy. "While their words are protected by our First Amendment, their actions and movement must not be allowed to take hold. The silence of American Islamist organizations like [the Council on American-Islamic Relations] CAIR and [the Islamic Society of North America] ISNA in condemning the ideologies of Hizb ut-Tahrir and their agenda of insurgency in America speaks volumes to their own, albeit, more camouflaged Islamist agenda."
HT's efforts to rehabilitate its image won't be helped by the menacing tone on display Sunday. One late-afternoon panelist suggested that modern industrial powers could fall to Muslims the way Mecca fell to Mohammed nearly 1,400 years ago.
A speaker identified by conference organizers as Imam Jaleel Abdul Razek said that if they offer us the sun, or the moon, or a nice raise, or a passport, or a house in the suburbs or even a place to pray at the job, on the condition that we stop calling for Islam as a complete way of life - we should never do that, ever do that - unless and until Islam becomes victorious or we die in the attempt." (To see the clip, click here.)
Later, the following dialogue ensued between the imam and a member of the audience over whether Shariah or the Constitution should be the supreme law of the land in the United States (click here to see the clip):
Audience member: "Would you get rid of the Constitution for Shariah, yes or no?"
Imam: "Over the Muslim world? Yes, it would be gone."
Audience Member: And so if the United States was a Muslim world, the Constitution would be gone?"
Imam: "If the United States was in the Muslim world, the Muslims who are here would be calling and happy to see the Shariah applied, yes we would."
Audience Member: "And the Constitution gone. That's all."
Imam: "Yes, as Muslims they would be long gone."
While Hizb ut-Tahrir's controversial message attracted demonstrators and some media attention, the group at least is open about its ambitions. It not only is determined to destroy capitalism — it would shred the United States Constitution as well in favor of Shariah law.
Government Health Care
Whatever health insurance bill is passed in Congress MUST apply to members of Congress and other federal employees.
No Exceptions.
If it isn't good enough for them, it isn't good enough for us.
We are calling on members of Congress to propose an amendment to the Kennedy Health Bill requiring all federal employees to enroll in a "qualified" health plan just like the rest of us.
How health care 'reforms' will mess with your coverage
By Betsy McCaughey
Wednesday, June 24th 2009
Sen. Edward Kennedy's health proposal, the Affordable Health Choices Act, is now being marked up in committee, a first step toward a vote. Critics are mounting a battle against the bill's public insurance option.
But for patients, there's a bigger danger: a mandate that will limit your choice of health plans and restrict when you can see a specialist. You may be compelled to pay 10% or more of your income for insurance you don't want.
Let me address a few big questions you may have.
Does the bill require you to have health insurance?
Yes. There is a lot of Washington double-talk in the bill - for example, it states, "No individual shall be compelled to enroll in a 'qualified' health plan" (sec. 3101).
But if you file a tax return and fail to attach proof of your qualifying health plan, the IRS, in coordination with the expanded federal office on electronic medical records and a new state bureaucracy called a Gateway, will find you, notify you of your default and fine you (sec. 59).
How big a fine? That's left up to the secretary of health and human services, but it will be big enough to ". . . accomplish the goal of enhancing participation."
Of course, people on Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs are exempt. But the outrage is that members of Congress are exempting themselves (sec. 3116).
What is a "qualified" health plan?
The bill doesn't detail what this term means, but the language suggests you will be limited to a managed-care-style plan. Patients will have their care coordinated in a "medical home" - this decade's term for your primary care provider - and will not be allowed to see a specialist or get a test whenever they want to. Their care will be "coordinated." Doctors will be paid with "incentives" or hit with penalties to encourage cost-effective care.
One such method is capitation, which means doctors get paid a flat fee per month per patient. With capitation, the fewer tests and referrals you're allowed, the more your doctor makes (sec. 2707).
How much will a "qualified" plan cost?
There are no prices in the bill, but it does make clear that there will be sliding-scale subsidies for individuals buying plans and temporary subsidies for small businesses covering workers.
The bill says a family of four with a household income of $110,250 will not have to lay out more than 10% of its modified adjusted gross income (sec. 3111). Ten percent is a lot, but you might have to pay even more. Senators are looking for ways to trim costs, including allowing only families in lower-income groups to get subsidies.
Will this plan affect you if you get your health insurance from a large company?
Yes. The bill leaves blank precisely what employers' obligations will be (sec. 163), but you will need to prove that you are enrolled in a "qualified" plan.
Negotiations in the coming days will determine whether your employer must contribute to the cost of that plan and what the tax treatment will be.
What about the "public plan" everyone is discussing?
The bill mentions that there will be a public plan, but offers no details (sec. 3101 and 3116). The importance of the public plan has been exaggerated. Its opponents warn that the public option will drive out private insurance, but that will happen anyway. The bill gives the health and human services secretary power to limit profit margins, which makes it iffy how long insurance companies will be able to survive (sec. 2704).
That's another reason President Obama's promise yesterday that he's "not going to mess" with your plan is unconvincing. No one likes insurance companies, but the indications are that faceless bureaucrats in Washington will be even stingier when it comes to doling out your medical care.
McCaughey is chair of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former lieutenant governor of New York State. She can be emailed at betsy@hospitalinfection.org.
No Exceptions.
If it isn't good enough for them, it isn't good enough for us.
We are calling on members of Congress to propose an amendment to the Kennedy Health Bill requiring all federal employees to enroll in a "qualified" health plan just like the rest of us.
How health care 'reforms' will mess with your coverage
By Betsy McCaughey
Wednesday, June 24th 2009
Sen. Edward Kennedy's health proposal, the Affordable Health Choices Act, is now being marked up in committee, a first step toward a vote. Critics are mounting a battle against the bill's public insurance option.
But for patients, there's a bigger danger: a mandate that will limit your choice of health plans and restrict when you can see a specialist. You may be compelled to pay 10% or more of your income for insurance you don't want.
Let me address a few big questions you may have.
Does the bill require you to have health insurance?
Yes. There is a lot of Washington double-talk in the bill - for example, it states, "No individual shall be compelled to enroll in a 'qualified' health plan" (sec. 3101).
But if you file a tax return and fail to attach proof of your qualifying health plan, the IRS, in coordination with the expanded federal office on electronic medical records and a new state bureaucracy called a Gateway, will find you, notify you of your default and fine you (sec. 59).
How big a fine? That's left up to the secretary of health and human services, but it will be big enough to ". . . accomplish the goal of enhancing participation."
Of course, people on Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs are exempt. But the outrage is that members of Congress are exempting themselves (sec. 3116).
What is a "qualified" health plan?
The bill doesn't detail what this term means, but the language suggests you will be limited to a managed-care-style plan. Patients will have their care coordinated in a "medical home" - this decade's term for your primary care provider - and will not be allowed to see a specialist or get a test whenever they want to. Their care will be "coordinated." Doctors will be paid with "incentives" or hit with penalties to encourage cost-effective care.
One such method is capitation, which means doctors get paid a flat fee per month per patient. With capitation, the fewer tests and referrals you're allowed, the more your doctor makes (sec. 2707).
How much will a "qualified" plan cost?
There are no prices in the bill, but it does make clear that there will be sliding-scale subsidies for individuals buying plans and temporary subsidies for small businesses covering workers.
The bill says a family of four with a household income of $110,250 will not have to lay out more than 10% of its modified adjusted gross income (sec. 3111). Ten percent is a lot, but you might have to pay even more. Senators are looking for ways to trim costs, including allowing only families in lower-income groups to get subsidies.
Will this plan affect you if you get your health insurance from a large company?
Yes. The bill leaves blank precisely what employers' obligations will be (sec. 163), but you will need to prove that you are enrolled in a "qualified" plan.
Negotiations in the coming days will determine whether your employer must contribute to the cost of that plan and what the tax treatment will be.
What about the "public plan" everyone is discussing?
The bill mentions that there will be a public plan, but offers no details (sec. 3101 and 3116). The importance of the public plan has been exaggerated. Its opponents warn that the public option will drive out private insurance, but that will happen anyway. The bill gives the health and human services secretary power to limit profit margins, which makes it iffy how long insurance companies will be able to survive (sec. 2704).
That's another reason President Obama's promise yesterday that he's "not going to mess" with your plan is unconvincing. No one likes insurance companies, but the indications are that faceless bureaucrats in Washington will be even stingier when it comes to doling out your medical care.
McCaughey is chair of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former lieutenant governor of New York State. She can be emailed at betsy@hospitalinfection.org.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Michelle To England For Fish And Chips
Michelle Obama Takes Girls to London For Fish and Chips
Truly, "change" we can believe in --- or as was said during the campaign,
"We are the change we have been waiting for."
Imagine this --- and when do we get totally fed up?
On Sunday, President Obama flew back to the United States on Air Force One. His wife, two daughters and her mother did a bit of shopping in Paris before taking their own Boeing 757 (C-32) over to London to do some sight seeing. We all remember Obama’s admonishment to corporate CEO’s in February: “You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.” Apparently that doesn’t apply to his wife. The London Times opened it’s description of Michelle’s visit this way: Motorcycle outriders, armoured Chevrolets and bullet-headed men in raincoats criss-crossed London yesterday as Michelle Obama and her daughters spent a second day on an unofficial visit to the capital.
The Times went on to describe that when Michelle and the girls arrived at Westminster Abbey, the building was closed to tourists with people already in told to “wait against the wall.” An American visiting the Abbey said “Right then I knew it was probably someone from our ‘royal family’.”
Michelle’s motorcade shut down a London street as the First Lady of the World and her children go for Fish and Chips at a pub in Mayfair . The entourage inside the restaurant was 15 people while dozens more wait outside. Include the dozens of Air Force personnel to fly and service the plane, embassy personnel and other staff and we are talking about a serious expenditure of tax payer dollars.
Meanwhile, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and won’t be able to take their family on a summer holiday. Despite their circumstances they’ll still be expected to fork over the tax dollars to pay for Michelle’s trip.
Truly, "change" we can believe in --- or as was said during the campaign,
"We are the change we have been waiting for."
Imagine this --- and when do we get totally fed up?
On Sunday, President Obama flew back to the United States on Air Force One. His wife, two daughters and her mother did a bit of shopping in Paris before taking their own Boeing 757 (C-32) over to London to do some sight seeing. We all remember Obama’s admonishment to corporate CEO’s in February: “You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.” Apparently that doesn’t apply to his wife. The London Times opened it’s description of Michelle’s visit this way: Motorcycle outriders, armoured Chevrolets and bullet-headed men in raincoats criss-crossed London yesterday as Michelle Obama and her daughters spent a second day on an unofficial visit to the capital.
The Times went on to describe that when Michelle and the girls arrived at Westminster Abbey, the building was closed to tourists with people already in told to “wait against the wall.” An American visiting the Abbey said “Right then I knew it was probably someone from our ‘royal family’.”
Michelle’s motorcade shut down a London street as the First Lady of the World and her children go for Fish and Chips at a pub in Mayfair . The entourage inside the restaurant was 15 people while dozens more wait outside. Include the dozens of Air Force personnel to fly and service the plane, embassy personnel and other staff and we are talking about a serious expenditure of tax payer dollars.
Meanwhile, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and won’t be able to take their family on a summer holiday. Despite their circumstances they’ll still be expected to fork over the tax dollars to pay for Michelle’s trip.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Researchers Examine Radical Rhetoric
RESEARCHERS EXAMINE RADICAL RHETORIC
by Mickey McCarter
Thursday, 16 July 2009
DHS hopes to correlate language of extremist groups to acts of terrorism
A privacy assessment filed by researchers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has thrown some light on a project to study "radical rhetoric" and how extreme language relates to violent activities in acts of terrorism.
The research effort, formally titled Comparative Case Studies of Radical Rhetoric, aims to examine whether characteristics of rhetoric used by extremists have a relationship with how likely they are to engage in violence.
The Human Factors/Behavioral Sciences Division (HFD) of the DHS Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) undertook the project to see if it could determine whether analyzing rhetoric could distinguish between groups that do and do not engage in violent attacks or could assist in predicting upcoming violent attacks by specific groups, HFD said in a privacy report made public Wednesday.
The HFD division is providing funding to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to carry out the work to correlate radical rhetoric with acts of violence. Researchers on the project use open source intelligence sources to examine the speeches, statements, and papers of four foreign extremist groups: al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Hizb ut-Tahir, and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia.
"Central" al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, engage in terrorism against nations and institutions they oppose, the report noted. Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia follow the same ideology and goals but do not engage in terrorism, researchers said.
So the HFD division has broken the four groups into two control groups to examine their rhetorical differences and then to see if any conclusions can be drawn from the differences. By comparing the al Qaeda groups to the other two groups, researchers expressed hope they could determine who would engage in violent acts based on what they have to say.
Researchers plan to search the Open Source Center, provided by the US director of National Intelligence, and Hizb ut-Tahrir's Web sites for documents. From the Open Source Center, researchers will pull documents that reference al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. From Hizb ut-Tahrir, researchers will use documents issued only by its central office in Jordan to focus their study on the leadership of the groups, the report said.
The rhetorical analysis undertaken in the study will examine the imagery, tone and context of rhetoric as well as the literal meaning of the words, researchers said.
The HFD division and Oak Ridge National Laboratory also plan to assemble a timeline of violent activities of al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula through use of other open source intelligence sources, such as the State Department's Country Reports on Global Terrorism, reports developed by the Congressional Research Service, academic databases, newspaper reports, and others.
The privacy impact assessment filed by the S&T Directorate was a routine filing meant to determine if information will be shared and, if so, how it will be protected. The S&T Directorate noted there were no privacy concerns related to the foreign extremists.
by Mickey McCarter
Thursday, 16 July 2009
DHS hopes to correlate language of extremist groups to acts of terrorism
A privacy assessment filed by researchers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has thrown some light on a project to study "radical rhetoric" and how extreme language relates to violent activities in acts of terrorism.
The research effort, formally titled Comparative Case Studies of Radical Rhetoric, aims to examine whether characteristics of rhetoric used by extremists have a relationship with how likely they are to engage in violence.
The Human Factors/Behavioral Sciences Division (HFD) of the DHS Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) undertook the project to see if it could determine whether analyzing rhetoric could distinguish between groups that do and do not engage in violent attacks or could assist in predicting upcoming violent attacks by specific groups, HFD said in a privacy report made public Wednesday.
The HFD division is providing funding to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to carry out the work to correlate radical rhetoric with acts of violence. Researchers on the project use open source intelligence sources to examine the speeches, statements, and papers of four foreign extremist groups: al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Hizb ut-Tahir, and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia.
"Central" al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, led by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, engage in terrorism against nations and institutions they oppose, the report noted. Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia follow the same ideology and goals but do not engage in terrorism, researchers said.
So the HFD division has broken the four groups into two control groups to examine their rhetorical differences and then to see if any conclusions can be drawn from the differences. By comparing the al Qaeda groups to the other two groups, researchers expressed hope they could determine who would engage in violent acts based on what they have to say.
Researchers plan to search the Open Source Center, provided by the US director of National Intelligence, and Hizb ut-Tahrir's Web sites for documents. From the Open Source Center, researchers will pull documents that reference al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or bin Laden and al-Zawahiri. From Hizb ut-Tahrir, researchers will use documents issued only by its central office in Jordan to focus their study on the leadership of the groups, the report said.
The rhetorical analysis undertaken in the study will examine the imagery, tone and context of rhetoric as well as the literal meaning of the words, researchers said.
The HFD division and Oak Ridge National Laboratory also plan to assemble a timeline of violent activities of al Qaeda and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula through use of other open source intelligence sources, such as the State Department's Country Reports on Global Terrorism, reports developed by the Congressional Research Service, academic databases, newspaper reports, and others.
The privacy impact assessment filed by the S&T Directorate was a routine filing meant to determine if information will be shared and, if so, how it will be protected. The S&T Directorate noted there were no privacy concerns related to the foreign extremists.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Censored On The House Floor
Pelosi Censors Republicans
by Rep. John Carter
07/16/2009
Monday night Democrats voted to shut down the U.S. House Representatives rather than allow a handful of Republican Congressmen to speak on the floor. What could have been so offensive or frightening about our discourse that Speaker Pelosi felt she had to protect her party by gagging free speech in the House?
In fact, we had planned to speak on the lack of transparency of the House since Democrats took control. We had planned to criticize Speaker Pelosi for repeatedly denying Members, the media, and the public to right to read legislation before it was voted on. We were set to discuss House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s statement last week that if his Members were required to read the Democrats’ healthcare reform package before it was voted on, it would fail.
So the Speaker obviously feels that if the public is truly aware of her party’s agenda, they will reject it. She is now making sure the public is kept in the dark by trampling the centuries-old democratic traditions of the House.
What are those traditions? Every day that the House is in session, following the final vote of the day, representatives are allowed the privilege of free speech on the House floor in what is known as “Special Orders.” They may speak for one minute, five minutes, or one hour segments, and must request their time in advance. Time is allocated equally to both parties on a first-come basis.
Since the advent of live C-SPAN coverage of the House, this has provided a national televised outlet for both Republicans and Democrats to speak to the nation on topics they feel were not adequately addressed during regular order in the House, during which the Democrat majority has the parliamentary ability to limit debate and speeches.
Special Orders therefore frequently serves as a political safety valve if the party in the majority becomes too dictatorial during debate, using their majority status to truly oppress the minority’s ability to debate and offer amendments.
That is now the case in the House, with the Democrat majority under Pelosi repeatedly rejecting House rules to ram a far-left agenda through before the public has time to learn what is actually in the bills.
This is what we were committed to bring to public light.
House rules require a bill be publicly posted for three days before it can be voted on. That basic rule was written by none other than Thomas Jefferson as part of the original rules package of the House, as it is essential to the survival of representative democracy.
The House can waive that rule if it chooses on specific occasions. The Republican-controlled House chose to waive it when considering the Patriot Act in 2001 following the terror attacks of 9-11. They thought there was enough of a national defense emergency to just bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
But Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats have chosen to ignore the rule on every major issue taken up by the House this year, including:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - The Obama Stimulus: This one just had to pass that very day because time was a-wastin’ in getting those new jobs coming. We couldn’t wait for Members to read it. But then the President waited four days to sign it into law while he spent the weekend in Chicago, and months later none of the new jobs have come into existence.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization (SCHIP): Speaker Pelosi couldn’t wait on this one either, although the deadline for reauthorization was still two months away.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: Lilly was peddled as covering decades-old wage discrimination cases, but after waiting 20 years, Congress couldn’t wait one more day to let Members actually read the thing.
The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009: No excuses at all on this one. They just didn’t want the details known.
The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009: This one has been languishing since last October, but we suddenly had to pass it that day.
The AIG Bonus Tax Act: This had to get through right then, don’t mind the details, we just had to go after those bonuses. Only when we read what passed after the fact, the bill contained waivers for all of the same executives the bill was supposed to reign in, many with curiously close ties to Treasury Secretary and tax cheat Tim Geithner.
The Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009: No rush whatever on this one time-wise, the Democrats just didn’t want people talking about the hundreds of billions given to foreign banks that should have gone to our troops.
The American Clean Energy and Security Act/National Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax:
No excuse was offered on this one, the Speaker just didn’t want anybody reading Henry Waxman’s 300 page amendment he sneaked in overnight before we were forced to vote. Three weeks later, the Senate shows no intention of taking up the bill before the opening day of dove season, if then.
There’s a reason all these bills are listed. The list constitutes every major policy bill undertaken by Congress this year. House Democrats are not just waiving the three-day rule -- they have destroyed it, and are intentionally pushing their agenda to the floor with blindfolds on the media and the public.
This constitutes an astonishing and chilling acceleration of the assault on representative democracy that began in earnest this January.
Representative democracy works when a U.S. Representative listens to the input of their constituents, and votes the way the majority of their district would vote. Only a Representative can’t listen if no one has ever seen the bill, or had time to provide input. They have to vote blind, which for too many, is voting the way their leadership tells them.
This is what Republican House Members were going to the floor to say Monday night. We were set to decry the loss of openness in the House.
Instead, we were met with a slammed door by Democrats, who are now committed to burying truth along with democracy.
The Democrats are the majority -- for now. They chose to silence debate on the floor by gagging House Republican Members from using their historical right to speak after the close of the day. But they cannot stop us from speaking outside the halls of Congress and letting the American public know the truth about their ongoing attack against the very foundations of a free Republic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Carter, a Republican, represents the 31st District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.
by Rep. John Carter
07/16/2009
Monday night Democrats voted to shut down the U.S. House Representatives rather than allow a handful of Republican Congressmen to speak on the floor. What could have been so offensive or frightening about our discourse that Speaker Pelosi felt she had to protect her party by gagging free speech in the House?
In fact, we had planned to speak on the lack of transparency of the House since Democrats took control. We had planned to criticize Speaker Pelosi for repeatedly denying Members, the media, and the public to right to read legislation before it was voted on. We were set to discuss House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s statement last week that if his Members were required to read the Democrats’ healthcare reform package before it was voted on, it would fail.
So the Speaker obviously feels that if the public is truly aware of her party’s agenda, they will reject it. She is now making sure the public is kept in the dark by trampling the centuries-old democratic traditions of the House.
What are those traditions? Every day that the House is in session, following the final vote of the day, representatives are allowed the privilege of free speech on the House floor in what is known as “Special Orders.” They may speak for one minute, five minutes, or one hour segments, and must request their time in advance. Time is allocated equally to both parties on a first-come basis.
Since the advent of live C-SPAN coverage of the House, this has provided a national televised outlet for both Republicans and Democrats to speak to the nation on topics they feel were not adequately addressed during regular order in the House, during which the Democrat majority has the parliamentary ability to limit debate and speeches.
Special Orders therefore frequently serves as a political safety valve if the party in the majority becomes too dictatorial during debate, using their majority status to truly oppress the minority’s ability to debate and offer amendments.
That is now the case in the House, with the Democrat majority under Pelosi repeatedly rejecting House rules to ram a far-left agenda through before the public has time to learn what is actually in the bills.
This is what we were committed to bring to public light.
House rules require a bill be publicly posted for three days before it can be voted on. That basic rule was written by none other than Thomas Jefferson as part of the original rules package of the House, as it is essential to the survival of representative democracy.
The House can waive that rule if it chooses on specific occasions. The Republican-controlled House chose to waive it when considering the Patriot Act in 2001 following the terror attacks of 9-11. They thought there was enough of a national defense emergency to just bring the bill to the floor for a vote.
But Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats have chosen to ignore the rule on every major issue taken up by the House this year, including:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - The Obama Stimulus: This one just had to pass that very day because time was a-wastin’ in getting those new jobs coming. We couldn’t wait for Members to read it. But then the President waited four days to sign it into law while he spent the weekend in Chicago, and months later none of the new jobs have come into existence.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization (SCHIP): Speaker Pelosi couldn’t wait on this one either, although the deadline for reauthorization was still two months away.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: Lilly was peddled as covering decades-old wage discrimination cases, but after waiting 20 years, Congress couldn’t wait one more day to let Members actually read the thing.
The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009: No excuses at all on this one. They just didn’t want the details known.
The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009: This one has been languishing since last October, but we suddenly had to pass it that day.
The AIG Bonus Tax Act: This had to get through right then, don’t mind the details, we just had to go after those bonuses. Only when we read what passed after the fact, the bill contained waivers for all of the same executives the bill was supposed to reign in, many with curiously close ties to Treasury Secretary and tax cheat Tim Geithner.
The Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009: No rush whatever on this one time-wise, the Democrats just didn’t want people talking about the hundreds of billions given to foreign banks that should have gone to our troops.
The American Clean Energy and Security Act/National Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax:
No excuse was offered on this one, the Speaker just didn’t want anybody reading Henry Waxman’s 300 page amendment he sneaked in overnight before we were forced to vote. Three weeks later, the Senate shows no intention of taking up the bill before the opening day of dove season, if then.
There’s a reason all these bills are listed. The list constitutes every major policy bill undertaken by Congress this year. House Democrats are not just waiving the three-day rule -- they have destroyed it, and are intentionally pushing their agenda to the floor with blindfolds on the media and the public.
This constitutes an astonishing and chilling acceleration of the assault on representative democracy that began in earnest this January.
Representative democracy works when a U.S. Representative listens to the input of their constituents, and votes the way the majority of their district would vote. Only a Representative can’t listen if no one has ever seen the bill, or had time to provide input. They have to vote blind, which for too many, is voting the way their leadership tells them.
This is what Republican House Members were going to the floor to say Monday night. We were set to decry the loss of openness in the House.
Instead, we were met with a slammed door by Democrats, who are now committed to burying truth along with democracy.
The Democrats are the majority -- for now. They chose to silence debate on the floor by gagging House Republican Members from using their historical right to speak after the close of the day. But they cannot stop us from speaking outside the halls of Congress and letting the American public know the truth about their ongoing attack against the very foundations of a free Republic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Carter, a Republican, represents the 31st District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Summer Of Discontent
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Lt. Colonel Allen West's Column: “The Breaking Point; Summer of Discontent”
Lt Colonel Allen West's monthly column sums it all up. It's a jagged little pill.
Washingtoons
15 July 2009
Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army, Retired)
“The Breaking Point; Summer of Discontent”
Greetings fellow South Florida riders, South Floridians, and Americans, here we are for another monthly installment of our Wheels on the Road political assessment. If you read the title of this month’s piece you realize where I am headed.
A good Commander always pays attention to the environment and notices that which is not normal. In combat, I would always counsel my junior leaders to look for things that are “out of whack” when you are out on patrol. Did you see children out playing? Were the regular sidewalk meat markets open? Were there news media vans riding around in the area of operations? You must always be tuned into the indicators and warnings (I/W) which can confirm or deny the intelligence reports you receive.
In the same light I have been listening to people and observing them whenever I am out and about.
We just had the 4th of July tea party events here in South Florida. I attended the Broward event which was in downtown Ft Lauderdale. The estimate by the Police was around 3000 for the crowd, truly amazing considering a hot holiday weekend Saturday. The local news came after the event and gave their estimation at a couple dozen.
We are living in such a time of media manipulation that Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels, would be proud. Many times I will flip back and forth between TV media outlets to contrast the story being reported, guess what? The glaring difference is not even debatable; one would think there is a completely different story being done.
The issue is that more and more people are noticing this, and Americans are becoming rather angry. You can see it in the falling subscriptions of the NY Times, and in the failing ratings of the “mainstream media” news.
Of course there are the mindless lemmings who truly are content with the current state of affairs in America. There are the left wing liberal socialists who believe that America is on the right track and could not be happier. However, what I am witnessing and assessing is their abject fear and concern about maintaining their “power”.
America, as a Country, is slowly awakening and the growing anger is no longer hidden. You see it in emails being passed along, you hear it on the street, when you look at the comment section to internet articles you sense it. Yes, there are the left wing blogs and comments but the hard hitting responses to them are powerful.
There is a reason why this current regime seeks to shut down voices of opposition, the truth is getting out. Why is there legislation to label pro-life and pro-gun groups as domestic terrorists? Why is there a move to create local community review boards that will evaluate, truly regulate, talk radio, the bastion of conservative discourse?
We sit in our Republic and find ourselves living with an unemployment rate that is at 9.6% and climbing. We listen to leadership who tell us that they “misread” the economy or had bad information. We are hearing about a second stimulus package because the first stimulus will not really take effect for two years…then why was it called a “stimulus”.
This most recent exhibit of Congressional incompetence called the “Cap and Trade” bill is nothing more than a behavior modification by taxation piece of legislation. We live with a government which seeks to coercively make us succumb to their desired energy agenda.
We know that there is legislation to grant citizenship to the 15-20 million illegal immigrants residing here in America. This is the number one means to solidify liberal power before the mid-term elections of 2010. The long term solution to cement the power grab is the 2010 census which has been moved from the Department of Commerce to the White House and handed to ACORN (or whatever their name is) for execution. These two actions will change the electoral base of our Republic for years.
We are up to 32 “Czars” in our Nation, in essence a shadow government which does not answer to the people, just the President. We are told that we WILL have a healthcare reform solution which contains a public option. Why would I want the same people who run the Postal Service and AMTRAK involved in my healthcare?
Our President does nothing to support young people in Iran against the Ayatollah’s but condemns the people of Honduras who are following their Constitution. We are seeing so many foreign policy faux pas’ which more than remind us of the Carter administration, just worse. Most recently we just ceded our nuclear weapons program to Russia and sold out our Eastern European allies. And what shall we do with North Korea? They are still holding two American female journalists.
All of you know my sentiments about the radical Islamic infiltration in America, and the world…..but hey, our President said they have made many contributions to the American way of life.
Yep, I think about that every time I undress when flying and see old movies of the New York City skyline.
Ok, the liberal response is simple, “It’s Bush’s fault”! To wit my response is even simpler, when does Obama take responsibility and is held accountable?
Leaders never look for excuses, they accept the situation in which they find themselves and come up with viable solutions. I would offer you read the story of COL Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top during the second day at the Battle of Gettysburg.
I know my liberal friends will say, war is terrible, but as John Stuart Mill stated,” the decayed and degraded moral state of patriotism which believes nothing worth war is worse”.
Hey Liberals, no more excuses, it’s your economy, your foreign policy, and you are in control, so stop whining!
So what does this all have to do with this month’s topic……people are getting more and more pissed off! (There is no better way of saying this)
We are approaching the “breaking point” and I reflect back to the 1993 Joel Schumacher film “Falling Down” which starred Michael Douglas. During this summer, the discontent will continue to arise as we head into the fall, which could have an appropriate meaning for the liberals.
Americans are growing tired of the ineptness, incompetence, and corruption which now characterizes Washington DC. Get to DC on 9-12 and let your anger be known, your voice heard, and do not just internalize that emotion.
Michael Douglas’ character just wanted to get a birthday present to his daughter……we want our Country back!
Steadfast and Loyal,
LTC(R) A B West
Lt. Colonel Allen West's Column: “The Breaking Point; Summer of Discontent”
Lt Colonel Allen West's monthly column sums it all up. It's a jagged little pill.
Washingtoons
15 July 2009
Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army, Retired)
“The Breaking Point; Summer of Discontent”
Greetings fellow South Florida riders, South Floridians, and Americans, here we are for another monthly installment of our Wheels on the Road political assessment. If you read the title of this month’s piece you realize where I am headed.
A good Commander always pays attention to the environment and notices that which is not normal. In combat, I would always counsel my junior leaders to look for things that are “out of whack” when you are out on patrol. Did you see children out playing? Were the regular sidewalk meat markets open? Were there news media vans riding around in the area of operations? You must always be tuned into the indicators and warnings (I/W) which can confirm or deny the intelligence reports you receive.
In the same light I have been listening to people and observing them whenever I am out and about.
We just had the 4th of July tea party events here in South Florida. I attended the Broward event which was in downtown Ft Lauderdale. The estimate by the Police was around 3000 for the crowd, truly amazing considering a hot holiday weekend Saturday. The local news came after the event and gave their estimation at a couple dozen.
We are living in such a time of media manipulation that Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, Goebbels, would be proud. Many times I will flip back and forth between TV media outlets to contrast the story being reported, guess what? The glaring difference is not even debatable; one would think there is a completely different story being done.
The issue is that more and more people are noticing this, and Americans are becoming rather angry. You can see it in the falling subscriptions of the NY Times, and in the failing ratings of the “mainstream media” news.
Of course there are the mindless lemmings who truly are content with the current state of affairs in America. There are the left wing liberal socialists who believe that America is on the right track and could not be happier. However, what I am witnessing and assessing is their abject fear and concern about maintaining their “power”.
America, as a Country, is slowly awakening and the growing anger is no longer hidden. You see it in emails being passed along, you hear it on the street, when you look at the comment section to internet articles you sense it. Yes, there are the left wing blogs and comments but the hard hitting responses to them are powerful.
There is a reason why this current regime seeks to shut down voices of opposition, the truth is getting out. Why is there legislation to label pro-life and pro-gun groups as domestic terrorists? Why is there a move to create local community review boards that will evaluate, truly regulate, talk radio, the bastion of conservative discourse?
We sit in our Republic and find ourselves living with an unemployment rate that is at 9.6% and climbing. We listen to leadership who tell us that they “misread” the economy or had bad information. We are hearing about a second stimulus package because the first stimulus will not really take effect for two years…then why was it called a “stimulus”.
This most recent exhibit of Congressional incompetence called the “Cap and Trade” bill is nothing more than a behavior modification by taxation piece of legislation. We live with a government which seeks to coercively make us succumb to their desired energy agenda.
We know that there is legislation to grant citizenship to the 15-20 million illegal immigrants residing here in America. This is the number one means to solidify liberal power before the mid-term elections of 2010. The long term solution to cement the power grab is the 2010 census which has been moved from the Department of Commerce to the White House and handed to ACORN (or whatever their name is) for execution. These two actions will change the electoral base of our Republic for years.
We are up to 32 “Czars” in our Nation, in essence a shadow government which does not answer to the people, just the President. We are told that we WILL have a healthcare reform solution which contains a public option. Why would I want the same people who run the Postal Service and AMTRAK involved in my healthcare?
Our President does nothing to support young people in Iran against the Ayatollah’s but condemns the people of Honduras who are following their Constitution. We are seeing so many foreign policy faux pas’ which more than remind us of the Carter administration, just worse. Most recently we just ceded our nuclear weapons program to Russia and sold out our Eastern European allies. And what shall we do with North Korea? They are still holding two American female journalists.
All of you know my sentiments about the radical Islamic infiltration in America, and the world…..but hey, our President said they have made many contributions to the American way of life.
Yep, I think about that every time I undress when flying and see old movies of the New York City skyline.
Ok, the liberal response is simple, “It’s Bush’s fault”! To wit my response is even simpler, when does Obama take responsibility and is held accountable?
Leaders never look for excuses, they accept the situation in which they find themselves and come up with viable solutions. I would offer you read the story of COL Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top during the second day at the Battle of Gettysburg.
I know my liberal friends will say, war is terrible, but as John Stuart Mill stated,” the decayed and degraded moral state of patriotism which believes nothing worth war is worse”.
Hey Liberals, no more excuses, it’s your economy, your foreign policy, and you are in control, so stop whining!
So what does this all have to do with this month’s topic……people are getting more and more pissed off! (There is no better way of saying this)
We are approaching the “breaking point” and I reflect back to the 1993 Joel Schumacher film “Falling Down” which starred Michael Douglas. During this summer, the discontent will continue to arise as we head into the fall, which could have an appropriate meaning for the liberals.
Americans are growing tired of the ineptness, incompetence, and corruption which now characterizes Washington DC. Get to DC on 9-12 and let your anger be known, your voice heard, and do not just internalize that emotion.
Michael Douglas’ character just wanted to get a birthday present to his daughter……we want our Country back!
Steadfast and Loyal,
LTC(R) A B West
A Memorial
From: Chuck Yeager
Sent: Fri, Jul 10, 2009 1:02 pm
Subject: Memorial Service: you're invited.
We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services.
I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers.
Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy
Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st
Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the
History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10
episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.
I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't
know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having
trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was
at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of
the 101st Airborne, on his hat.
Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne
or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the
101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served,
and how many jumps he made.
Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so,
and was in until sometime in 1945 .. . . " at which point my heart
skipped.
At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training
jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know
where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped.
I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what
D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into
Holland, into Arnhem." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . .
and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of
D-Day..
I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said
"Yes. And it's real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are
left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart
was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.
I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
Coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to
get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came
forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have
it, that I'd take his in coach.
He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are
still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to
make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it..
And mine are brimming up now as I write this.
Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center.
No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage.
No weeping fans on television.
And that's not right.
Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet
way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the
veterans.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
Chuck Yeager, MajGen. [ret.]
Sent: Fri, Jul 10, 2009 1:02 pm
Subject: Memorial Service: you're invited.
We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services.
I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers.
Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy
Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st
Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the
History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10
episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.
I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't
know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having
trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was
at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of
the 101st Airborne, on his hat.
Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne
or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the
101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served,
and how many jumps he made.
Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so,
and was in until sometime in 1945 .. . . " at which point my heart
skipped.
At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training
jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know
where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped.
I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what
D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into
Holland, into Arnhem." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . .
and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of
D-Day..
I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said
"Yes. And it's real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are
left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart
was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.
I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
Coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to
get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came
forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have
it, that I'd take his in coach.
He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are
still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to
make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it..
And mine are brimming up now as I write this.
Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.
There was no parade.
No big event in Staples Center.
No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage.
No weeping fans on television.
And that's not right.
Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet
way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the
veterans.
Rest in peace, Shifty.
Chuck Yeager, MajGen. [ret.]
Friday, July 10, 2009
Arab Festival 2009: Sharia In The USA
A Christian organization was denied free speech rights to pass out leaflets at an Arab festival held on PUBLIC streets in Dearborn, Michigan.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
The Coming Second American Revolution
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
The Coming Second American Revolution
Once again I overstep my friendship with Dr Jack Wheeler and run his entire column (PAID only) from To the Point News, because it needs to be said. And Dr. Wheeler pulls no punches. He tells it straight and true, which is so necessary in these mendacious and Orwellian times. Jack restates the obvious.
Quantum Weirdness Dr. Jack Wheeler
The great physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962), who pioneered the study of sub-atomic or quantum physics, was fond of saying, "If someone says that he can think about quantum physics without becoming dizzy, that shows only that he has not understood anything whatever about it."
The Alice-in-Wonderland quality of sub-atomic physics is called quantum weirdness. It was in response to such weirdness that Bohr's contemporary scientist J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) claimed "the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."
Today, however, the concept of quantum weirdness seems also to apply to politics in America.
Clearly, we are no longer living in a world of normal reality. For the first time in US history, we have a president who hates his own country. A president who is on the side of America's enemies, not on the side of America.
(The latest example, explained this week by Jack Kelly, regards Honduras.)
We have a media who reveres and worships as a demi-god a president who hates his, and their, country.
We have a government spending trillions of dollars it does not have in a seemingly determined effort to destroy everyone's life savings via inflation.
We have a Congress that passes the largest tax increase in the history of the world (literally) via a 1,300 page Climate Bill that no one has read and based on utterly fraudulent science.
We have a governor who goes so around the bend that he trashes his wife, four children, his career and life for some broad in Argentina.
We have a people who go completely bananas with grief over the suicide of a washed-up pedophilic fruitcake ex-rock star.
This is societal quantum weirdness, a dissociation from normal reality, of which additional examples could be endlessly provided. Yet extreme, unhinged, over-the-top weirdness is normally what you get when you get close to a tipping point, close to the bursting of a bubble.
Madnesses of crowds are most often economic, such as the dotcom craze or the housing bubble. A lot of folks lose a lot of money, and that's it. But when such a madness pervades an entire society, the consequences can be far more dramatic. Such a madness is often the runup to a revolution.
Revolutions are chaotic, dangerous things. We were blessed-by-Providence lucky in our first one in 1776. We got freedom and George Washington, while the French with theirs in 1789 got the guillotine and Napoleon. Which will we get in the coming Second American Revolution?
The pervasive quantum weirdness we are experiencing is clearly pointing towards mass societal breakdown. We will emerge out the other side of it with either more freedom or more fascism. You can bet it will be the latter unless there is a planned, concerted, purposeful, and organized effort to secure the former.
The focus of such an effort should be clear: constitutional government. Advocates of freedom in America have an extraordinary advantage over the advocates of fascism: the legal foundation of the country, the Constitution. But will they take that advantage?
There is no constitutional basis whatever, for example, no enumerated power for a single page of the 1,300 pages Climate Bill. None for 90% of the laws, regulations, programs, and agencies of the federal government.
Yet if there is not a Movement to Restore the Constitution that takes hold of the Republican Party - the only political entity that can realistically stop the Democrat drive towards fascism - then the end result of our quantum madness will be Darkness at Noon.
The July 4th Tea Parties - now registered to take place in 1,347 cities - could be the start of such a constitutional movement. If they remain an amorphous unfocused complaint against "too much" government regulation and taxes, then the tea party movement will fizzle.
Only with a clearly understandable and positive focus on what it wants to achieve, not just what it opposes, can it reach a threshold capable of driving the direction of coming chaos towards freedom and away from fascism.
So if you are participating in a tea party this Saturday the 4th, consider doing what you can for it to have a constitutional focus.
We're all in this together. It's up to all of us individually to help enable our country to escape from quantum weirdness, to become normal and sane once again.
[Note: for a well-thought discussion of how quantum weirdness is no stranger than "Newtonian weirdness" - to this day, science really doesn't understand gravity - see this essay by physicistPaul Quincey.]
The Coming Second American Revolution
Once again I overstep my friendship with Dr Jack Wheeler and run his entire column (PAID only) from To the Point News, because it needs to be said. And Dr. Wheeler pulls no punches. He tells it straight and true, which is so necessary in these mendacious and Orwellian times. Jack restates the obvious.
Quantum Weirdness Dr. Jack Wheeler
The great physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962), who pioneered the study of sub-atomic or quantum physics, was fond of saying, "If someone says that he can think about quantum physics without becoming dizzy, that shows only that he has not understood anything whatever about it."
The Alice-in-Wonderland quality of sub-atomic physics is called quantum weirdness. It was in response to such weirdness that Bohr's contemporary scientist J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) claimed "the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."
Today, however, the concept of quantum weirdness seems also to apply to politics in America.
Clearly, we are no longer living in a world of normal reality. For the first time in US history, we have a president who hates his own country. A president who is on the side of America's enemies, not on the side of America.
(The latest example, explained this week by Jack Kelly, regards Honduras.)
We have a media who reveres and worships as a demi-god a president who hates his, and their, country.
We have a government spending trillions of dollars it does not have in a seemingly determined effort to destroy everyone's life savings via inflation.
We have a Congress that passes the largest tax increase in the history of the world (literally) via a 1,300 page Climate Bill that no one has read and based on utterly fraudulent science.
We have a governor who goes so around the bend that he trashes his wife, four children, his career and life for some broad in Argentina.
We have a people who go completely bananas with grief over the suicide of a washed-up pedophilic fruitcake ex-rock star.
This is societal quantum weirdness, a dissociation from normal reality, of which additional examples could be endlessly provided. Yet extreme, unhinged, over-the-top weirdness is normally what you get when you get close to a tipping point, close to the bursting of a bubble.
Madnesses of crowds are most often economic, such as the dotcom craze or the housing bubble. A lot of folks lose a lot of money, and that's it. But when such a madness pervades an entire society, the consequences can be far more dramatic. Such a madness is often the runup to a revolution.
Revolutions are chaotic, dangerous things. We were blessed-by-Providence lucky in our first one in 1776. We got freedom and George Washington, while the French with theirs in 1789 got the guillotine and Napoleon. Which will we get in the coming Second American Revolution?
The pervasive quantum weirdness we are experiencing is clearly pointing towards mass societal breakdown. We will emerge out the other side of it with either more freedom or more fascism. You can bet it will be the latter unless there is a planned, concerted, purposeful, and organized effort to secure the former.
The focus of such an effort should be clear: constitutional government. Advocates of freedom in America have an extraordinary advantage over the advocates of fascism: the legal foundation of the country, the Constitution. But will they take that advantage?
There is no constitutional basis whatever, for example, no enumerated power for a single page of the 1,300 pages Climate Bill. None for 90% of the laws, regulations, programs, and agencies of the federal government.
Yet if there is not a Movement to Restore the Constitution that takes hold of the Republican Party - the only political entity that can realistically stop the Democrat drive towards fascism - then the end result of our quantum madness will be Darkness at Noon.
The July 4th Tea Parties - now registered to take place in 1,347 cities - could be the start of such a constitutional movement. If they remain an amorphous unfocused complaint against "too much" government regulation and taxes, then the tea party movement will fizzle.
Only with a clearly understandable and positive focus on what it wants to achieve, not just what it opposes, can it reach a threshold capable of driving the direction of coming chaos towards freedom and away from fascism.
So if you are participating in a tea party this Saturday the 4th, consider doing what you can for it to have a constitutional focus.
We're all in this together. It's up to all of us individually to help enable our country to escape from quantum weirdness, to become normal and sane once again.
[Note: for a well-thought discussion of how quantum weirdness is no stranger than "Newtonian weirdness" - to this day, science really doesn't understand gravity - see this essay by physicistPaul Quincey.]
Monday, July 06, 2009
ISNA's Reform Hasn't Shed It of Radical Ideologues
ISNA's Reform Hasn't Shed It of Radical Ideologues
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) hooked a big fish for its 46th convention starting Friday in Washington, D.C. when evangelical Pastor Rick Warren agreed to appear.
But ISNA wanted a bigger star – President Barack Obama. There's been no public response from the White House to ISNA's invitation. But the conference is expected to feature a significant government presence, in the form of sponsored-informational booths and speakers from the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security and others.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is also seeking volunteers to work at an information table during the conference.
On the surface, it's understandable why government agencies would want to line up for a spot at the three-day convention. It is expected to draw thousands to the nation's capital and is far and away the largest gathering of Muslim Americans.
ISNA's documented history with the Muslim Brotherhood – an 80-year-old Egyptian movement that seeks to spread Shariah, or Islamic law, far and wide – and the troubling association many of its current leaders hold should give these agencies pause about what message their participation endorses.
Much of ISNA's history was concisely reported by an Indianapolis television station in 2003. The two-part WTHR report can be viewed here.
Beyond the high-profile outsiders like Warren, the 2009 ISNA conference offers representatives from Muslim Brotherhood front groups and others who buck American law enforcement efforts to curtail terrorist financing. One group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been deemed persona non-grata by the FBI due to its Hamas ties.
Competing assessments of the government's posture toward ISNA have emerged in the past week. A widely-circulated email from a knowledgeable source claimed that the FBI had pegged ISNA as its official outreach partner to the American Muslim community and relayed that information in a meeting with ISNA Vice President Mohamed Magid.
The IPT spoke with an FBI source who confirmed that a meeting did take place at FBI headquarters. The FBI's embrace of ISNA came over the objections of case agents and supervisors investigating Muslim Brotherhood activity in the U.S., the source said.
The next day, FBI spokesman John Miller denied any relationship with ISNA had been cemented and called the email's claims "factually inaccurate and generally misleading." Magid did meet with an FBI official, Miller said, but that's because he has long been an FBI liaison through his role as head of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center.
To be clear, it is not likely that the FBI would have a memorandum declaring ISNA the official Muslim partner of federal law enforcement. Magid may be a long-time FBI liaison, but he still wears two hats when he meets with law enforcement – the ADAMS Center and ISNA.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism reviewed recent ISNA conference activity and found a host of examples of radical ideology that belies its moderate image. It also details ISNA's foundation by U.S. members of the Muslim Brotherhood, some of whom remain active in ISNA today, and extremist connections by other active ISNA leaders. You can read that report here.
ISNA remains an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-financing prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), which ended with guilty verdicts on 108 counts last November and lengthy prison terms for HLF leaders in May.
HLF is included among "individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood." ISNA petitioned the court to be removed from the list a year ago, but no ruling has been made.
Trial evidence showed accounts held by ISNA and its subsidiary, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), were used to funnel money to HLF and, ultimately, to Hamas. ISNA officials claim the organization has moved beyond its Muslim Brotherhood roots to evolve into a more mainstream American organization. That strategy has been successful, as this Associated Press preview of the ISNA convention shows.
Brotherhood Roots
ISNA's leadership ranks include a number of people who date back to the group's foundation by Muslim Brotherhood members. The organization grew out of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), which also was founded by Brotherhood members.
One of those founders, Muzammil Siddiqi was a co-founder of ISNA in 1981 and served two terms as ISNA's president from 1997-2001. He still serves on the ISNA governing board.
Likewise, Sayyid M. Syeed was a founding ISNA board member and served as secretary-general, and now heads ISNA's Center for Interfaith and Community Outreach in Washington, D.C.
A third ISNA founder, Iqbal Unus, serves on the board of directors today. He also held the title of Acting Secretary General for ISNA in January 1984 after serving at the General Secretariat since January 1977 for MSA, and later ISNA.
Siddiqi, Syeed and Unus all are scheduled to speak during ISNA's 46th annual convention.
So are two ISNA leaders who were not a part of the founding group, but nonetheless have extensive and troubling connections to terror supporters. Jamal Badawi is a member at large on ISNA's Board of Directors. Badawi was individually listed in the HLF trial as an unindicted co-conspirator for his role as a fund raiser for the defunct charity.
His number appears in a telephone book of U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood members that was admitted into evidence in the original HLF prosecution, which ended in a mistrial in November 2007. FBI agent Lara Burns testified that this phone book was found at the home of Ismail Elbarrasse, a former assistant to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook
Finally, Louay Safi directs the ISNA Leadership Development Center. He has a history of close relations with U.S. fronts for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He served on the board of advisory editors for the Middle East Affairs Journal, which was published by the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). Its editor, Ahmed Yousef, is the spokesman for deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh. The UASR was founded by Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook and was part of a Muslim Brotherhood-created Hamas support network in the U.S.
He also worked as research director at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Herndon, VA. The IIIT has been under investigation for terror financing, including at least $50,000 sent to a think-tank run by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) board member Sami Al-Arian. The think tank employed at least four members of the PIJ governing board in the early 1990s. No charges have been filed in the IIIT investigation.
Conferences Still Feature Extreme Rhetoric
A review of recent ISNA conferences further raises the question of how far the organization's reformation really has come. During the 2008 conference, speakers rationalized Hamas terrorism and revised history.
For example, Hatem Bazian, a professor of Near East Studies at the University of California-Berkeley, rewrote history to say violent Palestinian opposition to Israel started after the 1967 war:
"The violence is not a genetic motivation or genetically defined in the Palestinians. The Palestinians don't wake up in the morning and think yeah, I'm inclined towards violence. The Palestinians when they woke up they see that they're land has been taken from underneath them, that they have to go through five or six checkpoints before they get to school, that they are no longer able to use the hospital, that they are seeing a new settlement being built every other day, and they wake up in the morning and see that it's a land grab day, all these factors, including the diminishing return of the so called peace."
In that same panel, Palestinian Jamal Dajani moderated the discussion and echoed Bazian's false history:
"That is Palestinians are sick and tired of dialogue. I mean they've been listening to dialogue for six decades. It is great to have people from different places and come and interfere and put themselves between the occupier and the victim, and Palestinians listening to promises, and they see their future disappear right in front of their eyes."
In fact, Palestinians have rejected dialogue since Israel's creation in 1948. The PLO agreed to renounce terror and joined in President Clinton's peace efforts in the early 1990s, resulting in Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. The refusal of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to recognize that agreement, and the wave of terrorist attacks they launched in the agreement's wake, doomed the U.S.-led peace effort.
Similarly, during the 2008 ISNA annual convention in Columbus, Ohio, Rick Hannis, a Christian and member of the Christian Peacemakers Team, a group founded by Quakers and Mennonites with a stated purpose of working toward "nonviolent alternative to war," spoke. He described the "amazing work" Hamas does in West Bank education and health care and supposedly non-violent leaders of that organization:
"Now, most people only know about the militant part of Hamas. They don't know about the education or healthcare issued in the West Bank part. It really does amazing work."
"If there is a suicide bombing or something their militant wing has done, often Hamas leaders who promote non violence, will be assassinated, and then, of course, it is put in the paper that Hamas did this violent act-Hamas leader was assassinated as if that was an [unintelligible]. The people that know this leader, they are disenfranchised even more."
During ISNA's 2006 convention, Kamran Memon, an attorney from Muslims for a Safe America, asked the audience to raise their hands if they believed Al Qaeda committed the 9/11 attacks. In response to their raised hands, he helped rationalize Al Qaeda's actions by discussing how America's foreign policy helped to infuriate Muslims around the world.
"Some Muslims in the Muslim world decided that they were just not going to take it anymore. They were angry at our ongoing support from their enemies, so they began to attack American targets to pressure our government to change its foreign policy. They attacked American targets in 1992 in Somalia; in 1993 in New York; in 1995 and 1996 in Saudi Arabia; 1998 in Tanzania and Kenya; and 2000 in Yemen. But the U.S. government did not change its foreign policy, so those Muslims who decided that they weren't going to take it anymore attacked America on September 11.
...They are also angry at us because they look at us, the elder generations, and they see us sitting on our hands not doing anything serious to alleviate the suffering of Muslims in the Muslim world. And when they get that angry, then they do things, like if you believe that Muslims did it, they do things like the London bombings in July 2005; because they see no other way to change American foreign policy other than violence."
The list of conference panels this year does include some important issues, including one on domestic violence in the Muslim community, an emerging issue that gained added urgency earlier this year.
Such positive moves are offset, however, by the presence of speakers from other Muslim Brotherhood-tied groups including the Muslim American Society (MAS) and CAIR.
CAIR is taking advantage of the crowds expected in Washington to host an open house.
It is important to note that if the FBI in any way is increasing its outreach with ISNA, it likely replaces work CAIR previously did. The Bureau has made it clear that CAIR and its national leaders had "a connection" to Hamas, and it is unclear whether that connection remains. Until that is resolved, "the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."
ISNA apparently does not share that concern. It also endorses the canard that law enforcement action to cut off terror financing by U.S.-based charities like HLF creates "a chilling effect on Muslim charitable giving in accordance with the Islamic faith."
It has condemned terrorist plots, like the one to bomb New York synagogues and to try shooting down a military plane that was broken up by law enforcement in May. And President Ingrid Mattson has called for the Muslim community to be more assertive in confronting radical elements and "vague accusations of conspiracies, and exaggerated protests of attempts to ensure security to be used as excuses for violating the rights of women, non-Muslims and others."
However, that admirable charge is undermined by her organization's embrace of CAIR, MAS and similar groups. Agha Saeed of the American Muslim Task Force, is scheduled to speak on a panel on "Culture and Politics: Strategies of Self-Empowerment." Saeed is chairman of the group, which has spent most of 2009 advocating a Muslim boycott of the FBI. The reason? FBI investigators have sent informants into mosques to pursue information on terror suspects. That's how the New York bombing plot was broken up.
CAIR and MAS are among the groups signing on to the Taskforce's proposed boycott.
If government representatives are going to speak to the ISNA conference, they shouldn't offer simple platitudes about getting along. They should challenge ISNA and its audience to be a true partner in the fight against terror by confronting extremist ideologies in their own communities, at their own conferences. That might generate real change.
The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) hooked a big fish for its 46th convention starting Friday in Washington, D.C. when evangelical Pastor Rick Warren agreed to appear.
But ISNA wanted a bigger star – President Barack Obama. There's been no public response from the White House to ISNA's invitation. But the conference is expected to feature a significant government presence, in the form of sponsored-informational booths and speakers from the Departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security and others.
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is also seeking volunteers to work at an information table during the conference.
On the surface, it's understandable why government agencies would want to line up for a spot at the three-day convention. It is expected to draw thousands to the nation's capital and is far and away the largest gathering of Muslim Americans.
ISNA's documented history with the Muslim Brotherhood – an 80-year-old Egyptian movement that seeks to spread Shariah, or Islamic law, far and wide – and the troubling association many of its current leaders hold should give these agencies pause about what message their participation endorses.
Much of ISNA's history was concisely reported by an Indianapolis television station in 2003. The two-part WTHR report can be viewed here.
Beyond the high-profile outsiders like Warren, the 2009 ISNA conference offers representatives from Muslim Brotherhood front groups and others who buck American law enforcement efforts to curtail terrorist financing. One group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been deemed persona non-grata by the FBI due to its Hamas ties.
Competing assessments of the government's posture toward ISNA have emerged in the past week. A widely-circulated email from a knowledgeable source claimed that the FBI had pegged ISNA as its official outreach partner to the American Muslim community and relayed that information in a meeting with ISNA Vice President Mohamed Magid.
The IPT spoke with an FBI source who confirmed that a meeting did take place at FBI headquarters. The FBI's embrace of ISNA came over the objections of case agents and supervisors investigating Muslim Brotherhood activity in the U.S., the source said.
The next day, FBI spokesman John Miller denied any relationship with ISNA had been cemented and called the email's claims "factually inaccurate and generally misleading." Magid did meet with an FBI official, Miller said, but that's because he has long been an FBI liaison through his role as head of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center.
To be clear, it is not likely that the FBI would have a memorandum declaring ISNA the official Muslim partner of federal law enforcement. Magid may be a long-time FBI liaison, but he still wears two hats when he meets with law enforcement – the ADAMS Center and ISNA.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism reviewed recent ISNA conference activity and found a host of examples of radical ideology that belies its moderate image. It also details ISNA's foundation by U.S. members of the Muslim Brotherhood, some of whom remain active in ISNA today, and extremist connections by other active ISNA leaders. You can read that report here.
ISNA remains an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-financing prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), which ended with guilty verdicts on 108 counts last November and lengthy prison terms for HLF leaders in May.
HLF is included among "individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood." ISNA petitioned the court to be removed from the list a year ago, but no ruling has been made.
Trial evidence showed accounts held by ISNA and its subsidiary, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), were used to funnel money to HLF and, ultimately, to Hamas. ISNA officials claim the organization has moved beyond its Muslim Brotherhood roots to evolve into a more mainstream American organization. That strategy has been successful, as this Associated Press preview of the ISNA convention shows.
Brotherhood Roots
ISNA's leadership ranks include a number of people who date back to the group's foundation by Muslim Brotherhood members. The organization grew out of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), which also was founded by Brotherhood members.
One of those founders, Muzammil Siddiqi was a co-founder of ISNA in 1981 and served two terms as ISNA's president from 1997-2001. He still serves on the ISNA governing board.
Likewise, Sayyid M. Syeed was a founding ISNA board member and served as secretary-general, and now heads ISNA's Center for Interfaith and Community Outreach in Washington, D.C.
A third ISNA founder, Iqbal Unus, serves on the board of directors today. He also held the title of Acting Secretary General for ISNA in January 1984 after serving at the General Secretariat since January 1977 for MSA, and later ISNA.
Siddiqi, Syeed and Unus all are scheduled to speak during ISNA's 46th annual convention.
So are two ISNA leaders who were not a part of the founding group, but nonetheless have extensive and troubling connections to terror supporters. Jamal Badawi is a member at large on ISNA's Board of Directors. Badawi was individually listed in the HLF trial as an unindicted co-conspirator for his role as a fund raiser for the defunct charity.
His number appears in a telephone book of U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood members that was admitted into evidence in the original HLF prosecution, which ended in a mistrial in November 2007. FBI agent Lara Burns testified that this phone book was found at the home of Ismail Elbarrasse, a former assistant to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook
Finally, Louay Safi directs the ISNA Leadership Development Center. He has a history of close relations with U.S. fronts for Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He served on the board of advisory editors for the Middle East Affairs Journal, which was published by the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). Its editor, Ahmed Yousef, is the spokesman for deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh. The UASR was founded by Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook and was part of a Muslim Brotherhood-created Hamas support network in the U.S.
He also worked as research director at the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Herndon, VA. The IIIT has been under investigation for terror financing, including at least $50,000 sent to a think-tank run by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) board member Sami Al-Arian. The think tank employed at least four members of the PIJ governing board in the early 1990s. No charges have been filed in the IIIT investigation.
Conferences Still Feature Extreme Rhetoric
A review of recent ISNA conferences further raises the question of how far the organization's reformation really has come. During the 2008 conference, speakers rationalized Hamas terrorism and revised history.
For example, Hatem Bazian, a professor of Near East Studies at the University of California-Berkeley, rewrote history to say violent Palestinian opposition to Israel started after the 1967 war:
"The violence is not a genetic motivation or genetically defined in the Palestinians. The Palestinians don't wake up in the morning and think yeah, I'm inclined towards violence. The Palestinians when they woke up they see that they're land has been taken from underneath them, that they have to go through five or six checkpoints before they get to school, that they are no longer able to use the hospital, that they are seeing a new settlement being built every other day, and they wake up in the morning and see that it's a land grab day, all these factors, including the diminishing return of the so called peace."
In that same panel, Palestinian Jamal Dajani moderated the discussion and echoed Bazian's false history:
"That is Palestinians are sick and tired of dialogue. I mean they've been listening to dialogue for six decades. It is great to have people from different places and come and interfere and put themselves between the occupier and the victim, and Palestinians listening to promises, and they see their future disappear right in front of their eyes."
In fact, Palestinians have rejected dialogue since Israel's creation in 1948. The PLO agreed to renounce terror and joined in President Clinton's peace efforts in the early 1990s, resulting in Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. The refusal of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to recognize that agreement, and the wave of terrorist attacks they launched in the agreement's wake, doomed the U.S.-led peace effort.
Similarly, during the 2008 ISNA annual convention in Columbus, Ohio, Rick Hannis, a Christian and member of the Christian Peacemakers Team, a group founded by Quakers and Mennonites with a stated purpose of working toward "nonviolent alternative to war," spoke. He described the "amazing work" Hamas does in West Bank education and health care and supposedly non-violent leaders of that organization:
"Now, most people only know about the militant part of Hamas. They don't know about the education or healthcare issued in the West Bank part. It really does amazing work."
"If there is a suicide bombing or something their militant wing has done, often Hamas leaders who promote non violence, will be assassinated, and then, of course, it is put in the paper that Hamas did this violent act-Hamas leader was assassinated as if that was an [unintelligible]. The people that know this leader, they are disenfranchised even more."
During ISNA's 2006 convention, Kamran Memon, an attorney from Muslims for a Safe America, asked the audience to raise their hands if they believed Al Qaeda committed the 9/11 attacks. In response to their raised hands, he helped rationalize Al Qaeda's actions by discussing how America's foreign policy helped to infuriate Muslims around the world.
"Some Muslims in the Muslim world decided that they were just not going to take it anymore. They were angry at our ongoing support from their enemies, so they began to attack American targets to pressure our government to change its foreign policy. They attacked American targets in 1992 in Somalia; in 1993 in New York; in 1995 and 1996 in Saudi Arabia; 1998 in Tanzania and Kenya; and 2000 in Yemen. But the U.S. government did not change its foreign policy, so those Muslims who decided that they weren't going to take it anymore attacked America on September 11.
...They are also angry at us because they look at us, the elder generations, and they see us sitting on our hands not doing anything serious to alleviate the suffering of Muslims in the Muslim world. And when they get that angry, then they do things, like if you believe that Muslims did it, they do things like the London bombings in July 2005; because they see no other way to change American foreign policy other than violence."
The list of conference panels this year does include some important issues, including one on domestic violence in the Muslim community, an emerging issue that gained added urgency earlier this year.
Such positive moves are offset, however, by the presence of speakers from other Muslim Brotherhood-tied groups including the Muslim American Society (MAS) and CAIR.
CAIR is taking advantage of the crowds expected in Washington to host an open house.
It is important to note that if the FBI in any way is increasing its outreach with ISNA, it likely replaces work CAIR previously did. The Bureau has made it clear that CAIR and its national leaders had "a connection" to Hamas, and it is unclear whether that connection remains. Until that is resolved, "the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner."
ISNA apparently does not share that concern. It also endorses the canard that law enforcement action to cut off terror financing by U.S.-based charities like HLF creates "a chilling effect on Muslim charitable giving in accordance with the Islamic faith."
It has condemned terrorist plots, like the one to bomb New York synagogues and to try shooting down a military plane that was broken up by law enforcement in May. And President Ingrid Mattson has called for the Muslim community to be more assertive in confronting radical elements and "vague accusations of conspiracies, and exaggerated protests of attempts to ensure security to be used as excuses for violating the rights of women, non-Muslims and others."
However, that admirable charge is undermined by her organization's embrace of CAIR, MAS and similar groups. Agha Saeed of the American Muslim Task Force, is scheduled to speak on a panel on "Culture and Politics: Strategies of Self-Empowerment." Saeed is chairman of the group, which has spent most of 2009 advocating a Muslim boycott of the FBI. The reason? FBI investigators have sent informants into mosques to pursue information on terror suspects. That's how the New York bombing plot was broken up.
CAIR and MAS are among the groups signing on to the Taskforce's proposed boycott.
If government representatives are going to speak to the ISNA conference, they shouldn't offer simple platitudes about getting along. They should challenge ISNA and its audience to be a true partner in the fight against terror by confronting extremist ideologies in their own communities, at their own conferences. That might generate real change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)