Truth, lies and Afghanistan
/2 Comments/in News /by newseditor
I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.
What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.
Entering this deployment, I was sincerely hoping to learn that the claims were true: that conditions in Afghanistan were improving, that the local government and military were progressing toward self-sufficiency. I did not need to witness dramatic improvements to be reassured, but merely hoped to see evidence of positive trends, to see companies or battalions produce even minimal but sustainable progress.
Instead, I witnessed the absence of success on virtually every level.
My arrival in country in late 2010 marked the start of my fourth combat deployment, and my second in Afghanistan. A Regular Army officer in the Armor Branch, I served in Operation Desert Storm, in Afghanistan in 2005-06 and in Iraq in 2008-09. In the middle of my career, I spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve and held a number of civilian jobs — among them, legislative correspondent for defense and foreign affairs for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
Read More at the Armed Forces Journal By Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, Armed Forces Journal
The United Nations’ Rogue Agency
/10 Comments/in News /by newseditor
We have all heard the jocular remark about the inmates taking over the asylum. But I had never actually witnessed that unnerving event until last October 31, when I spent an afternoon in the press gallery of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris. The vast conference hall was not quite a madhouse, but it was noisy, agitated, and full of wild surmise. Hundreds of delegates from member states milled about, chattering excitedly as the president of UNESCO’s biennial general conference plaintively called for them to take their seats and get on with the business at hand. To wit, voting on a request by the Palestinian Authority for membership—and with it, the first recognition of its statehood by a United Nations agency.
The stakes were high. In its quest for statehood without making concessions to Israel, the PA had applied for full membership in the UN in September, but it was obvious that the U.S. would veto that ploy in the Security Council. So PA President Mahmoud Abbas was targeting a weak link in the UN system where the veto does not exist. He knew that UNESCO, with its fuzzy cultural mandate, was as open to political manipulation now as it had been when it was an ideological battlefield in the Cold War.
The U.S. had made abundantly clear that, due to laws dating from the 1990s, admitting Palestine to any UN agency would mean an immediate cutoff of American funding. In UNESCO’s case, this amounted to fully 22 percent of its budget. There was no leeway for interpretation, no possibility of waiving the laws’ provisions. Perversely, that seemed only to sharpen the delegates’ appetite for admitting Palestine. As the roll was called, it became obvious that they relished thumbing their collective nose at the U.S. and the handful of member states that held this was the wrong place to decide Palestinian statehood. Cheers greeted votes in favor by delegations from Africa, South America, the Middle East, Russia, China, and, of course, France. Joining the fun was the ambassador from Uzbekistan, the beauteous 32-year-old Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, socialite daughter of President Islam Karimov, whose use of torture against dissidents, including boiling to death, the UN itself has termed “systematic.”
A sprinkling of moans or boos rippled through the assembly when the U.S., Germany, Holland, and a few others voted against. The president repeatedly called for a bit of decorum. Not a chance: now the grinning, gibbering, gesticulating inmates had indeed taken over. The final vote was 107 in favor to 14 against, with 52 abstentions. For anyone who still believed in UNESCO’s mission, it was an appalling spectacle. With that frivolous, self-defeating act, UNESCO signaled to the world that, once again, it was becoming the UN’s over-politicized rogue agency.
IT WAS A LOSE-LOSE MOVE both for Palestine and UNESCO itself. After the grandstanding, Palestine was no closer to statehood and possibly further away, hardening positions and jeopardizing the peace process. “It was an extremely reckless and callous move by Abbas,” one dismayed Western ambassador to UNESCO told me later. “There are no winners in this. Abbas has alienated some of his most important supporters.” The State Department and both parties in Congress quickly denounced the vote. As Texas Republican Kay Granger, chair of the House State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, had warned, “I have made it clear to the Palestinian leadership that I would not support sending U.S. taxpayer money to the Palestinians if they sought statehood at the United Nations. There are consequences for short-cutting the process, not only for the Palestinians, but for our longstanding relationship with the United Nations.”
Read More at The American Spectator By Joseph A. Harris, The American Spectator
Chrysler Is Back? Great. Then Why Hasn’t It Repaid Taxpayers the $1.3 Billion It Still Owes Them?
/1 Comment/in News /by newseditor
Amid the controversy over Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime In America” Super Bowl commercial, a glaring question remains: if Chrysler is back on top and so strong, then why hasn’t it repaid taxpayers the $1.3 billion it still owes them?
“I was, frankly, offended by it,” said Republican strategist Karl Rove. “I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.”
Already, Democrats have begun co-opting the “It’s Halftime In America” meme, and President Barack Obama’s campaign team has already signaled that “saving” Detroit and the American auto industry will be a central campaign theme in Mr. Obama’s 2012 reelection bid. Indeed, in June 2011, Mr. Obama proudly declared:
Chrysler has repaid every dime and more of what it owes American taxpayers for their support during my presidency–and it repaid that money six years ahead of schedule. And this week, we reached a deal to sell our remaining stake. That means Chrysler will be 100 percent in private hands.
We take no view on whether the administration’s efforts on behalf of the automobile industry were a good or bad thing; that’s a matter for the editorial pages and eventually the historians. But we are interested in the facts the president cited to make his case.
What we found is one of the most misleading collections of assertions we have seen in a short presidential speech. Virtually every claim by the president regarding the auto industry needs an asterisk, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true car loan.
Read More at Big Government By Wynton Hall, Big Government
“Tea Party” Pols sell out Tea Party
/5 Comments/in Updates /by Steve Baldwin
In March of 2011, former Rep. John Leboutiller predicted in a News Max article that, “the tea party will select the 2012 GOP nominee.”
At the time, it was a safe prediction given the strength of the tea-party movement in the 2010 elections and the influence it was expected to have on the GOP presidential primaries just over a year later. But something went terribly wrong in the meantime. Many politicians heavily supported by the tea-party movement seem to have switched sides, pursuing their own agenda at the expense of the conservative movement and the tea party.
Take Christine O’Donnell, for example. O’Donnell lost her bid for the U.S. Senate in Delaware but continues to have a following among tea-party activists. Inexplicably, she recently endorsed Romney, stating she is doing so because she thinks “infrastructure and executive experience are important.” She also claimed, “He’s been consistent since he changed his mind.”
One wonders if the $5,000 O’Donnell received in 2010 from Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC had any influence on her decision.
Similarly, the tea-party movement was heavily involved in the election of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, but she endorsed Romney last month, claiming in her endorsement remarks, “He knows how to create jobs and turn the economy.” Haley also received some big bucks from Romney; to be precise, she took $36,000 from Romney’s various PACs over the last few years, more than any other gubernatorial candidate.
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Read more at WND.com HERE.
Former White House intern claims JFK was a sexual deviant
/3 Comments/in Updates /by Jessica Hopper
[Former White House teen intern, Mimi Alford, claims that JFK asked her to perform sex acts with his friend Dave Powers at the White House. She complied and the President watched. She describes this and other perverse details in her NBC interview, scheduled to air Wednesday. Ms. Alford, now 68, was first publicly outed in 2003 when historian Robert Dallek wrote 37 words about an unnamed intern who had an affair with Kennedy. The New York Daily News then identified her by name.]
Mimi Alford is speaking publicly for the first time about the secret she’s held for half a century. Alford claims that she had an 18-month-long affair with President John F. Kennedy when she was a White House intern.
“I think when you keep a secret and when you keep silent about something, you do it because you think it’s keeping you safe, but in fact, it’s deadly,” Alford told Meredith Vieira in an exclusive interview scheduled to air Wednesday on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.
In 1962, a 19-year-old Alford spent her summer in Washington, D.C., interning in the White House press office. She had just finished her freshman year at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. Four days into her internship, Alford claims that JFK aide, David Powers, invited her to go swimming in the White House pool. Alford was surprised when the 45-year-old president joined her and two others in the pool.
“It really didn’t seem unnatural, just because everybody was friendly and I went back to work afterwards,” Alford said. “No one said anything.”
Later that day, she says she received another call to visit the private floors of the White House. The naïve teenager didn’t question the president’s intentions when he asked to take her on a tour of the White House.
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Read more at Rock Center HERE.
Where will we be in November 2012 – let alone in 2020?
/13 Comments/in From Joe's Desk /by Joe MillerAs I discussed during my Senate campaign less than two years ago, our nation faces some very tough times ahead, in both the near-term and certainly in the long term. Since that campaign, the state of our nation – and Alaska – has not improved; by many standards it has deteriorated. The false hope peddled by Obama lies strewn about the Occupy sites, even as many continue to cling to unreality. However, I am doubly committed to fighting to Restore Liberty in our nation and my great state.
Our nation has reached a condition where many times, up is down, right is wrong, and good is evil. Whereas diversity is celebrated as a core character trait, we witness over and over that “diversity” is an acronym for the “liberal mindset,” entertaining no deviation from politically correct dogma. Nothing crystallizes the backlash of straying from the liberal plantation more than Susan G. Komen’s recent public relations disaster following its announcement that it would cut off funds from Planned Parenthood.
At the same time, US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tells Egyptian media that she would look elsewhere if she were writing a constitution today. Never mind that she is sworn to uphold the US Constitution, the legal foundation for the greatest nation on earth. But this is no surprise given Ginsburg’s increasing reliance on foreign courts in her own legal decisions.
President Obama, with deep ties to radical members of anti-American organizations, has no qualms in dropping the name of his alleged savior when it brings him political points via a fawning US media. Citing Jesus in support of how one should spend money is a surprise though, given the fact that Obama donates a pathetic 1% of his income to charity. Moreover, his sudden affinity for Christ doesn’t make much sense in light of his past hostility toward our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage. Nevertheless, he invokes the name of Jesus to aid in tax collecting.
As we head into this important and already contentious election season, we are faced with a juggernaut Establishment machine that seems to have no regard for the rule of law, especially as it regards vote integrity. While Eric Holder demonizes any state that dares to pass voter ID laws, his own media event attacking these requirements required all attendees to present – you guessed it – an ID card.
The Republican nomination might be considered by some as a healthy and vigorous means of competing for the right to oppose Obama. But right now it appears that “Republican Demolition Derby” might be a better way to describe that process. In any event, one of the least conservative candidates, Mitt Romney (whom I strongly oppose), has a solid advantage on the road to the nomination. Newt Gingrich, trying to link himself to Ronald Reagan, carries his own baggage: big government credentials from the past thirty years that should set off alarm bells for any conservative. And while my visit with Ron Paul last month was very encouraging on the fiscal front, his assessment of the threat of radical Islam is difficult to stomach. So is Santorum the “not Romney?” Not as long as he continues to embrace earmarks, endorsement of establishment candidates, and the other hallmarks of DC corruption. Such an approach to government makes his conservative rhetoric ring hollow.
So where will we be in November of this year? How about 2020? Can we tolerate another four years of Obama’s devastating assault on the moral and economic fabric of our nation?
The sleeping conservative giant woke up in 2008, organized in 2009, and won amazing victories in 2010, nationally and in many statehouses and local jurisdictions. The conservative movement is alive and well, and on the move. 2012 is another step on the path to Restoring Liberty, but it won’t be the final step, not by any stretch of the imagination. This is a long war we are in, one that requires all of our efforts, for the long haul.
What must we do this year and beyond? We must fight, for sure. We need to recruit, educate, and become stronger organizationally and policy-wise. We have the moral – and legal – high ground, yet it seems we continue to cede this ground back to the enemy. We must always be prepared to give an answer for our hope, to fight vigorously, yet with civility, on the battlefield of ideas.
The mission I started almost two years ago is as valid now as it was then, if not more so. With recent visits to Yale and with conservative leaders in DC, I am encouraged with the commitment of so many who are fighting for our nation. This includes a surprising number of like-minded students at Yale who vigorously defended free market principles amidst a crushing onslaught of Big Government-types who seem to see DC as the answer to everything.
This week, I will be joining thousands of conservatives at CPAC. I hope to learn about the many different organizations that are fighting the good fight and listen to and share ideas with grassroots conservatives from across the nation.
2010 was just the beginning, and 2012 will be another campaign in a long war to take back our nation. If the gains in 2012 are as significant this year as two years ago, our movement will continue to grow – and be effective in the goal to Restore Liberty. We will likely not gain all of the victories we desire at once, but we should take heart in our current strength – and trajectory. We must win the Senate, the White House, and gain even more Tea Party strength in the House, not to mention the critical battlefields of local and state politics.
Are you with us in this fight? It just takes a few patriots to Restore Liberty to this great nation.
For the future of America, get involved now.
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McConnell: Keystone pipeline unlikely to pass until Obama is voted out
/2 Comments/in News /by newseditor
Despite ambitious attempts by Republicans to resuscitate the Keystone XL pipeline blocked by Barack Obama, the project isn’t likely to get approved until the president is voted out of office, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
“We’re going to keep coming back at it with different (bills), but I think probably the only way we’re going to get the Keystone pipeline started is to defeat Barack Obama,” McConnell told HUMAN EVENTS.
TransCanada has waited for three years and undergone numerous environmental studies to get the approval from the White House to build the pipeline from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast and transport 830,000 barrels of oil a day to U.S. refineries.
After numerous delays by the Obama administration, Congress forced Obama through legislation to deliver a verdict, but he killed the project last month.
“It is astonishing, I mean truly astonishing,” McConnell said of Obama’s decision.
Read More at Human Events By Audrey Hudson and Jason Mattera, Human Events
Video: On Reagan’s Birthday Watch Reagan’s Inspiring Words
/0 Comments/in Video /by newseditorI am posting some important Reagan videos. Today would have been his 101st Birthday, and it is a good time to remember him and all he has done for our wonderful country. We miss you President Reagan!
Obama Launches Crusade Against Catholic Institutions
/1 Comment/in News /by newseditor
If there were any doubt as to whether this administration is waging a war on religion, it should have disappeared by now.
The administration has ordered — without congressional input — that most health insurance plans cover preventive services for women, including recommended contraceptive services without charging a co-pay, co-insurance, or a deductible. That would include sterilization and emergency contraception, colloquially known as the morning after pill.
The federal government — actually just one branch of the federal government — ordering private companies to offer services at a certain price goes beyond the pale of decency in a free society. By itself, such an order would merit strong backlash from the people.
But it gets worse.
The order forces religious entities, ones that might have a moral aversion to birth control, to provide (i.e. pay for) this insurance for their employees.
Read More at Western Journalism By Thomas Lucenter, Western Journalism