The GOP Field Is Like Star Trek: The Next Generation

By Steven F. Hayward - NRO - this is quite funny and quite accurate!

The other night over martinis, someone asked me which GOP presidential candidate I like the most. Like many my fellow conservatives, I’m not very enthusiastic about any of the three putative, pre-Thompson frontrunners. A mid-martini moment of insight, however, sparked the following idea: The problem with this field is that it is too much like the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In order to see how, you’ll have to bear with me and follow the story line. The major premise of my argument is that Ronald Reagan was Captain Kirk. I know, I know, Kirk’s character was said to have been loosely modeled on JFK, but don’t forget that Reagan inherited the mantle of JFK’s Cold Warriorism (as well as JFK’s income tax cuts). The similarities, at least in these regards, make the comparison tenable.

Having grown up with Kirk (and Governor Reagan), I hated — hated — Star Trek: TNG when it came on in the 1980s. The first of many reasons for hating TNG was that they actually obeyed the stupid Prime Directive, which is the epitome of cultural relativism. Half the plot lines of the original Star Trek involved Kirk wantonly violating the Prime Directive in what constituted acts of democratic statesmanship. Recall, for example, the episode called “The Apple,” in which Kirk revels in destroying the planet’s oppressive false god Vaal, and then explains to the stupefied inhabitants that their lives are going to change: “That’s what we call freedom. You’ll like it a lot. . . You’ll learn something about men and women — the way they’re supposed to be.” (The best analysis of this topic remains Paul Cantor’s wonderful book Gilligan Unbound, especially chapter 2, “Shakespeare in the Original Klingon.”)

TNG, on the other hand, was wholly bureaucratic — it was Star Trek as imagined by the U.N. General Assembly — and Captain Jean-Luc Piccard seemed more like the U.N. Secretary General than a commander.

More to the point — — the problem with TNG was that it split Kirk’s character into three people: Piccard the authoritative but rule-abiding commander; First Officer Will Riker as the impetuous and womanizing swashbuckler, and Counselor Deanna Troi representing analytical reason and intuition. No one of them alone could effectively lead the Enterprise. The result was unwatchable. (How many times did Piccard surrender the Enterprise in that first season? Kirk would never have done that.)

This lack of sufficiency in individuals sounds very much like our GOP frontrunners. The parallels are not exact, of course, but they generally parse out in the following way: Giuliani is Piccard, with his brusque, “make-it-so” personality; McCain is the impetuous and volatile Riker; and Romney is clearly an analytical Betazoid. Each, by himself, has obvious limitations and defects, and thus appears incapable of effectively leading; combine the strengths of all three and the result would be a success.

Unfortunately, there is not yet a candidate who has effectively shown himself as just such a combination of strengths. So let’s forget about this Fred Thompson boomlet — I have a better idea. Let’s elect Captain Kirk for President. Okay, so he's Canadian, but maybe that's the excuse we need to execute Jonah Goldberg's takeover plan (from the tyrannical reign of the tyrannical editor K-Lo.

... BTW, Fred Thompson is the proverbial weak bottle rocket that fizzles fast and doesn't pop at the end. Remember Bob Dole?

A Day Late And A Dollar Short - 'Better Late Than Never' Does Not Apply

Gates Wants Army Expanded to 547,000 Soldiers

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday he's inclined to approve an Army proposal to spend nearly $3 billion extra over the next four years to accelerate an expansion of its force. Army Secretary Pete Geren said speeding up the growth of the force, stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would mean recruiting faster and increasing the number of soldiers who re-enlist.

... the time for expanding our FIGHTING military was on Sept. 12th, 2001 - this is not hindsite, I said it at the time - I'm beginning to wonder if brains suddenly stop functioning as you cross the D.C. line. - Tiger

The defense secretary cautioned that he would not accept any accelerated expansion of the Army that would lead the Army to lower its recruiting standards, including levels of education required.

"I'm inclined to approve it," Gates said. "My questions have focused principally on whether they can do it, in terms of recruitment and whether they can do so without lowering standards and, in fact, to begin to move back toward the high standards of not too many months ago."

Gates mentioned, as an example, that the percentage of Army recruits with a high school diploma has dropped to about 76 percent, compared with over 90 percent in recent years. "We'd like to see that get back up," he said.

... this "diploma" average can only mean that our lower class is fighting the war - can anyone say DRAFT! Or, does the middle/upper class American have any fight left in them? A couple of years ago I worked in an Engineering office of 200 people - only two of us "oldies" were Vets - when I asked about this, their pat answer was; ""better them than me"! These people are what people like me call, "pieces of shit!" - Tiger

Tehran Has Been Told It Will Pay A Price For Killing Americans, But It Never Has

Bush and Iran

Wall Street Journal Editorial

The traveling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad circus made for great political theater this week, but the comedy shouldn't detract from its brazen underlying message: The Iranian President believes that the world lacks the will to stop Iran from pursuing its nuclear program, and that the U.S. also can't stop his country from killing GIs in Iraq. The question is what President Bush intends to do about this in his remaining 16 months in office.

Over the last five years, Mr. Bush has issued multiple and sundry warnings to Iran. In early 2002, he cautioned Iran that "if they in any way, shape or form try to destabilize the [Afghan] government, the coalition will deal with them, in diplomatic ways initially." In mid-2003, following revelations about the extent of Iran's secret nuclear programs, he insisted the U.S. "will not tolerate the construction of a nuclear weapon."

In January of this year, as evidence mounted that Iran was supplying sophisticated, armor-penetrating munitions to Shiite militias in Iraq, Mr. Bush was tougher still: "We will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

In February, he added that "I can speak with certainty that the Qods Force, a part of the Iranian government, has provided these sophisticated IEDs that have harmed our troops." And as recently as this month's TV speech on Iraq, the President alerted Americans to the "destructive ambitions of Iran" and warned the mullahs that their efforts to "undermine [Iraq's] government must stop."

We belabor this rhetorical record because it so clearly contrasts with how little the Administration has done about it. As with Syria, the Bush Administration has repeatedly told Iran that it would have to pay a price for its hostile behavior while in the end demanding no such price. This undermines U.S. diplomacy, but in the case of GIs in Iraq it is worse: It means the Commander in Chief is letting an enemy kill Americans with impunity. And the Iranians have got the message: Mr. Ahmadinejad felt confident enough to declare this week at the U.N. that the issue of its nuclear program was "closed."

Land Mine Explodes (Iraq)

-Caution: Language-I would have said worse!

The 'Greatest' Socialist Effort In Modern Times Is About To Come True! It Is America's Future!

High Oil Prices? You Aint Seen Nuttin Yet! Especially When The International Taxes Start!

Come Thursday, the future of the United States Senate will begin to take shape. On that day, the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee will begin the first of two days of hearings on the ratification of one of the most momentous international agreements in memory: the United Nation’s Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST).

If all goes according to the proponents’ plan, few Senators will have any idea what LOST entails before they are asked to vote for it. The working assumption is that many legislators will be inclined to do in this case what the Senate has done too often in the past with respect to arms control and many other, complex multinational accords: fail to read the text; forego serious deliberation, let alone debate, about it; and rubber-stamp its approval in a matter of days, if not hours.

At the moment, the Treaty’s supporters expect to secure far more than the needed two-thirds vote required by the Framers. Senators are encouraged not to spend precious time worrying about an accord that the United States Navy strenuously supports, the Bush Administration wants promptly ratified, various mining and energy interests and environmental groups (however implausibly) agree is desirable and the bipartisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved a couple of years ago.

... so why worry?

LOST was designed three decades ago by the Soviet Union and its so-called “non-aligned” allies to foster supranational entities at the expense of nation states, particularly those with representative governments. The Senate of the United States would be as irrelevant to that sort of world order as national parliaments in Europe have already become, thanks to the transfer of virtually all rule-making authority to the European Union’s bureaucrats in Brussels.

The piece of the world in question starts with its oceans, which the Treaty calls an “international commons” and part of “the common heritage of mankind.” The immediate focus of the socialist, redistributionist agenda shared by many of LOST’s principal architects is evident in the mandate given to the organization charged with exercising control over the seas and the resources that lie beneath them. It entails, among other things, ensuring the just and equitable dispersal of the wealth of the seabeds to the world’s developing and land-locked nations.

Make no mistake, though. The seas are only the starting point. For one thing, the internal waters and even land masses are claimed as within the jurisdiction of LOST agencies since what emerges from them in the air and water inevitably affects the “marine environment.”

In addition, the UN and its anti-American majorities are keen to establish similar arrangements with respect to other so-called “international commons,” such as Outer Space and the Internet. They seek to institutionalize “self-financing” arrangements (read, international taxes) that will allow supranational organizations to become even less transparent and accountable. They are determined to impose rule-making authority over national governments, including U.S. Senators.

North Korea - Still Crazy After All These Years

Many Americans, Even So-Called Conservatives, Were Very Pleased With the Diplomatic Results of the 6-Party Talks. Those People Are Idiots!

Report: Israeli Forces Seized Nuclear Material During Syrian Raid

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to Sunday Times report citing informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.
The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say. (as if the Israelis need American approval-Ed.)

They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Israeli special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north.

-photo is the TAVOR, a bullpup design assault rifle. This particular model is extensively used by Israeli Commandos.

Condoleeza Rice and the Conference of Doom

By P. David Hornik - FrontPageMagazine.com Friday, September 21, 2007

For the Jewish holiday season stretching from Rosh Hashanah (this year, September 13) to Simchat Torah (October 5), Israel’s security forces have been put on the highest alert level against terrorist attacks. Intelligence sources have issued “eight specific terror warnings and dozens of general warnings.” The threat is emanating mainly from towns like Jenin, Nablus, and Hebron in the West Bank, which is under at least the nominal rule of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Amid a welter of other incidents including nonstop rocket and mortar fire from Gaza, last Friday terrorists shot at an Israeli civilian vehicle in the West Bank and wounded two. It was the “military wing” of Abbas’s Fatah movement that openly took credit.

This week an extended Israel Defense Forces antiterror operation in Nablus, in which one soldier was killed, led to the arrest of a suicide-bombing cell and of two more Fatah terrorists.

Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice came to Israel for talks on the peace conference supposed to be held in November between Israel, the PA, and as many Arab states as can be cajoled into attending. In his speech on the Middle East last July 16, President Bush called on the Arab states to “end[. . .] the fiction that Israel does not exist, stop[…] the incitement of hatred in their official media, and send[…] cabinet-level visitors to Israel.”

Bush and Rice know that these words have had no effect and none of those things have been done. They also know that Abbas and his fellow alleged moderate, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, have done absolutely nothing to end genocidal anti-Israeli indoctrination in the PA, where anti-Israeli (and -Jewish) hatred runs so high that any Israeli who strays into a PA town is likely to be dragged out of his car and lynched by a mob.

... meanwhile, don't forget Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week:

... the photo shows a teenage girl buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses and will serve as the poster for the protest Week. The stoning took place in Iran.

Continuing The Sellout - Money Trumps Everything

* A Set of Articles for Those Who Don't Understand the War On Terror (that we're not fighting!) Attacks on a Daily Basis*

Sheikdom Shakedown: Dubai moves on Nasdaq - Arab ownership of U.S. stock exchange raises flag in Congress

In a complex set of transactions, Dubai is moving to acquire 19.9 percent of the Nasdaq in New York, placing the Arab government in an ownership position of the key U.S. stock exchange and raising concerns in Congress.

As a result of the transaction, Dubai also will acquire 28 percent of the London Stock Exchange, one of the oldest and largest in the world.

The transaction is being made through Borse Dubai, a holding company 100-percent owned by the government of the Emirate of Dubai and controlled by Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the head of the Dubai ruling family.

According to its website, Borse Dubai was created Aug. 6 as the holding company for Dubai Financial Market and Dubai International Financial Exchange in a move to consolidate the Dubai government's two stock exchanges "as well as current investments in other exchanges, expanding Dubai's position as a global capital market hub."

Arab Rivals Gear Up for Struggle Over London Stock Exchange

A bewildering flurry of deals between world stock exchanges has left two Gulf kingdoms with a near-50 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange between them.

Qatar had made a firm offer at £14 a share for most of the 31 percent stake in the LSE held by Nasdaq, the New York exchange, and was expected to succeed. But as part of a complex deal between Nasdaq and the Borse Dubai, 28 percent of the LSE was instead sold to Dubai.
The Qataris responded swiftly, agreeing to take almost 21 percent of the LSE from two US funds, including the corporate raider Samuel Heyman, in an apparent spoiler to any hostile takeover bid for London from Dubai.

The LSE welcomed the arrival of the Qataris “as a long-term investor”. Significantly, no such announcement was made about Dubai.

The Dubai/Nasdaq deal stemmed from rival bids by both for another operator of world exchanges, OMX in Stockholm. The two have made common cause and agreed that while the Dubai offer, the higher of the two, will go ahead, any shares acquired, including the 28 percent already held as a result of a market raid next month, will go to Nasdaq.

Carlyle sells stake to Abu Dhabi

Carlyle agreed on Thursday to sell a 7.5 per cent stake in itself to an arm of Abu Dhabi’s government – the latest US private equity group to bring in a sovereign wealth fund as a big investor.

Blackstone sold a near 10 per cent stake in its management company to the Chinese government in May. A different arm of the Abu Dhabi government bought a stake in Apollo Management in July. Selling stakes to international sovereign wealth funds has become a popular way for US buy-out groups to cash in on their booming businesses while expanding their influence in new markets. The Carlyle deal demonstrates that the credit squeeze has not halted such transactions.

Mubadala, the arm of Abu Dhabi which has invested in sectors as diverse as Libyan oil exploration and Ferrari, the Italian motor company, is paying $1.35bn for the Carlyle stake.

The deal was struck at a 10 per cent discount to a valuation of $20bn for all of Carlyle. The Washington-based buy-out group agreed to guarantee a floor to Mubadala’s investment, pledging to compensate the arm of the oil-rich emirate if Carlyle goes public and the share price drops.

... also in the news; Canadian Dollar Trades Equal to U.S. for First Time Since 1976, and Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright!

Surprise! Surprise! - More Bad News!

Bush, Congress at record low ratings: Newest Zogby/Reuters poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

The Reuters/Zogby Index, a new measure of the mood of the country, dropped from 100 to 98.8 in the last month on worries about the economy and fears of a recession, pollster John Zogby said.

"Since the last time we polled we have had the mortgage crisis, and we are hearing the recession word a whole lot more than we've heard it in the past," Zogby said.

"There are things that happened in the September polling that drove the number down a bit, and they are mostly economic worries," he added.

"The public mood is not just dark. What's darker than dark?" Zogby said. "The mood is getting ugly."

The national survey of 1,011 likely voters, taken September 13 through September 16, found barely one-quarter of Americans, or 27 percent, believe the country is headed in the right direction. Nearly 62 percent think the country is on the wrong track.

The Inherent Violence In Saudi Arabian Education

Teaching Terror
By Nina Shea

Saudi Arabia now supplies jihad fighters for conflicts near and far, often in numbers far disproportionate to its size. As new statistics become available, one thing becomes ever clearer: The Saudi kingdom is the world’s leading exporter of suicide bombers and terrorists.

When it was discovered that three quarters of the hijackers in 9/11, along with the founder of al Qaeda himself, were Saudi native sons, the whole world suffered the realization that Saudi nationals were deeply involved in suicide terror. Less well known, however, is the fact that a Saudi was the mastermind of the terror in Chechnya, that Saudis have figured prominently in recent suicide attacks against Spanish tourists in Yemen, and that a Saudi doctor was a principal in the attack against the airport in Glasgow. Last summer, the state-backed Saudi Human Rights Organization was kept busy visiting Saudi jihadists imprisoned in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

... In Guantanamo, scores of prisoners have been Saudis. Saudis are, in fact, the largest contingent, second only to those from Afghanistan.

... Saudi royal advisers, after reviewing the state’s curriculum a few years ago, concluded: “[The Saudi official religious curriculum] encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the ‘other.’” The official Saudi ideology — known as Wahhabism — in which Saudi students are steeped from a young age, demonizes the West and the religious “other.” Saudi teens have, for years, been instructed by state school textbooks that claim that “fighting unbelief…and those who perpetrate it” is “one of the noblest acts, which brings one closer to God, and one of the most magnificent acts of obedience to God.” The word for “fighting” here is “qital,” derived from “qatala” or “to kill,” and which has virtually no metaphorical meaning in Arabic. Enmity between Saudi Wahhabiists and others is exalted as a sacred duty from first grade through twelfth.

Predictably, this kind of indoctrination results in droves of young Saudi men ready and willing to enlist for suicide missions against infidels and heretics throughout the world. Surely the Saudi media commentators know about the state-sponsored indoctrination, and have views on how to revise the educational system. But an open, sustained, and in depth debate on these issues is yet to be permitted inside Saudi Arabia. Simply raising critical questions is pressing the envelope. By venturing for answers that would fault the Kingdom’s Wahhabi education, one would risk arrest for blasphemy or related charges.

The Saudi state has responded to these developments by quietly going from country to country, begging foreign authorities to release the Saudi prisoners, including the 16 Saudis who were released this month from Guantanamo, and by making a show of “re-educating” them.

Moreover, Saudi officials continue to aver that the educational curriculum has been reformed, just as they have ever since 9/11. In what has become an annual ritual, the State Department takes Saudi avowals on faith, giving assurances of Saudi educational reform, though (in spite of many requests to do so) it has not yet, independently and comprehensively, reviewed the educational texts. And, of course, this year is no different. On September 14, the State Department’s religious-freedom ambassador stated: “[I]n the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah called for increased religious tolerance, and the government took steps to remove intolerant references toward other religious groups from educational materials.”

While the State Department’s assessment is possibly technically accurate, the Saudi state curriculum continues to require a complete overhaul. It does not help Saudi reformers — or American security — to gloss over this fact.

Happy Constitution Day!

Today is Constitution Day. How will you celebrate? How will you mark the occasion?

On Sept. 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention, meeting in Philadelphia for four months, agreed on the final draft of this special, inspired document and submitted to the several states for ratification.

That was 220 years ago.

It was ratified June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire approved it as the ninth state. Congress, acting under the Articles of Confederation, declared the Constitution the law of the land March 4, 1789.

By general assent and resolution of the Congress, Sept. 17 has been designated as Constitution Day ever since – designated, but not necessarily acknowledged or observed.

In the 21st century, we celebrate many holidays in America – Independence Day, presidential birthdays, Veterans Day, Memorial Day. Yet, no one even acknowledges Constitution Day anymore. That's tragic.

America has forgotten the two concepts that made her special as a nation – two unique factors that set her apart from the world from the start.

First, the Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution that strictly limited the role of the federal government in the lives of Americans. The idea that Washington had some role in education, redistribution of wealth, setting minimum wage requirements, nationalizing millions of acres of land, taxing income and subsidizing government-approved artists would have been anathema to the men who fought so valiantly for freedom against an overreaching foreign tyranny – if they could have even imagined such abuses.

Secondly, the framers of that Constitution spoke eloquently about the fact that only a moral people – a nation of Godly people with common spiritual and social values – were capable of self-government. They could not have envisioned the depths of depravity, licentiousness and vice to which our society has fallen – yet they warned about it.

... Politicians will never solve our problems. Period. The more government tries to do, the worse things get ...

Garner - Washington Times

History Ignored: ON THIS DAY IN WND HISTORY…

Is Bush what he says he is?

Sept. 16, 1999: There may be some Republicans who wish they had read this WND story back in 1999.

Conservative activists in Texas were saying Gov. George W. Bush – the front-running candidate for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination – was masquerading as a leader for a smaller, more limited role for government in Americans' lives.

According to Texas Eagle Forum, Bush's state legislative priorities showed him to be anything but a political conservative.

The group blasted Bush for enlarging Texas government by "nearly 38 percent," increasing entitlements to public schools, supporting bilingual education, and federalizing education while calling it "local control."

He also had not spoken out against a small Texas border town's decision to adopt a "Spanish-only" policy for official government functions and instructed city officials not to talk to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

But a spokesman for Bush's presidential campaign told WorldNetDaily that the governor, should he become president, will "implement the core conservative principles of smaller government."

Diplomatic Success In North Korea? HA! HA! HA!

Syria Might Be Seeking Nuclear Weapons Technology Through North Korea, Sources Say

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials have developed evidence showing that North Korea is helping Syria to develop a nuclear program for weapons purposes, FOX News has learned in recent interviews with sources who have knowledge of the situation.

Syrians emphatically denied the claim on Thursday.

The details of the claims are vague, but one source told FOX News in late August that the North Koreans had sold the Syrians a nuclear facility, most likely related to uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium is necessary both for nuclear power and nuclear weapons uses. The United States accuses Syria of assisting terrorist groups including Hezbollah.

A source said the case has been assigned the internal code name, "Orchard," and the evidence was developed through Israeli channels, possibly with the assistance of U.S. aerial photography.
Other sources, however, questioned Syria's ability to afford such a pricey venture. Those sources said that in recent discussions with U.S. intelligence officials, the officials had spoken of North Korea having sent nuclear scientists, engineers, and other personnel with relevant expertise to Damascus.

"I've noticed more and more people [in the intelligence community] talking about people being sent over [from North Korea to Syria]," one high-ranking former National Security Council official said.

The Saudis Are Still Pulling Our Strings

With Friends Like This ...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Wednesday that the kingdom soon will open an embassy in Baghdad for the first time since Saddam Hussein's 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a step the U.S. has pressed the Saudis to take.

The announcement by Prince Saud al-Faisal came after a Riyadh delegation returned from Iraq, where al-Faisal said it had investigated the possibility of the embassy's opening.
"After we received the delegation's report, it is expected that an embassy will open soon," al-Faisal told reporters in the Red Sea port city of Jiddah.

The United States has pushed the kingdom to open an embassy in Baghdad as a sign of support for the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which Sunni Saudi Arabia has kept at arm's length and often criticizes as biased against Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.

An umbrella insurgent group of Iraqi Sunni Muslims — Jihad and Reform Front — has warned Riyadh against the opening, saying in a recent Web posting that the move would only comfort the Shiite-dominated government.

... Sunni Saudi Arabia would presumably act as a deterrent to Shiite Iran. The problem is; the Saudis are the ones most responsible for financially supporting Islamic terrorism! Does this make sense to anyone?...

Meanwhile ... Saudi Arabia will probably skip a Mideast peace conference called by President Bush if it doesn't tackle substantive issues such as the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, the kingdom's foreign minister said yesterday.

Saud al-Faisal's remarks echoed the skepticism of other Arab leaders over a meeting Washington has billed as a major step forward but whose agenda and participants remain unknown.

"The kingdom sees no benefit in any peace meeting or conference if it is not comprehensive and if it doesn't tackle major issues," Faisal said. "If the conference doesn't provide these things, then the kingdom's participation is doubtful."

... if memory serves, President Bush met with those former NAZIs, the "Saudi Royal Family" very quickly after 9-11. Just who runs the Executive Branch of our government? - It makes me wonder.

Saudis Still Filling Al Qaeda's Coffers

On the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, an unsurprising but no less appalling report on how much the Saudis haven't done to cut off funds to jihad groups.

Despite six years of promises, U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia continues to look the other way at wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to al Qaeda.

"If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing, told ABC News.

Despite some efforts as a U.S. ally in the war on terror, Levey says Saudi Arabia has dropped the ball. Not one person identified by the United States and the United Nations as a terror financier has been prosecuted by the Saudis, Levey says.

"When the evidence is clear that these individuals have funded terrorist organizations, and knowingly done so, then that should be prosecuted and treated as real terrorism because it is," Levey says.

Among those on the donor list, according to U.S. officials, is Yasin al Qadi, a wealthy businessman named on both the U.S. and U.N. lists of al Qaeda financiers one month after the 9/11 attacks.

Al Qadi, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, remains free, still a prominent figure in Saudi Arabia.

Garner - Washington Times

The second plane to hit the WTC. 9/11

Understandably, Bush Gets High Negative for Terror War

Six years after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush gets low marks for his role in the war on terror. And more than four out of every five American adults say that gruesome day involved the most significant historical events of their lifetimes, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.

According to the poll:

-34% gave Bush positive marks for his leadership fighting the way on terror, while 65% gave him negative marks. This is markedly worse than three years ago, when, as he was re-elected, two in three respondents gave the President positive marks for his handling of the war on terror. Just 62% of Republicans give their standard-bearer positive marks on the issue.
-61% said they think of that fateful day at least once a week.
-16% said they think of the attacks at least once every day.
-77% of those in the East said they think about the attacks at least once a week.
-46% of those in the West said they think about the attacks at least once a week.
-90% of those in the East said they see the attacks as the most significant historical event of their lifetimes.
-75% of those in the West said they see the attacks as the most significant historical event of their lifetimes.

The survey, conducted Sept. 6 -9, 2007, included 938 respondents and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.

-83% said the entire nation should observe a moment of silence or visit a memorial to honor the people who were killed that day.
-16% of Americans said they have visited Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan since the attacks.
-62% of Americans said the nation is now better protected against terrorist attacks compared to before Sept. 11.
-14% said the nation is less well protected compared to six years ago.
-23% said there is no difference between our preparedness before and after the attacks.
-91% said they believe the U.S. will be attacked again by terrorists on American soil.
-47% believe that attack will come sometime in the next five years, 19% said it could come at any time in the next decade. Another 25% said they expect another attack, but they were unsure when it might take place. Just 4% said they believed the U.S. was immune from future terrorist attacks, while 4% were unsure.

... its interesting that a full 1/3rd of Americans don't think we're prepared or protected. I'm one of those 1/3rd. With the Presidents love of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, his scrooge-like greed for illegal immigration, and his refusal to fight the W.O.T. on ALL fronts; we are in REALLY BIG TROUBLE!

Conservatives Mobilize Against Law of the Sea Treaty

U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

UNCLOS establishes a new international legal regime, including an International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and an International Seabed Authority, to govern activities on, over, and under the world's oceans. The treaty explicitly governs seven-tenths of the world's surface and could easily be interpreted to restrict U.S. military activities. Also regarded as an environmental treaty that provides a backdoor for implementing the unratified Kyoto Protocol or global warming treaty, the provisions of UNCLOS would permit international rules and regulations governing economic and industrial activities on the remaining land area of the world in order to combat perceived pollution dangers. The treaty provides for the taxing of U.S. and other corporations which mine the ocean floor, thereby establishing the first independent source of revenue for the U.N.

The push for UNCLOS has been fed by erroneous news accounts that the U.S. would have to ratify the treaty in order to cash in on oil, gas and minerals in the Arctic and other areas. In fact, the UNCLOS tribunal and associated “dispute resolution” panels, which are dominated by foreign judges, are almost certain to issue rulings and decisions that go against American interests.

... and President Bush desperately wants it!

... the Bush Administration is supporting a plan by Senator Joseph Biden, D-De., to stage a Foreign Relations Committee hearing on September 27 in order to usher the controversial U.N. Law of the Sea Treaty to the Senate floor for a quick vote. Biden, chairman of the committee and a Democratic presidential candidate, was a leader of the effort to defeat Bush’s pick of John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

Conservatives are hoping the facts about President Reagan’s rejection of the measure, mainly on the grounds that it was a socialist trap for America that subjected U.S. companies to a global tax, can eventually persuade 34 Senators to block its ratification.

... How can anyone calling themselves a conservative continue to support President Bush?

Garner - Washington Times

Once Again, Bush Works For Democrats Goals

Bush Expected to Sign Lobbying and Ethics 'Reform' Bill
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
September 05, 2007

President Bush is expected to sign an ethics and lobbying reform bill that Democrats are hailing as "landmark" legislation. But one Republican senator has called the bill a "landmark betrayal."

Although President Bush has said the bill doesn't go far enough in curbing pork-barrel spending, he's expected to sign it into law when he returns from Australia, press reports quoted White House officials as saying.

... In an Aug. 2 news release, Sen. Coburn said the public will soon realize that the bill is a "sham.""The problem in Washington is not the lobbyists," Coburn said last month. "The problem is members of Congress who send earmarks to special interests, and even family members, in an effort to stay in office or feather their own nest."Among other things, Coburn complained that the legislation makes earmark disclosure voluntary, rather than mandatory.

"Sadly, private citizens, watchdog groups and congressional offices will have to continue to play hide and seek with congressional appropriators," Coburn said. "The public is tired of this game and will grow even more frustrated when it sees the same game played out later this year.

"Taxpayers should not have to wait on search warrants to find out how Congress is spending its money," Coburn said last month.Citizens Against Government Waste, a taxpayer watchdog group, noted that key provisions were stripped out of the bill in a "secret deal" this summer.

"For example, the Senate-passed bill would have blocked consideration of any bill in conference unless all earmarks were disclosed in advance. That provision no longer exists," CAGW said earlier this summer."The Senate-passed bill required Congress to create a searchable database of earmarks and make it available to taxpayers. The new deal requires Congress to establish such a database only 'if practicable.'

"CAGW also said it's a bad idea to give the Senate majority leader and certain committee chairmen responsibility for making sure lawmakers have met all the earmark disclosure requirements. "In many cases, these are the very people responsible for the glut of earmarks in the first place," CAGW said.

Critics also complain that the bill will allow lawmakers to promote projects in which they will benefit financially -- as long as others benefit from the earmark as well. (A lawmaker could easily overcome that hurdle by claiming benefits to "my district" or "my state," CAGW noted.)

"Taxpayers need to sit up and pay attention to this abuse of their money," said CAGW President Tom Schatz said earlier this summer. "This is a direct attack on their right to know how tax dollars are being spent and misspent.""If this bill becomes law, the country will have taken a step backward from accountability," Schatz said on July 30, when the compromise bill was announced.

... once again Bush illustrates the short-comings that have prevailed during his entire administration. Instead of fighting his political enemies with public communication and awareness campaigns, instead of making better, more conservative recommendations to a particular bill or effort - he unceremoniously gives in and abandons all conservative principles.

BDS, Bush Derangement Syndrome, is not a syndrome; it's an actual, factual disease. If you don't have it yet, you probably don't have a brain!

President Jump Starts Guest Worker Program

Its amazing how soon the American people forget. Its also incredible how easy it is to pull the wool over our eyes. After all the brouhaha over illegal immigration, President Bush initiates a guest worker program right under our noses and no one seems to mind!

While its popular to dismiss worries over Mexican truckers entering our southern border as a "labor union" issue, in reality its a partial implementation of the SPP at its "sneakiest".

Here's why:

Canadian truckers have no limitations upon entering the U.S. from the northern border. This has been the case for many years. In fact, their trucks are given a cursory "security check" and then quickly dispatched. Mexican truckers were not given that "status" for obvious reasons; concerns over safety, weapons, drug and human smuggling; etc, being the main problems. Now, President Bush has fast-tracked the Mexican trucks, but unlike the Canadian truckers, the Mexican drivers are going to be given work VISAS! These VISAS will last 6 months and be renewed indefinitely.

Bush finally has his guest worker program, albeit a small one. This effort of his will grow and the American people will happily go along their way, ignoring it all.

"Mexico does not end at its borders. ... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico." - Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in his state of the nation address at the National Palace Sunday

Farmers Mull Replacing Illegal Workers With Robots

We have Politicians and Others declaring that Americans simply won't do some jobs. Supposedly, these jobs are for illegals only; modern slaves who come to our country for a better life. I'm here to tell ya - ALL OF THOSE POLS ARE LIARS!!!

I started work at the age of 5 earning 25 cents an hour toting tobacco. It bought my shoes and school clothes. I never saw a check or money payment - it went directly to my mother - dad had left in a drunken rage long before. Still, I knew that with hard work and belief in something greater than I, I could do better; much better! A marriage of 27 years+, two beautiful children, two episodes of skin cancer and a bad heart after 50+ years does not make me bitter - it makes me blessed!

The Illegals coming to this country are not being offered a better life - as I was. They are SLAVES, slaves of a corrupt system.

The great Equalizer IS NOT DEATH - IT"S TECHNOLOGY!

LOS ANGELES — With authorities promising tighter borders, some farmers who rely on immigrant labor are eyeing an emerging generation of fruit-picking robots and high-tech tractors to do everything from pluck premium wine grapes to clean and core lettuce.

Such machines, now in various stages of development, could become essential for harvesting delicate fruits and vegetables that are still picked by hand.

The fallacious illegal immigrant argument is self-evident. "Doing jobs Americans won't do" has absolutely nothing to do with it - but CHEAP LABOR has everything to do with it! Technology growth has always outpaced the need for cheaper and cheaper labor and always will. Instead of being a means to progress, supplement income and get ahead; as these jobs were in the past, they've become a vehicle for dramatically increasing profit for a select special interest! The POLS, the men who make this kind of deal, are a collection of the most sordid, scum of the earth kind we have - and that is the great shame of it all!

Is Fred Real?

World Governance - The Video Hillary Does Not Want You To See

Google Video Source

WND related article Source

Call It War, Mr. President

By Kenneth R. Timmerman
FrontPageMagazine.com 9/5/2007

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been waging war against America in Iraq from the very first days of U.S. military operations against Saddam Hussein. And yet, until just recently, no one in the U.S. government has been willing to acknowledge this openly.

Iran began planning operations to undermine an eventual U.S. invasion of Iraq many months before U.S. military forces arrived in the region in late 2002.

Whereas the United States was still relying on a Commando Solo aircraft to beam crude Arabic-language radio programming into Iraq, the Iranians unrolled a whole series of slick, Arabic language television stations that blanketed the entire country with anti-U.S. propaganda.

The effect on Iraqi public opinion was devastating. At one point, Iran had 42 radio and TV stations in Arabic beaming into Iraq, whereas the U.S.-led coalition had just one.

A new report jointly sponsored by the Weekly Standard and the Institute for the Study of War, released last week, provides extraordinary new details of Iran’s propaganda, intelligence, and military offensive against the U.S. presence in Iraq since those early days of the war.

• Iran is using Hezbollah to train Iraqi terrorists, sending top Hezbollah operatives into Iraq periodically to ensure hands-on management of their terror protégés;

• Iran has set up training camps near Tehran where they regularly graduate classes of between 20-70 terrorists, who then return to Iraq as a self-contained network to carry out terrorist operations against U.S. military and Iraqi targets;

• The Revolutionary Guards “Qods Force” is running operations in Iraq through a network of ‘secret cells” within Shia militias, whose agents assassinate key Iraqi leaders, run death squads, infiltrate government ministries, and distribute weaponry to other insurgents.

• Iran is also working with Sunni terrorist groups, include al Qaeda in Iraq and an Ansar al Islam, and has been terrorists from both groups at special camps inside Iran.

This deadly litany of Iranian actions leaves no doubt about the intentions of Iran’s leaders.

They aim to defeat us in Iraq. It’s as simple as that.

They have declared war, and intend to continue waging war until we defeat them, or they defeat us.

... so slow to learn ...

HERITAGE FOUNDATION:

The Truth About Liberals!

Bush The Socialist - Still Trying To Please His Enemies

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Friday announced a set of modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in mortgage defaults that have contributed to turbulent financial markets over recent weeks.

Housing analysts said it was highly likely the limited steps Bush outlined will be expanded in coming weeks by a Democrat-controlled Congress intent on responding to growing voter anxiety as up to 2 million homeowners worry about losing their homes.

Officials in the troubled housing industry said the important thing was that the administration had finally offered a proposal, a step they said should help calm global financial markets that have been on a rollercoaster ride in recent weeks as investors worried about a serious credit crunch.

"This is not a cure-all, but it is good to see something coming out of the White House," said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "It is good for markets, both domestically and internationally, to see that the White House is facing the problem head on and at least starting to do something about it."

... can anybody say Herbert Hoover?