With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The new assessment moves up Israel's forecasts on Teheran's nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.
Iran, a senior defense official said on Tuesday, had encountered numerous technical obstacles on its way to enriching uranium but was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months.
Israel is also concerned that Teheran is developing a cruise missile that can evade interception by the Arrow, the IDF's anti-ballistic missile defense system. Iran is suspected of having smuggled Ukrainian X-55 cruise missiles and using them as models for an independent, domestic project. A cruise missile, which flies at low altitudes to dodge radar detection and interception, could be used to carry a nuclear warhead.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel had the ability to create the tools needed to ensure its continued existence. Hinting at Iran, Olmert said that nothing in the world could undermine or bring an end to Israel's existence.
In a speech to a Keren Hayesod group, Olmert said, "I am asking that you take this with you and tell it to your communities everywhere - the people of Israel are strong, the State of Israel is strong, there is no enemy that can destroy us."
"We will not place ourselves in a position where anyone will, in an effective manner, threaten us with destruction, because if there was one thing that has changed since the establishment of the State of Israel 60 years ago until today, it is not that here the Jews are safe in every situation, in every condition and that there will not be any dangers," Olmert said. "There are also dangers here, like in many other places.
"But here, my friends, the Jewish people can fight, and when it needs to, it fights, and when it fights, it wins."
Last week, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said during a visit to the US that Teheran would likely achieve control of the technology to enrich uranium for an atomic bomb within a year.
In the past, the consensus in the intelligence community was that Iran had encountered technical difficulties with fuel enrichment and that its attainment of nuclear capability was much further off, Mofaz said, but a recent IDF Military Intelligence assessment showed that the Islamic Republic could go nuclear before the end of the decade.
Also Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned that more nations would follow the examples of Iran and North Korea and work to develop nuclear weapons. He said that the possibility that Syria was building a weapons-capable nuclear reactor before the IAF destroyed it on September 6 showed that NATO must find an answer to ballistic missile threats.
"The nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea threaten to set in motion a domino effect that will be difficult to contain," de Hoop Scheffer said in a speech at a missile defense conference at the Czech Foreign Ministry.
"If there is a serious suspicion that in Syria there was a facility in the making, it only increases the arguments... for finding a collective answer to a ballistic missile defense threat," the NATO chief said.
CIA Director Michael Hayden said last month that the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.
"The number of states that possess ballistic missiles is already growing, slowly and surely," de Hoop Scheffer said. "The proliferation of ballistic missiles is a reality that concerns us all."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
OUTLAWING THE PIG
Outlawing the Pig
By Janet Levy
FrontPageMagazine.com | 5/2/2008
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=B4D7EA5D-074C-4D34-AB04-71E9354504CB
The practice of political correctness may soon be tallying another casualty: the pig. Increasingly, as America and the rest of the Western world continue accommodating Muslim religious demands, pork food products are being singled out for removal from dining tables and pig-related trinkets banished from the desks of office workers.
If this continues, good ol' American food, such as barbeque replete with hot dogs and ribs and the typical American breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage, might be seen as the equivalent of political poison. Could outright censorship of pig depictions in drawings, pig references in literary works and pig portrayals in movies be far behind? Could the well-known, cartoon figure Porky Pig become a cultural embarrassment of our unenlightened past as we fear to utter the "P" word?
Though the notion may seem more appropriate for a comedy routine, an increasing number of pig-related incidents, accommodations and Muslim demands in recent years points to an uncertain future for our porcine friend and its place in our economy, culture and our culinary traditions.
In October of 2005, the United Kingdom, clearly further along on the road to dhimmitude due to its proportionally large and more radical Muslim population, banned piggybanks as promotional gifts from its banks. At about the same time, government social welfare offices called for the removal of all pig paraphernalia, including pig calendars, toys and accessories from employee desks. These new regulations were ostensibly implemented so as not to offend Muslim patrons.
Meanwhile, in the United States in 2007, several school districts removed pork products from their cafeteria offerings. Dearborn, Mich., schools banned pork completely to avoid the possibility that Muslims students might unknowingly eat it. The district later added special halal foods to its menu to cater to the demands of its Muslim population. An elementary school in San Diego that offers Arabic, single-gender classes and Muslim-only organized prayer, no longer offers pork to any of its students. And in Oak Lawn, Ill., where the administration is debating elimination of Christmas holiday celebrations, pork has already been banished from the school lunchroom.
Orthodox Jews, who follow kosher laws that prohibit the consumption of pork, have never demanded such special considerations for their chosen dietary habits nor have Jews feared accidental pork ingestion. They privately moderate their consumption according to their religious observances and often consume food prepared at home according to prescribed regulations.
Contrast this to how Muslims and their dietary habits are treated. In April 2007, a 13-year-old middle school prankster was suspended and his behavior labeled a hate crime for placing a bag with a ham steak on the lunch table of a group of Muslim students. That same month, Muslims started a Facebook group, "Fight Against Pork in Frito-Lay Products." The more than 1,800 participants sought to pressure the company to remove pork enzymes from its cheese seasonings.
Last year, Somali Muslim employees at a St. Louis Park, Minn. Target store refused to handle pork products, citing religious reasons. Target made special allowances for Muslim employees, who now scrutinize customer purchases and can call for assistance when a pork product appears at their check stand. Presumably, the Muslim employees knew they would be encountering bacon and pepperoni pizza when they signed on for their jobs and have no problem collecting a salary paid out of profits from pork sales.
In 2007, the Year of the Pig, an imam in Taipei complained after receiving a greeting card from Taiwan's foreign minister depicting celebrating pigs. When "Year of the Pig" postal stamps were issued, the Taiwanese government cautioned citizens about using them on letters and parcels to Muslim friends or to Muslim countries. That year, China banned pig images and the mention of pigs in television advertisement to avoid offending the country's Muslims.
This year, the popular story, The Three Little Pigs, was banned in a primary school in the United Kingdom as the school's administration thought references to pigs might offend Muslim pupils. Another school removed all books containing stories about pigs, including the talking pig 'Babe' from classrooms following complaints from Muslim parents. In 2007, a UK church school production of The Three Little Pigs was renamed The Three Little Puppies to maintain multi-cultural sensitivities. Ironically, the pig is mentioned often in the Koran as a derogatory reference to Jews.
In further accommodation to Muslims, Fortis Bank in the Netherlands and Belgium dropped its pig mascot. Knorbert the pig was eliminated after seven years with a statement from a bank spokesperson that "Knorbert does not meet the requirements that the multicultural society imposes on us."
A recent BBC report described how pork butchers are gradually being put out of business as Turkey adopts a more fundamentalist Muslim character. Pork slaughterhouses are being closed in record numbers to accommodate shariah law countrywide.
In 2004, a Muslim-owned investment company, Arcapita (formerly Capital Crescent Investments) acquired the 1,200-unit Church's Chicken chain. In 2005, Arcapita, with a net income of $70.5 million and assets worth $1.2 billion (2004), enjoined a franchisee from selling pork products. In correspondence with the franchisee, the corporate owners cited violation of shariah law as the reason for prohibiting the sale of bacon, ham and sausages. The restaurant owners were thereby forced to surrender to corporate demands and operate under shariah law.
Where will this end? Will "Animal Farm" be banned at our high schools and university campuses? Will the words "pork barrel spending" and "porker" be eliminated from the vernacular? Will Piggly Wiggly supermarkets be forced to change its name and re-brand its products? This could all be quite amusing if the implications weren't so grave.
The pig is an icon of American culture, a culinary tradition and an important component of our economy. While high grain prices and competition from Chinese imports are recognized as the two greatest threats to the industry, hog producers could be overlooking a larger threat to their livelihood looming on the horizon.
Pork production is a vital part of the U.S. economy, producing more than 22 billion pounds of meat annually, contributing almost $40 billion to the GNP and employing more than 500,000 workers in pork-industry related jobs. In addition, important pork co-products include heart valves, skin grafts for burn victims, gelatin, plywood, glue, cosmetics and plastics. At 28% of total world production, the U.S. is the second largest pork producer after China, which produces close to 50% of the world total. Pork ranks third in U.S. meat production behind beef and chicken and average yearly per capita consumption is about 50 pounds.
If the momentum to alter America's dining habits and cultural traditions to suit Muslim religious habits continues, American liberty, freedom and culture could actually be threatened. Laughable though it may seem on the surface, Arab petrodollar profits have the heft to use an economic, backdoor approach to implement shariah law in the United States against the will of the public. As Arab Muslims continue to heavily invest in our economy, they will continue to force submission to shariah law and undermine our democracy, individual rights and religious freedom. We must be vigilant and aware of this threat and act against it vigorously and immediately.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
By Janet Levy
FrontPageMagazine.com | 5/2/2008
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=B4D7EA5D-074C-4D34-AB04-71E9354504CB
The practice of political correctness may soon be tallying another casualty: the pig. Increasingly, as America and the rest of the Western world continue accommodating Muslim religious demands, pork food products are being singled out for removal from dining tables and pig-related trinkets banished from the desks of office workers.
If this continues, good ol' American food, such as barbeque replete with hot dogs and ribs and the typical American breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage, might be seen as the equivalent of political poison. Could outright censorship of pig depictions in drawings, pig references in literary works and pig portrayals in movies be far behind? Could the well-known, cartoon figure Porky Pig become a cultural embarrassment of our unenlightened past as we fear to utter the "P" word?
Though the notion may seem more appropriate for a comedy routine, an increasing number of pig-related incidents, accommodations and Muslim demands in recent years points to an uncertain future for our porcine friend and its place in our economy, culture and our culinary traditions.
In October of 2005, the United Kingdom, clearly further along on the road to dhimmitude due to its proportionally large and more radical Muslim population, banned piggybanks as promotional gifts from its banks. At about the same time, government social welfare offices called for the removal of all pig paraphernalia, including pig calendars, toys and accessories from employee desks. These new regulations were ostensibly implemented so as not to offend Muslim patrons.
Meanwhile, in the United States in 2007, several school districts removed pork products from their cafeteria offerings. Dearborn, Mich., schools banned pork completely to avoid the possibility that Muslims students might unknowingly eat it. The district later added special halal foods to its menu to cater to the demands of its Muslim population. An elementary school in San Diego that offers Arabic, single-gender classes and Muslim-only organized prayer, no longer offers pork to any of its students. And in Oak Lawn, Ill., where the administration is debating elimination of Christmas holiday celebrations, pork has already been banished from the school lunchroom.
Orthodox Jews, who follow kosher laws that prohibit the consumption of pork, have never demanded such special considerations for their chosen dietary habits nor have Jews feared accidental pork ingestion. They privately moderate their consumption according to their religious observances and often consume food prepared at home according to prescribed regulations.
Contrast this to how Muslims and their dietary habits are treated. In April 2007, a 13-year-old middle school prankster was suspended and his behavior labeled a hate crime for placing a bag with a ham steak on the lunch table of a group of Muslim students. That same month, Muslims started a Facebook group, "Fight Against Pork in Frito-Lay Products." The more than 1,800 participants sought to pressure the company to remove pork enzymes from its cheese seasonings.
Last year, Somali Muslim employees at a St. Louis Park, Minn. Target store refused to handle pork products, citing religious reasons. Target made special allowances for Muslim employees, who now scrutinize customer purchases and can call for assistance when a pork product appears at their check stand. Presumably, the Muslim employees knew they would be encountering bacon and pepperoni pizza when they signed on for their jobs and have no problem collecting a salary paid out of profits from pork sales.
In 2007, the Year of the Pig, an imam in Taipei complained after receiving a greeting card from Taiwan's foreign minister depicting celebrating pigs. When "Year of the Pig" postal stamps were issued, the Taiwanese government cautioned citizens about using them on letters and parcels to Muslim friends or to Muslim countries. That year, China banned pig images and the mention of pigs in television advertisement to avoid offending the country's Muslims.
This year, the popular story, The Three Little Pigs, was banned in a primary school in the United Kingdom as the school's administration thought references to pigs might offend Muslim pupils. Another school removed all books containing stories about pigs, including the talking pig 'Babe' from classrooms following complaints from Muslim parents. In 2007, a UK church school production of The Three Little Pigs was renamed The Three Little Puppies to maintain multi-cultural sensitivities. Ironically, the pig is mentioned often in the Koran as a derogatory reference to Jews.
In further accommodation to Muslims, Fortis Bank in the Netherlands and Belgium dropped its pig mascot. Knorbert the pig was eliminated after seven years with a statement from a bank spokesperson that "Knorbert does not meet the requirements that the multicultural society imposes on us."
A recent BBC report described how pork butchers are gradually being put out of business as Turkey adopts a more fundamentalist Muslim character. Pork slaughterhouses are being closed in record numbers to accommodate shariah law countrywide.
In 2004, a Muslim-owned investment company, Arcapita (formerly Capital Crescent Investments) acquired the 1,200-unit Church's Chicken chain. In 2005, Arcapita, with a net income of $70.5 million and assets worth $1.2 billion (2004), enjoined a franchisee from selling pork products. In correspondence with the franchisee, the corporate owners cited violation of shariah law as the reason for prohibiting the sale of bacon, ham and sausages. The restaurant owners were thereby forced to surrender to corporate demands and operate under shariah law.
Where will this end? Will "Animal Farm" be banned at our high schools and university campuses? Will the words "pork barrel spending" and "porker" be eliminated from the vernacular? Will Piggly Wiggly supermarkets be forced to change its name and re-brand its products? This could all be quite amusing if the implications weren't so grave.
The pig is an icon of American culture, a culinary tradition and an important component of our economy. While high grain prices and competition from Chinese imports are recognized as the two greatest threats to the industry, hog producers could be overlooking a larger threat to their livelihood looming on the horizon.
Pork production is a vital part of the U.S. economy, producing more than 22 billion pounds of meat annually, contributing almost $40 billion to the GNP and employing more than 500,000 workers in pork-industry related jobs. In addition, important pork co-products include heart valves, skin grafts for burn victims, gelatin, plywood, glue, cosmetics and plastics. At 28% of total world production, the U.S. is the second largest pork producer after China, which produces close to 50% of the world total. Pork ranks third in U.S. meat production behind beef and chicken and average yearly per capita consumption is about 50 pounds.
If the momentum to alter America's dining habits and cultural traditions to suit Muslim religious habits continues, American liberty, freedom and culture could actually be threatened. Laughable though it may seem on the surface, Arab petrodollar profits have the heft to use an economic, backdoor approach to implement shariah law in the United States against the will of the public. As Arab Muslims continue to heavily invest in our economy, they will continue to force submission to shariah law and undermine our democracy, individual rights and religious freedom. We must be vigilant and aware of this threat and act against it vigorously and immediately.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
Monday, May 5, 2008
America THE REPUBLIC
TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS
By Rocky
These words should be familiar to every American but how many give thought to what they really mean? Simply put, the United States of America is a REPUBLIC. We were founded as a Republic and a Republic we remain today, yet, few people give much thought to that these days and I wonder if it is even taught in schools today. From observing what my 13 year old daughter is taught in school, especially in American History and Civics classes, I am appalled at what they are not taught. For example, kids today, at least in the schools that my kids attend, are not taught about the Constitution, the very core of our laws and government, the document on which this nation was founded. In realizing that I began to wonder just how many adult Americans know about our form of government and just how far from it’s original origin we, as a nation, have began to stray?
Today, just about everything on the news is about the upcoming election, about “party politics”, i.e. debates and mud-slinging. We hear little about issues, at least to the point of how we, as a nation, are to solve the problems that threaten our very existence. What is this “party politics” any way?
Founded as a Republic, our nation is suppose to be “of the people, for the people and by the people”, yet, “We, the People”, have very little to say about any thing. Granted, you can say that we have elected representatives who speak for us, but do we? Do they really speak for us or do they speak in terms of the “Party line”? How many representatives do you know that vote as you wish them to vote rather than how their particular Party votes? That, to me, is one, if not the number one problem, of the many problems we face in this country. The people have no voice in reality. Our nation was not founded on parties, in fact, there is nothing in the Constitution that speaks of parties.
Our Representatives each must take an oath of office. That oath states that they swear, before God and the people, that they will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution against foreign and domestic enemies. We, the People must not allow our elected Representatives to take that oath lightly! However, it appears that we have become so complacent in this regard that that is exactly what we are doing. This oath is a contract, if you will, between our elected Representatives and We, the People. This oath tells us that our Representatives will protect our rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. I fear, in fact, I know that they are not, nor are the courts, including the Supreme Court.
The recent passage of the gun bill which allows the government to block the sale of gun to veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prime example. This newly passed law, which was not passed by majority vote of the full Congress but only a partial representative body thereof during the Christmas break, allows the government, mainly the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, to label those veterans with PTSD as “mentally defective”. PTSD is not medically considered as a mental disorder, per se, but is rather listed in the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual, DSM IV, the manual by doctors to make medical and mental diagnosis, as an anxiety disorder. Anxiety does not make one “mentally defective”. If it did a great number of our law enforcement personnel, judges, politicians, major business executives, actors and people in ordinary jobs would also fall under this category and be banned, by this new law, from buying a gun. This law is, in my opinion, also, unconstitutional.
The courts have yet to ascertain just what is meant by the Second Amendment of the Constitution, and whether or not said Amendment extends the rights of individuals to bear arms or just the state organized militias.
Pointing out that interest in the “character of the Second Amendment right has recently burgeoned,” Justice Thomas, concurring in the Court’s invalidation (on other grounds) of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, questioned whether the Second Amendment bars federal regulation of gun sales, and suggested that the Court might determine “at some future date . . . whether Justice Story was correct . . . that the right to bear arms ‘has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic.’ ”
Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 937–39 (1997) (quoting 3 Commentaries Sec. 1890, p. 746 (1833)). Justice Scalia, in extra–judicial writing, has sided with the individual rights interpretation of the Amendment. See Antonin Scalia, A Matter of Interpretation, Federal Courts and the Law, 136–37 n.13 (A. Gutmann, ed., 1997) (responding to Professor Tribe’s critique of “my interpretation of the Second Amendment as a guarantee that the federal government will not interfere with the individual’s right to bear arms for self–defense”).
To me, it is clear that until such time as the Constitution is further amended and said amendment ratified pursuant to Constitutional Law that the Constitution means just what it says and is written in such form as to allow even a individual with limited education to understand its meaning. In that regard here is what the courts say:
The Constitution was written to be understood by the voters; its words and phrases were used in their normal and ordinary, as distinguished from technical meaning; where the intention is clear, there is no room for construction, and no excuse for interpolation or addition. — Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat 304; Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat 419; Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat 419; Craig v. Missouri, 4 Pet 10; Tennessee v. Whitworth, 117 U.S. 139; Lake County v. Rollins, 130 U.S. 662; Hodges v. United States, 203 U.S. 1; Edwards v. Cuba R. Co., 268 U.S. 628; The Pocket Veto Case, 279 U.S. 655; (Justice) Story on the Constitution, 5th ed., Sec 451; Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, 2nd ed., p. 61, 70.
To disregard such a deliberate choice of words and their natural meaning, would be a departure from the first principle of constitutional interpretation. "In expounding the Constitution of the United States," said Chief Justice Taney in Holmes v. Jennison, 14 U.S. 540, 570-1, "every word must have its due force and appropriate meaning; for it is evident from the whole instrument, that, no word was unnecessarily used, or needlessly added. The many discussions which have taken place upon the construction of the Constitution, have proved the correctness of this proposition; and shown the high talent, the caution and the foresight of the illustrious men who framed it. Every word appears to have been weighed with the utmost deliberation and its force and effect to have been fully understood. — Wright v. United States, 302 U.S. 583 (1938).
The courts are not without duty to keep our elected Representatives in check when they step on the rights of the states and individuals. It is the duty of the courts to protect the Constitutional rights of every American citizen.
The courts are not bound by mere forms, nor are they to be misled by mere pretences. They are at liberty — indeed, are under a solemn duty — to look at the substance of things, whenever they enter upon the inquiry whether the legislature has transcended the limits of its authority. If therefore, a statute purporting to have been enacted to protect the public health, the public morals, or the public safety, has no real or substantial relation to those objects, or is a palpable invasion of rights secured by the fundamental law, it is the duty of thye courts to so adjudge, and thereby give effect to the Constitution. — Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623, 661.
The recent law passed by our Representatives has yet to be challenged in the courts, however, it is my opinion that such a challenge is in order. Our Representatives must be mindful that “We, the People” are not going to continue to sit by and allow them to just walk all over us, at least I hope that is the case. If it is not, if “We, the People continue to be complacent we may soon find that our liberty and freedom, that we so cherish, is gone.
We give much attention to the freedom and the human rights of peoples in foreign lands. Our government, is ever ready to speak out against any government who dose not grant religious and political freedom to it’s people, yet, if we are paying attention, if we are mindful of what is happening in our own country we see such freedoms slipping away from us almost daily.
The First Amendment of our Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law respecting as establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof”, yet we have seen it come to pass where Congress has done just the opposite, and they want to take it even further and take “One nation under God” from the Pledge to our flag and, thus, “to the Republic for which it stands.” Are we going to sit by and allow that to happen? I surely hope not! The Constitution clearly states that our Representatives, our government, is to remain out of the business of religion. Yet, if that religion happens to be Muslim our government goes out of its way to protect the rights and laws as established by the Islamic writings.
Wake up America!! Wake up before it is too late, before we begin asking ourselves the question, is this a dream, when our own government takes away what freedoms we have left.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
More Distrubing News for America
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Gaubatz: Islamic Manual in Falls Church, Virginia Calls on Muslims to Attack Olympians, Kill Priests and Nuns, Wage War on All Christians
http://theneinblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/gaubatz-islamic-manual-in-falls-church.html
Dave Gaubatz has posted a very disturbing discovery regarding a Jihad manual being sold at the Halalco Supermarket in Falls Church, Virginia. As Dave explains it on his Kids&Terrorism Blog:
"On 29 April 2008, I shopped at Halalco to verify the book is still available. It is located in the "Jihad" section of the bookstore. The manager 'Tariq' can show you the book and it is available for $12.95.
Following are some of the quotes:
1. "It is, in short, time to identify the enemy and declare the Jihad. Identify the enemy. Declare the Jihad. define its parameters. Indicate its opening statements. Delineate its outcome and indicate its end".
2. "The enemy is not merely a personnel but a method, a deen, with its Temples, the banks; with its holy places, the Stock Exchanges of the world; and its false scriptures, the data banks of figures, these magical millions and billions that hold the world's poor to ransom for the sake of a small elite of kafir power brokers, their core jewish, their allies the lawless Christians. It is with these the war must be waged".
3. "He who equips a fighter in the way of Allah, or looks after a fighters family at home is as good as one who fought".
4. "Priests in their churches, unlike recluse worshipping monks, should, of course be killed without any exception. Nuns along with Monks, deserve killing even more".
5. "No one has yet contemplated the impact of one destroyed Stock Exchange or Central Bank Archive".
6. "Not taking the jews and Christians as friends, not following their deen, not submitting to bid'a, neither its holidays (National Days, etc), nor in habits, not entering their places of worship, nor participating in their festivals-all this is vital in the prelude to the attack of a new Jihad."
7. "Strike at the time least expected. It follows that one should also strike at the place not expected. By extension, in light of the current situation, one may strike at several centres all at the same time, thus causing havoc in the enemy and in their response".
8. "One thing is certain-if the kuffar accept us and approve of us and claim they can live alongside us, then we have lost our Islam. The whole body-worshipping mushrik cult of Olympic fire worshipping sport is something unacceptable"."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
Gaubatz: Islamic Manual in Falls Church, Virginia Calls on Muslims to Attack Olympians, Kill Priests and Nuns, Wage War on All Christians
http://theneinblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/gaubatz-islamic-manual-in-falls-church.html
Dave Gaubatz has posted a very disturbing discovery regarding a Jihad manual being sold at the Halalco Supermarket in Falls Church, Virginia. As Dave explains it on his Kids&Terrorism Blog:
"On 29 April 2008, I shopped at Halalco to verify the book is still available. It is located in the "Jihad" section of the bookstore. The manager 'Tariq' can show you the book and it is available for $12.95.
Following are some of the quotes:
1. "It is, in short, time to identify the enemy and declare the Jihad. Identify the enemy. Declare the Jihad. define its parameters. Indicate its opening statements. Delineate its outcome and indicate its end".
2. "The enemy is not merely a personnel but a method, a deen, with its Temples, the banks; with its holy places, the Stock Exchanges of the world; and its false scriptures, the data banks of figures, these magical millions and billions that hold the world's poor to ransom for the sake of a small elite of kafir power brokers, their core jewish, their allies the lawless Christians. It is with these the war must be waged".
3. "He who equips a fighter in the way of Allah, or looks after a fighters family at home is as good as one who fought".
4. "Priests in their churches, unlike recluse worshipping monks, should, of course be killed without any exception. Nuns along with Monks, deserve killing even more".
5. "No one has yet contemplated the impact of one destroyed Stock Exchange or Central Bank Archive".
6. "Not taking the jews and Christians as friends, not following their deen, not submitting to bid'a, neither its holidays (National Days, etc), nor in habits, not entering their places of worship, nor participating in their festivals-all this is vital in the prelude to the attack of a new Jihad."
7. "Strike at the time least expected. It follows that one should also strike at the place not expected. By extension, in light of the current situation, one may strike at several centres all at the same time, thus causing havoc in the enemy and in their response".
8. "One thing is certain-if the kuffar accept us and approve of us and claim they can live alongside us, then we have lost our Islam. The whole body-worshipping mushrik cult of Olympic fire worshipping sport is something unacceptable"."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
Monday, April 28, 2008
Gas Prices Compared To. . .
All these examples do NOT imply that gasoline is cheap; it just illustrates how outrageous some prices are....
You will be really shocked by the last one!
(At least, I was...)
Compared with Gasoline......
Think a gallon of gas is expensive?
This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ... $ 10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ..........$ 9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 ..... $ 10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 ......... $ 10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 . $ 33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 .. $ 178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .. $ 123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ....... . $ 25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ....$ 84.48 per gallon
And this is the REAL KICKER...
Evian water 9 oz $1.49..$21.19 per gallon! $ 21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source
(Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)
Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?
So they have you hooked for the ink.
Someone calculated the cost of the ink at...............
(you won't believe it....but it is true........)
$5,200 a gal. (five thousand two hundred dollars)
So, the next time you're at the pump,be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!
Just a little humour to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump...
And - If you don't pass this along to at least one person,
your muffler will fall off!!
You will be really shocked by the last one!
(At least, I was...)
Compared with Gasoline......
Think a gallon of gas is expensive?
This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ... $ 10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ..........$ 9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 ..... $ 10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 ......... $ 10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 . $ 33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 .. $ 178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .. $ 123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ....... . $ 25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ....$ 84.48 per gallon
And this is the REAL KICKER...
Evian water 9 oz $1.49..$21.19 per gallon! $ 21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source
(Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)
Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?
So they have you hooked for the ink.
Someone calculated the cost of the ink at...............
(you won't believe it....but it is true........)
$5,200 a gal. (five thousand two hundred dollars)
So, the next time you're at the pump,be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!
Just a little humour to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump...
And - If you don't pass this along to at least one person,
your muffler will fall off!!
Gas Prices
Sent to me by a friend,
If they are equal partners than why are we still paying so much for gas? One would believe that Exxon is already gleaning 50% of the profits by selling the oil back to itself in the US. Plus the fact that as the worlds largest producing and exporting company they would have a say as to the cost of a barrel of crude.
About Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery (SAMREF)
SAMREF is an equally owned joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation).
Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) is the worlds largest oil producing and exporting company and was established by Royal Decree in 1988 to assume the responsibilities of its predecessor, Aramco that has a history dating back more than 70 years.
Exxon Mobil Corporation is a global energy company with a history dating back more than 132 years and which conducts business in 140 countries on every continent throughout the world.
SAMREF is a complex refinery which was formed for the development, construction, ownership and operation of crude oil refining facilities in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Following the construction and start-up of the facilities, it commenced operations on November 15, 1984.
If they are equal partners than why are we still paying so much for gas? One would believe that Exxon is already gleaning 50% of the profits by selling the oil back to itself in the US. Plus the fact that as the worlds largest producing and exporting company they would have a say as to the cost of a barrel of crude.
About Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery (SAMREF)
SAMREF is an equally owned joint venture between Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation).
Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) is the worlds largest oil producing and exporting company and was established by Royal Decree in 1988 to assume the responsibilities of its predecessor, Aramco that has a history dating back more than 70 years.
Exxon Mobil Corporation is a global energy company with a history dating back more than 132 years and which conducts business in 140 countries on every continent throughout the world.
SAMREF is a complex refinery which was formed for the development, construction, ownership and operation of crude oil refining facilities in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Following the construction and start-up of the facilities, it commenced operations on November 15, 1984.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Obama - From the Canadian Free Press
Some interesting questions raised from this article in my opinion, questions that need to be answered before election time!
The Canadian Free Press
The Real Obama Story Exposed!
By JB Williams Monday, April 14, 2008
Other than the honor of holding the most far left voting record in the U.S. Senate as a freshman law maker and former black activist from Chicago who has spent the last twenty years supporting the anti-American, anti-white hate sermons of Rev. Wright, we know very little about Barrack Hussein Obama… until now!
Agent of Change
The Obama campaign is centered on the simple notion of change. But what kind of change are we talking about here? The Obama campaign has remained vague about the specific kinds of change in their agenda, barking platitudes from the stump without offering any real information.
Obama has been even more vague about any methods for producing that change and on the rare occasion when a news reporter might ask the right question, Obama mumbles and stumbles off into more empty platitudes or storms off the stage as if the questions were not fair.
But the Obama agenda and methods for change may finally be coming into focus…
Letter from Africa
In a letter received from American missionaries who have spent the last twelve years living and serving in Africa, the Agent of Change comes into focus.
The letter opens with “Thanks for sending out an alert about Obama. We are living and working in Kenya for almost twelve years now and know his family (tribe) well. They are the ones who were behind the recent [2007] Presidential election chaos here. Thousands of people have been displaced by election violence (over 350,000) and I don’t know the last count of the dead.”
The letter goes on, “Obama, under “friends of Obama” gave almost a million dollars to the opposition campaign who just happened to be his cousin, Raila Odinga, who is a socialist trained in East Germany. He has been trying to bring Kenya down for years and the last president threw him in prison for trying to subvert this country!”
Then the missionaries make their biggest statement, “What we would like you to know is what the American press has been keeping a dirty little secret. Obama IS a Muslim and he IS a racist and this is a fulfillment of the 911 threat that was just the beginning. Jihad is the only true Muslim way.” This message comes from American missionaries who have been working among Muslim groups for the last twenty years, the last twelve among Obama’s tribe (family) in Kenya.
The assertions made by this missionary group are astounding. But the assertions raise questions which are even more astounding.
The letter further states, “He is not an American as we know it. Please encourage your friends and associates not to be taken in by those that are promoting him. It is world wide jihad. - By the way, his true full name in Kenya is Barrack Hussein Muhammad Obama.”
Americans learned that Obama is indeed a racist when they learned that he and his family have been spending their Sunday’s with the racist Rev. Wright for the last twenty years. But Obama has repeatedly denied being a Muslim, despite his father being a Muslim and his time spent in a Muslim school in Jakarta.
Obama is not the only agent of change candidate
Obama’s cousin Raila Odinga also ran as the agent of change candidate in Kenya 2007, as you can see on his campaign web site. As an East German trained socialist, and son of a well-known socialist father, Raila Odinga pursues heavy handed socialism in Africa. But like his comrade cousin in America, he uses the acceptable guise of Democratic Socialism in that pursuit.
Numerous historical accounts exist and a summation of those reports appears at Wikipedia.
- Raila was charged with treason and was detained without trial for six years.[2]
A biography released in July 2006 suggested that Raila was more involved in the coup than previously thought. After its publication, some MPs called for Raila to be arrested and charged,[3] but the statute of limitations had already passed and, since the information was contained in a biography, Raila could not be said to have openly confessed his involvement.[4]
Released on February 6th, 1988, he was rearrested in September, 1988 for his involvement with the Kenya Revolutionary Movement (KRM),[5] an underground organization pressing for multi-party democracy in Kenya, which was then a one-party state.
Raila was released on June 12th, 1989, only to be incarcerated again on July 5th, 1990, together with Kenneth Matiba, and former Nairobi Mayor Charles Rubia.[6] Raila was released on June 21st, 1991, and in October, he fled the country to Norway alleging government attempts to assassinate him.[7] - - -
Today, Odinga is co-president of Kenya…
Election Fraud
The claim of election fraud before an election is even held has become a common tool of socialists around the world, including Democratic Socialists here in the U.S. Used to force their way into the political arena where they would otherwise be unwelcome, it allows them to assert that the “will of the people” was subverted and thereby use the power of the violent masses to force change.
In the case of Obama’s cousin in Kenya, he was successful in forcing his way to a co-presidency by these means. However, as the missionaries report - in the chaotic violence led by Raila Odinga supporters, “not one mosque was burned down, but hundreds of churches were burned down, some with people in them, burned alive.”
Further Investigation
The claims made in the letter from the missionaries would be damning to the Obama campaign here in the states, to say the least. If true, these statements would not only end Obama’s quest for the Oval Office, but his political career on the whole.
Before jumping to any conclusions, such powerful claims demand further investigation and upon such further investigation, here’s what I found.
In numerous international reports from Kenya to the BBC in England, these claims hold up very well. In a post titled Barack Obama Lauded by Marxists, the writer discloses even more connections and information beginning with “Unsurprisingly, Marxists from Africa to the Americas are lauding young Barack Obama as their “agent of change."
There are reasons why Barack Obama enjoys the support of international thugs like his cousin in Kenya, Chavez in Venezuela and Ahmadinejad in Iran. They share a common view of what kind of changes are appropriate for America and the world. They also share common ground in the methods they use to force such changes.
A source familiar with Kenyan politics warns Americans to look into Barack’s Kenyan connections before they leap: "--Raila Odinga is of the Luo tribe to which Obama’s late African-Arab Muslim father belonged. Obama’s older brother still lives there; Abongo ‘Roy’ Obama is a Luo activist and militant Muslim who argues that the black man must liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture. Sound a lot like a Sunday sermon from the Rev. Wright?
He urges his younger brother, Barack, to embrace his African heritage, which he has. Barack Obama has a Kenyan grandmother and several African brothers and sisters as well. The Obama connections with both international thugs and international socialism, is beyond dispute.
What About All that Obama Campaign Money?
Obama has set historical records in campaign fund raising. But where is all that money coming from since it can’t be coming from the “poor” American citizens he claims to represent?
For starters, Obama’s campaign site asks donors “which country” they are from, openly indicating that campaign contribution to the Obama campaign are coming from all over the world, not just all over America. The Obama campaign MUST disclose which countries he is receiving campaign contributions from and why…
Just as Obama through his “Friends of Obama” organization sent almost a million dollars to support his cousin’s campaign for socialist power in Kenya, it appears very likely that socialists and anti-American thugs are also participating in the American election process by sending foreign funds to the Obama campaign here in the states.
Short of forced full disclosure from the Obama campaign, it is not easy to establish the money trail beyond any reasonable doubt.
Fortunately, Obama has been campaigning as a “full disclosure agent of change.” So his campaign and his minions should have no objection to immediate full disclosure regarding where all that campaign money is coming from, specifically out of the country.
In Closing the First Part in this Series
Though this story provides a much needed glimpse into who Barack Hussein Muhammad Obama really is, it raises far more questions than answers, questions that MUST be asked of and answered by the Obama campaign. Without public pressure to do so, the leftist MSM will never ask such questions and the Obama campaign will not offer any answers.
The people truly have a right and a desperate need to know who this man is. They will have to force the MSM to ask the questions if they hope to find out the answer and hopefully, they will do so before the man is sitting in the Oval Office!
The Canadian Free Press
The Real Obama Story Exposed!
By JB Williams Monday, April 14, 2008
Other than the honor of holding the most far left voting record in the U.S. Senate as a freshman law maker and former black activist from Chicago who has spent the last twenty years supporting the anti-American, anti-white hate sermons of Rev. Wright, we know very little about Barrack Hussein Obama… until now!
Agent of Change
The Obama campaign is centered on the simple notion of change. But what kind of change are we talking about here? The Obama campaign has remained vague about the specific kinds of change in their agenda, barking platitudes from the stump without offering any real information.
Obama has been even more vague about any methods for producing that change and on the rare occasion when a news reporter might ask the right question, Obama mumbles and stumbles off into more empty platitudes or storms off the stage as if the questions were not fair.
But the Obama agenda and methods for change may finally be coming into focus…
Letter from Africa
In a letter received from American missionaries who have spent the last twelve years living and serving in Africa, the Agent of Change comes into focus.
The letter opens with “Thanks for sending out an alert about Obama. We are living and working in Kenya for almost twelve years now and know his family (tribe) well. They are the ones who were behind the recent [2007] Presidential election chaos here. Thousands of people have been displaced by election violence (over 350,000) and I don’t know the last count of the dead.”
The letter goes on, “Obama, under “friends of Obama” gave almost a million dollars to the opposition campaign who just happened to be his cousin, Raila Odinga, who is a socialist trained in East Germany. He has been trying to bring Kenya down for years and the last president threw him in prison for trying to subvert this country!”
Then the missionaries make their biggest statement, “What we would like you to know is what the American press has been keeping a dirty little secret. Obama IS a Muslim and he IS a racist and this is a fulfillment of the 911 threat that was just the beginning. Jihad is the only true Muslim way.” This message comes from American missionaries who have been working among Muslim groups for the last twenty years, the last twelve among Obama’s tribe (family) in Kenya.
The assertions made by this missionary group are astounding. But the assertions raise questions which are even more astounding.
The letter further states, “He is not an American as we know it. Please encourage your friends and associates not to be taken in by those that are promoting him. It is world wide jihad. - By the way, his true full name in Kenya is Barrack Hussein Muhammad Obama.”
Americans learned that Obama is indeed a racist when they learned that he and his family have been spending their Sunday’s with the racist Rev. Wright for the last twenty years. But Obama has repeatedly denied being a Muslim, despite his father being a Muslim and his time spent in a Muslim school in Jakarta.
Obama is not the only agent of change candidate
Obama’s cousin Raila Odinga also ran as the agent of change candidate in Kenya 2007, as you can see on his campaign web site. As an East German trained socialist, and son of a well-known socialist father, Raila Odinga pursues heavy handed socialism in Africa. But like his comrade cousin in America, he uses the acceptable guise of Democratic Socialism in that pursuit.
Numerous historical accounts exist and a summation of those reports appears at Wikipedia.
- Raila was charged with treason and was detained without trial for six years.[2]
A biography released in July 2006 suggested that Raila was more involved in the coup than previously thought. After its publication, some MPs called for Raila to be arrested and charged,[3] but the statute of limitations had already passed and, since the information was contained in a biography, Raila could not be said to have openly confessed his involvement.[4]
Released on February 6th, 1988, he was rearrested in September, 1988 for his involvement with the Kenya Revolutionary Movement (KRM),[5] an underground organization pressing for multi-party democracy in Kenya, which was then a one-party state.
Raila was released on June 12th, 1989, only to be incarcerated again on July 5th, 1990, together with Kenneth Matiba, and former Nairobi Mayor Charles Rubia.[6] Raila was released on June 21st, 1991, and in October, he fled the country to Norway alleging government attempts to assassinate him.[7] - - -
Today, Odinga is co-president of Kenya…
Election Fraud
The claim of election fraud before an election is even held has become a common tool of socialists around the world, including Democratic Socialists here in the U.S. Used to force their way into the political arena where they would otherwise be unwelcome, it allows them to assert that the “will of the people” was subverted and thereby use the power of the violent masses to force change.
In the case of Obama’s cousin in Kenya, he was successful in forcing his way to a co-presidency by these means. However, as the missionaries report - in the chaotic violence led by Raila Odinga supporters, “not one mosque was burned down, but hundreds of churches were burned down, some with people in them, burned alive.”
Further Investigation
The claims made in the letter from the missionaries would be damning to the Obama campaign here in the states, to say the least. If true, these statements would not only end Obama’s quest for the Oval Office, but his political career on the whole.
Before jumping to any conclusions, such powerful claims demand further investigation and upon such further investigation, here’s what I found.
In numerous international reports from Kenya to the BBC in England, these claims hold up very well. In a post titled Barack Obama Lauded by Marxists, the writer discloses even more connections and information beginning with “Unsurprisingly, Marxists from Africa to the Americas are lauding young Barack Obama as their “agent of change."
There are reasons why Barack Obama enjoys the support of international thugs like his cousin in Kenya, Chavez in Venezuela and Ahmadinejad in Iran. They share a common view of what kind of changes are appropriate for America and the world. They also share common ground in the methods they use to force such changes.
A source familiar with Kenyan politics warns Americans to look into Barack’s Kenyan connections before they leap: "--Raila Odinga is of the Luo tribe to which Obama’s late African-Arab Muslim father belonged. Obama’s older brother still lives there; Abongo ‘Roy’ Obama is a Luo activist and militant Muslim who argues that the black man must liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture. Sound a lot like a Sunday sermon from the Rev. Wright?
He urges his younger brother, Barack, to embrace his African heritage, which he has. Barack Obama has a Kenyan grandmother and several African brothers and sisters as well. The Obama connections with both international thugs and international socialism, is beyond dispute.
What About All that Obama Campaign Money?
Obama has set historical records in campaign fund raising. But where is all that money coming from since it can’t be coming from the “poor” American citizens he claims to represent?
For starters, Obama’s campaign site asks donors “which country” they are from, openly indicating that campaign contribution to the Obama campaign are coming from all over the world, not just all over America. The Obama campaign MUST disclose which countries he is receiving campaign contributions from and why…
Just as Obama through his “Friends of Obama” organization sent almost a million dollars to support his cousin’s campaign for socialist power in Kenya, it appears very likely that socialists and anti-American thugs are also participating in the American election process by sending foreign funds to the Obama campaign here in the states.
Short of forced full disclosure from the Obama campaign, it is not easy to establish the money trail beyond any reasonable doubt.
Fortunately, Obama has been campaigning as a “full disclosure agent of change.” So his campaign and his minions should have no objection to immediate full disclosure regarding where all that campaign money is coming from, specifically out of the country.
In Closing the First Part in this Series
Though this story provides a much needed glimpse into who Barack Hussein Muhammad Obama really is, it raises far more questions than answers, questions that MUST be asked of and answered by the Obama campaign. Without public pressure to do so, the leftist MSM will never ask such questions and the Obama campaign will not offer any answers.
The people truly have a right and a desperate need to know who this man is. They will have to force the MSM to ask the questions if they hope to find out the answer and hopefully, they will do so before the man is sitting in the Oval Office!
ORANGE COUNTY ( CALIFORNIA ) NEWSPAPER
This is a very good letter to the editor. This woman made some good points. For some reason, people have difficulty structuring their arguments when arguing against supporting the currently proposed immigration revisions. This lady made the argument pretty simple. NOT printed in the Orange County Paper....................
Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public.. This woman wrote a great letter to the editor that should have been published; but, with your help it will get published via cyberspace!
New Immigrants
From: "David LaBonte"
My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to "print" it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so inclined.
Dave LaBonte (signed)
Written in response to a series of letters to the editor in the Orange County Register :
Dear Editor:
So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.
Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in thei r new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture.
Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity. Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people. When we liberated France, no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here.. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are in 2006 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900's deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty , it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
(signed) Rosemary LaBonte
KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING. FOR THE WRONG THINGS TO PREVAIL THE RIGHTFUL MAJORITY NEEDS TO REMAIN COMPLACENT AND QUIET!! LET THIS NEVER HAPPEN!!
Friday, April 25, 2008
Europe facing radicalization over the Web
OLIVIER GUITTA
http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/04/20/europe_facing_radicalization_over_the_web/5616/
A few months ago Bernard Squarcini the head of the DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire), the French equivalent of the FBI, told the French daily Libération regarding Islamic radicalization: "An ideological transformation can be done in three months on the Web. An individual can at night auto-radicalize himself via the Web and get in touch with leaders of terrorist organizations." This assessment shows how dire the situation is in Europe when it comes to al-Qaida's use of the Web.
Al-Qaida uses the web for four different tasks: propaganda; communication, mostly to instruct those in the field; training future combatants, a kind of online university of terrorism; and to send messages to the enemy, mostly to the West.
For instance, one of the most popular jihadist sites in France is one which translates books on the jihad in French and gives lessons on urban guerilla tactics. (This site got more than 3 million visits from France alone). Another Web site explains how to get weapons in the West (hide, assemble and breakdown) and how to manufacture bombs from products found in supermarkets.
The propaganda primarily targets youngsters. Some of them join the virtual jihad or "webtifada", i.e. cyber criminality.
In March 2006, the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Exterieure), the French equivalent of the CIA, tracked down a forum where jihadists recruited hackers to destroy "infidels'" Web sites and government sites. The jihadists recommended: "If you can't slash their throats, then at least destroy their sites." And on May 15, 2006 the Metz, France police arrested a young man who, under the alias Yanis, had attacked 1,161 sites including 710 linked to the Muhammad cartoons controversy.
Fortunately in Europe, even though the number is growing only a minority is actually joining the virtual jihad. According to Louis Caprioli, ex-boss of the anti-terror unit of the DST, the number of French volunteers in Iraq is in the tens. Confirming this, expert Walter Akmouche states that statistically, to get one jihadi, you must contact an average 45,000 people.
Which vehicle do the jihadis use on the Web? According to the DST, the chat room Paltalk is regularly used to hide operations. They also use Instant Messaging services such as Messenger or Skype and "dead e-mail boxes" which allow them, with the username and password, to retrieve unsent messages. But they also exchange information and coded files on forums devoted to soccer, music or any topic totally unrelated to Islam.
It is important to note that to access true terrorist sites; one has to be an insider and needs to know the real number-coded URL address, which often changes.
Also after years of research, al-Qaida has developed software called "Secrets of Mujahedin," that allows secure exchange in Arabic on electronic networks. It has allegedly been in use for over a year on clandestine forums close to al-Qaida, especially for jihadist groups in Iraq and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. This has been a formidable weapon for al-Qaida and numerous intelligence services and private companies have been trying to break it.
How is Europe facing this threat? First by closely monitoring jihadist Web sites. For instance, last year, Holland devoted 10 million euros (about $15 million) to fighting extremism. Thus, more than 150 Internet sites broadcasting extremist ideology were the subject of complaints and were restricted.
In France, about 30 potentially dangerous sites are monitored by some units of the UCLAT (Unité de Coordination de la Lutte antiterroriste), the French counterterrorism coordination unit. Software allows them to trace back the origin of a server or the IP address of a user and if they act fast, they can trace the network and use it against the Islamists using it. For instance, the recent monitoring of a forum allowed the unit to trace a couple of Salafist groups in the suburbs of Paris that were recruiting jihadis and organizing their trip.
One of the main problems facing European authorities is that simply shutting down Web sites is not very efficient since these sites just end up operating under new names.
European countries are also using the legal tool to fight al-Qaida's use of the Web in Europe. In a first, a Swiss court last summer sentenced several individuals including the widow of the killer of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's Northern Alliance's leader killed by al-Qaida on September 9, 2001, and her boyfriend, for having created and operated four Web sites and chat rooms for extremist propaganda and exchange of information by terrorist groups.
European authorities are taking this issue very seriously. On Feb. 1, France's interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie told the French daily Le Figaro that the use of the Web by terrorists was "one of my major concerns, and one of the priorities assigned to the [security] services. This requires additional material, forces specialized in fighting cyber-criminality, legal resources. I want us to be able to stop the terrorist propaganda, find the operational networks, track them down and prevent them from acting."
--
Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
OLIVIER GUITTA
http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/04/20/europe_facing_radicalization_over_the_web/5616/
A few months ago Bernard Squarcini the head of the DST (Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire), the French equivalent of the FBI, told the French daily Libération regarding Islamic radicalization: "An ideological transformation can be done in three months on the Web. An individual can at night auto-radicalize himself via the Web and get in touch with leaders of terrorist organizations." This assessment shows how dire the situation is in Europe when it comes to al-Qaida's use of the Web.
Al-Qaida uses the web for four different tasks: propaganda; communication, mostly to instruct those in the field; training future combatants, a kind of online university of terrorism; and to send messages to the enemy, mostly to the West.
For instance, one of the most popular jihadist sites in France is one which translates books on the jihad in French and gives lessons on urban guerilla tactics. (This site got more than 3 million visits from France alone). Another Web site explains how to get weapons in the West (hide, assemble and breakdown) and how to manufacture bombs from products found in supermarkets.
The propaganda primarily targets youngsters. Some of them join the virtual jihad or "webtifada", i.e. cyber criminality.
In March 2006, the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Exterieure), the French equivalent of the CIA, tracked down a forum where jihadists recruited hackers to destroy "infidels'" Web sites and government sites. The jihadists recommended: "If you can't slash their throats, then at least destroy their sites." And on May 15, 2006 the Metz, France police arrested a young man who, under the alias Yanis, had attacked 1,161 sites including 710 linked to the Muhammad cartoons controversy.
Fortunately in Europe, even though the number is growing only a minority is actually joining the virtual jihad. According to Louis Caprioli, ex-boss of the anti-terror unit of the DST, the number of French volunteers in Iraq is in the tens. Confirming this, expert Walter Akmouche states that statistically, to get one jihadi, you must contact an average 45,000 people.
Which vehicle do the jihadis use on the Web? According to the DST, the chat room Paltalk is regularly used to hide operations. They also use Instant Messaging services such as Messenger or Skype and "dead e-mail boxes" which allow them, with the username and password, to retrieve unsent messages. But they also exchange information and coded files on forums devoted to soccer, music or any topic totally unrelated to Islam.
It is important to note that to access true terrorist sites; one has to be an insider and needs to know the real number-coded URL address, which often changes.
Also after years of research, al-Qaida has developed software called "Secrets of Mujahedin," that allows secure exchange in Arabic on electronic networks. It has allegedly been in use for over a year on clandestine forums close to al-Qaida, especially for jihadist groups in Iraq and al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. This has been a formidable weapon for al-Qaida and numerous intelligence services and private companies have been trying to break it.
How is Europe facing this threat? First by closely monitoring jihadist Web sites. For instance, last year, Holland devoted 10 million euros (about $15 million) to fighting extremism. Thus, more than 150 Internet sites broadcasting extremist ideology were the subject of complaints and were restricted.
In France, about 30 potentially dangerous sites are monitored by some units of the UCLAT (Unité de Coordination de la Lutte antiterroriste), the French counterterrorism coordination unit. Software allows them to trace back the origin of a server or the IP address of a user and if they act fast, they can trace the network and use it against the Islamists using it. For instance, the recent monitoring of a forum allowed the unit to trace a couple of Salafist groups in the suburbs of Paris that were recruiting jihadis and organizing their trip.
One of the main problems facing European authorities is that simply shutting down Web sites is not very efficient since these sites just end up operating under new names.
European countries are also using the legal tool to fight al-Qaida's use of the Web in Europe. In a first, a Swiss court last summer sentenced several individuals including the widow of the killer of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's Northern Alliance's leader killed by al-Qaida on September 9, 2001, and her boyfriend, for having created and operated four Web sites and chat rooms for extremist propaganda and exchange of information by terrorist groups.
European authorities are taking this issue very seriously. On Feb. 1, France's interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie told the French daily Le Figaro that the use of the Web by terrorists was "one of my major concerns, and one of the priorities assigned to the [security] services. This requires additional material, forces specialized in fighting cyber-criminality, legal resources. I want us to be able to stop the terrorist propaganda, find the operational networks, track them down and prevent them from acting."
--
Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org
Thursday, April 24, 2008
VETERAN SUICIDES
April 22, 2008
In Federal Suit, 2 Views of Veterans’ Health Care
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
http://www.nytimes. com/2008/ 04/22/washington /22vets.html? ref=todayspaper
SAN FRANCISCO — The Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to meet the skyrocketing demand for medical services as an unanticipated flood of former soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan seek help along with a parallel surge of claims from aging Vietnam veterans, according to both sides in a trial that opened Monday in federal court here.
The lawsuit was brought by two groups, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, seeking to force the government to streamline its procedures for treating former soldiers, particularly those suffering from combat trauma and other mental health problems.
Opening arguments painted sharply different pictures of the department’s success. The veterans groups said the department was ignoring a mental health crisis and was so swamped that former soldiers were dying needlessly. The defense countered that the country’s largest medical care system was adding the personnel needed to cope.
“Our ultimate goal is guaranteed health care, timely health care, timely decisions on disability payments,” Gordon P. Erspamer, the lead lawyer representing the two veterans groups, said in an interview.
“The system is choking on the claims; the delays are unconscionable,” Mr. Erspamer said.
The trial, before Judge Samuel Conti, an Army veteran of World War II, does not seek monetary damages but asks the court to appoint a special master or otherwise intervene to make the department run more efficiently.
Claims for help from the department jumped 25 percent in recent years, hitting 838,000, Richard G. Lepley said in his opening statement for the government.
The defense said the jump was generated by a combination of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, where head injuries that can lead to stress problems are a signature issue, as well as an upswing of Vietnam veterans seeking help for medical conditions associated with aging. News coverage from the current wars has also led to new mental health problems among Vietnam veterans, said Kerri J. Childress, a spokeswoman for the veterans department in Palo Alto, Calif.
“I don’t think anybody had any idea how long the war was going to go on,” Ms. Childress said, referring to Iraq. She added that there was no way to fully anticipate the demand for medical care from Vietnam veterans.
The department is falling short of its goal of addressing claims within 125 days, saying that it was now closer to 180 to 185 days, Mr. Lepley said. But he said the department had added 3,700 mental health care professionals in the last two years, bringing the total to 17,000, and started a program where anyone feeling suicidal could get attention within 24 hours and a follow-up appointment within two weeks, he said. The program started last summer, he said, so it is too new to measure its effectiveness.
Over all, there are 6,600 suicides per year among the 25 million veterans of all wars, representing about one in five suicides in the country, Ms. Childress said. There are an estimated 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the 7.8 million veterans treated by Veterans Affairs, she said. The suicides tend to be more frequent among older veterans, she said, citing statistics from data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number — 126 suicides a week, higher than the 120 published in previous studies — was in a December e-mail message from Dr. Ira Katz, the head of mental health services for Veterans Affairs, to Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the under secretary for the Veterans Health Administration in the department. Mr. Erspamer displayed the message in his opening argument.
The department has long been reluctant to release specific numbers regarding suicides or suicide attempts, lawyers for the veterans groups said. “We certainly think there was a cover-up in some sense,” said Heather Moser, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
A second department e-mail message from Dr. Katz shown at the trial starts with “Shh!” and refers to the 12,000 veterans per year who attempt suicide while under department treatment. “Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?” it asks.
In Federal Suit, 2 Views of Veterans’ Health Care
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
http://www.nytimes. com/2008/ 04/22/washington /22vets.html? ref=todayspaper
SAN FRANCISCO — The Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to meet the skyrocketing demand for medical services as an unanticipated flood of former soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan seek help along with a parallel surge of claims from aging Vietnam veterans, according to both sides in a trial that opened Monday in federal court here.
The lawsuit was brought by two groups, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, seeking to force the government to streamline its procedures for treating former soldiers, particularly those suffering from combat trauma and other mental health problems.
Opening arguments painted sharply different pictures of the department’s success. The veterans groups said the department was ignoring a mental health crisis and was so swamped that former soldiers were dying needlessly. The defense countered that the country’s largest medical care system was adding the personnel needed to cope.
“Our ultimate goal is guaranteed health care, timely health care, timely decisions on disability payments,” Gordon P. Erspamer, the lead lawyer representing the two veterans groups, said in an interview.
“The system is choking on the claims; the delays are unconscionable,” Mr. Erspamer said.
The trial, before Judge Samuel Conti, an Army veteran of World War II, does not seek monetary damages but asks the court to appoint a special master or otherwise intervene to make the department run more efficiently.
Claims for help from the department jumped 25 percent in recent years, hitting 838,000, Richard G. Lepley said in his opening statement for the government.
The defense said the jump was generated by a combination of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, where head injuries that can lead to stress problems are a signature issue, as well as an upswing of Vietnam veterans seeking help for medical conditions associated with aging. News coverage from the current wars has also led to new mental health problems among Vietnam veterans, said Kerri J. Childress, a spokeswoman for the veterans department in Palo Alto, Calif.
“I don’t think anybody had any idea how long the war was going to go on,” Ms. Childress said, referring to Iraq. She added that there was no way to fully anticipate the demand for medical care from Vietnam veterans.
The department is falling short of its goal of addressing claims within 125 days, saying that it was now closer to 180 to 185 days, Mr. Lepley said. But he said the department had added 3,700 mental health care professionals in the last two years, bringing the total to 17,000, and started a program where anyone feeling suicidal could get attention within 24 hours and a follow-up appointment within two weeks, he said. The program started last summer, he said, so it is too new to measure its effectiveness.
Over all, there are 6,600 suicides per year among the 25 million veterans of all wars, representing about one in five suicides in the country, Ms. Childress said. There are an estimated 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the 7.8 million veterans treated by Veterans Affairs, she said. The suicides tend to be more frequent among older veterans, she said, citing statistics from data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number — 126 suicides a week, higher than the 120 published in previous studies — was in a December e-mail message from Dr. Ira Katz, the head of mental health services for Veterans Affairs, to Dr. Michael J. Kussman, the under secretary for the Veterans Health Administration in the department. Mr. Erspamer displayed the message in his opening argument.
The department has long been reluctant to release specific numbers regarding suicides or suicide attempts, lawyers for the veterans groups said. “We certainly think there was a cover-up in some sense,” said Heather Moser, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
A second department e-mail message from Dr. Katz shown at the trial starts with “Shh!” and refers to the 12,000 veterans per year who attempt suicide while under department treatment. “Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?” it asks.
Katz Resignation Requested
AKAKA CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OF VA MENTAL HEALTH OFFICER KATZ OVER ALLEGED COVERUP OF VETERANS’ SUICIDES
http://www.veterans .senate.gov/ public/
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called for the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, Mental Health Officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, following reports that Dr. Katz was involved in efforts to cover up the number of veterans attempting suicide. Akaka sent his request by letter to Dr. Michael Kussman, VA’s Under Secretary for Health.
“Dr. Katz’s personal conduct and professional judgment have been called into question. I believe veterans, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, would be best served by his immediate resignation,” said Akaka.
Dr. Katz is VA’s Deputy Chief Patient Care Services Officer for Mental Health.
Chairman Akaka’s letter is enclosed below:
Dear Dr. Kussman:
I am writing to request the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, Deputy Chief Patient Care Services Officer for Mental Health.
Dr. Katz’s personal conduct and professional judgment have been called into question by his response to the mental health needs of veterans, and in particular to veteran suicides. I believe veterans, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, would be best served by his immediate resignation.
America ’s veterans deserve mental health care of the highest quality. Many veterans returning from combat have complex mental health needs, and VA must be fully able to meet those needs. VA cannot be complacent in its efforts to prevent veteran suicide. I look forward to working with you to provide veterans with the best services possible.
http://www.veterans .senate.gov/ public/
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called for the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, Mental Health Officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, following reports that Dr. Katz was involved in efforts to cover up the number of veterans attempting suicide. Akaka sent his request by letter to Dr. Michael Kussman, VA’s Under Secretary for Health.
“Dr. Katz’s personal conduct and professional judgment have been called into question. I believe veterans, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, would be best served by his immediate resignation,” said Akaka.
Dr. Katz is VA’s Deputy Chief Patient Care Services Officer for Mental Health.
Chairman Akaka’s letter is enclosed below:
Dear Dr. Kussman:
I am writing to request the resignation of Dr. Ira Katz, Deputy Chief Patient Care Services Officer for Mental Health.
Dr. Katz’s personal conduct and professional judgment have been called into question by his response to the mental health needs of veterans, and in particular to veteran suicides. I believe veterans, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, would be best served by his immediate resignation.
America ’s veterans deserve mental health care of the highest quality. Many veterans returning from combat have complex mental health needs, and VA must be fully able to meet those needs. VA cannot be complacent in its efforts to prevent veteran suicide. I look forward to working with you to provide veterans with the best services possible.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Don't Ignore Your Kids Actions, Moods ect.
South Carolina Student Planned to Bomb High School - Chesterfield High
Posted: 20 Apr 2008 10:21 PM CDT
Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal.
A high school senior, Schallenberger had collected enough supplies to carry out the bomb attack and detailed the plot in a diary that included maps of the building and admiring notes about the Columbine killers.
The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said. Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.
“The only thing left was delivering the bombs,” the police chief said.
Schallenberger kept a journal for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.
He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Lear wouldn’t detail what was on the tape except to say Schallenberger was an angry young man.
From The Herald Online - Rock Hill S.C.
The parents of 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger became concerned after 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate were delivered to their house Saturday, authorities said. They then found a lengthy journal with maps and details of a planned attack the teen called “Columbine III.” That’s when they called police.
The senior at Chesterfield High School, about 65 miles southeast of Rock Hill, was arrested and jailed, charged with making bomb threats. Authorities say more charges could come today.
Officers believe Schallenberger planned to act alone — all the journal entries and descriptions of plans are written with singular pronouns.
“He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him — the rich, boys with good-looking girlfriends,” Lear said.
Police found bomb-making materials in the Schallenberger family’s home Saturday evening, Chesterfield Police Chief Randall Lear said. They also confiscated the journal and an audiotape they said Schallenberger planned to leave behind after the attack. Lear wouldn’t say what was on the tape, but said he believes his department intercepted a serious threat.
“There’s no doubt about it that he planned to go off,” Lear said. “He had everything he needed to do what he said he was going to do. From all indications, he had no plans of coming out of it alive.”
His parents could not be reached for comment.
Officers and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the Schallenberger’s property until sundown on Saturday, and the State Law Enforcement Division used a helicopter to fly over the area, looking for anything suspicious. Officers called off the search when it got dark and started again Sunday morning.
By Sunday night, they hadn’t discovered any guns or other weapons that belonged to Schallenberger or anything else they considered suspect.
In his writings, Lear said Schallenberger wrote that he admired the two teens who killed 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, Lear said.
Investigators interviewed friends and casual acquaintances of the teen, sending tremors through the town of 1,500 on Sunday, the nine-year anniversary of Columbine.
“People are rattled,” Lear said, adding that fear was amplified because Schallenberger’s actions never hinted at something like this. “We never had a problem with him, as far as I know. He never even had any school discipline. He didn’t wear black clothing.”
Posted: 20 Apr 2008 10:21 PM CDT
Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was arrested Saturday after his parents called police when 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate was delivered to their home in Chesterfield and they discovered the journal.
A high school senior, Schallenberger had collected enough supplies to carry out the bomb attack and detailed the plot in a diary that included maps of the building and admiring notes about the Columbine killers.
The teen planned to make several bombs and had all the supplies needed to kill dozens at Chesterfield High School, depending on where the devices were placed and whether they included shrapnel, Lear said. Ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people.
“The only thing left was delivering the bombs,” the police chief said.
Schallenberger kept a journal for more than a year that detailed his plans for a suicide attack and included maps of the school, police said. The writings did not include a specific time for the attack or the intended targets.
He also left an audio tape to be played after he died explaining why he wanted to bomb his school. Lear wouldn’t detail what was on the tape except to say Schallenberger was an angry young man.
From The Herald Online - Rock Hill S.C.
The parents of 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger became concerned after 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate were delivered to their house Saturday, authorities said. They then found a lengthy journal with maps and details of a planned attack the teen called “Columbine III.” That’s when they called police.
The senior at Chesterfield High School, about 65 miles southeast of Rock Hill, was arrested and jailed, charged with making bomb threats. Authorities say more charges could come today.
Officers believe Schallenberger planned to act alone — all the journal entries and descriptions of plans are written with singular pronouns.
“He seemed to hate the world. He hated people different from him — the rich, boys with good-looking girlfriends,” Lear said.
Police found bomb-making materials in the Schallenberger family’s home Saturday evening, Chesterfield Police Chief Randall Lear said. They also confiscated the journal and an audiotape they said Schallenberger planned to leave behind after the attack. Lear wouldn’t say what was on the tape, but said he believes his department intercepted a serious threat.
“There’s no doubt about it that he planned to go off,” Lear said. “He had everything he needed to do what he said he was going to do. From all indications, he had no plans of coming out of it alive.”
His parents could not be reached for comment.
Officers and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the Schallenberger’s property until sundown on Saturday, and the State Law Enforcement Division used a helicopter to fly over the area, looking for anything suspicious. Officers called off the search when it got dark and started again Sunday morning.
By Sunday night, they hadn’t discovered any guns or other weapons that belonged to Schallenberger or anything else they considered suspect.
In his writings, Lear said Schallenberger wrote that he admired the two teens who killed 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, Lear said.
Investigators interviewed friends and casual acquaintances of the teen, sending tremors through the town of 1,500 on Sunday, the nine-year anniversary of Columbine.
“People are rattled,” Lear said, adding that fear was amplified because Schallenberger’s actions never hinted at something like this. “We never had a problem with him, as far as I know. He never even had any school discipline. He didn’t wear black clothing.”
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
This is posted here just as I posted it on our Ranger website and other military sites and now I share my thoughts with you the American public.
I am sick of hearing about the media making so much out of a few civilians getting killed in war zones; about how our military is killing innocent people, no murdering them, it more how they put it. Well in war people get killed, the innocent along with the guilty, what ever and whoever the innocent are.
We know not to kill babies who are not carrying weapons or women who are simply walking along minding their own business, unless their business is to aid the enemy, that we are meant to kill, in some for or fashion.
Do our enemies care about the killing of innocents, theirs or ours, hell no they don't but does our media rant and rave about that? Hell no they don't. How about the innocent civilian workers who were killed recently in the Green Zone? What does our media say about that? Little, very little that's what! You might hear about it once or twice on the evening news but then it is over and you hear no more about it.
When you are engaged in a war everyone who is not in the same uniform as you is suspect and could be a danger so, hell yes, we watch them and if they appear to be doing, or going to do, something that might cost an American life then blow them the hell away! Is it better to wait and see if they kill one of our own before you act?
How many politicians, or members of the media, do you think would walk down the middle of and Iraqi street and not shoot if they felt, in anyway, their life was threatened? Not many, but, then, they may not shoot at all they may just simply attempt to talk them to death.
That is what they, especially the politicians, do to us, they talk us to death with bullshit and call it justifiable. They lie to us, they steal from us, they send us in harms way and then call us murders if we kill someone who happens to be an innocent, something, most often, discovered after the fact.
If on the other hand they kill us they say, "Oh we are so sorry we lost another American life in this war on terror." The terror I feel does not come from an enemy in Iraq, Afghanistan or any other foreign country but from the ones right here in our own back yard. The ones that I fear the most are now up for election for President of this country. They spend millions, may billions when you total it all up, and for what, so they can feed us more bullshit and tell us we should like it!?!
Why didn't the government put President Truman on trial for mass murder when he ordered the A Bomb dropped during WWII, did he not kill hundreds of thousands of "innocent" people, women, children and non combatants? Was that different than a soldier killing someone who they felt in their own mind was going to kill them? Murder is one thing but killing in a war out of fear of being killed is quite another. I can tell you and I know most of you know this to be fact that know me, in Nam if I thought anyone, and I mean anyone, was going to kill me or one of my team they were dead, plain and simple, end of story now let's move on to the next mission!
You can not send troops into harms way day in and day out, one tour after another and not expect those troops to live in constant fear, fear that will cause them to, sometimes, make mistakes and kill an innocent person. Hell, I am not in a war zone but I can tell you that if you approach my house in a threatening manner I will blow you to hell and back! Why you might ask? I will tell you why, simply because I don't know who to trust anymore! I don't trust our government as far as I can throw them, I don't trust the people around me as they are so bad off financially up here where there are no jobs that I don't know if they are coming to rob me or not. I don't trust the cops because I know that since I am a Vietnam vet they don't trust me not to be insane, on drugs or mentally defective. So what is one to do anymore?
I am to the point that I am coming to believe that all that I was taught as a child was nothing more than a lie. I use to have faith in our government, in our press, in what I was told on the evening news, yet, now I have learned that if I do I am a fool as it is not truth I am hearing but someones version of the truth, what ever that may actually turn out to be. Now even when I hear truth I am suspect of it as how do I "really" know that it is true.
Fox says that we have to look to many sources to determine what is true but which one of those sources is really truth and which are just smoke screens to cover up another lie? Do any of us really know any more? The only things that I know to be true anymore is that I love my family, this includes my war brothers, I love my country, rather I love what it use to stand for and what it is meant to stand for, and I love the fact that I am not to old to still shoot when I need to; that truth may not be truth for many more years. I ask you, what do you trust, I mean really trust anymore? Am I going totally insane? Am I the only one who feels this way? From talking to some of you on the phone and from reading emails from others of you, I think not. I think I am sane and that my fears are justified. I think some of you, if not most of you, have many of the same fears that I do.
I heard yesterday that Bush and the Canadian government made an agreement that if civil disturbances were to happen in either country that troops from either country could and would come to the aid of the other. If that is true then does that mean that if large protest were to occur in this country and we did not have enough troops (National Guard) to put it down, which, since most of our National Guard are in Iraqi or elsewhere, we would not, that we could have Canadian troops patrolling our streets? If that happened who would they call innocent and who would defend us against them? Would they be and remain friendly or would they take the opportunity to take us over seeing that we could not defend ourselves? Something to think about isn't it? Was what I heard truth, or lie? Does anyone know for sure? Is this something Bush would do? Who the hell knows anymore?!? Some say, "oh that could never happen" yet, does anyone remember that we were at war with Canada in past history, just like we were with what we know today as the free nations of the world, i.e. England, France, Germany, Japan etc.? Have we not witnessed, in our life time those we considered friends turn their backs on us? Have we not witnessed those who have sworn to stand with us turn and leave us standing pretty much alone?
We are being destroyed from within and there are those that are waiting for the opportunity to strike from without and from within. The want to take our guns, they are already taking our land, our homes, our individual security and freedoms. What is to stop them from taking it all? Not much! Yet, we are so consumed with who is murdering who in foreign lands, who is playing war fairly that we don't even see what is happening right in front of our faces. Is this not the intent of all this bullshit to begin with? Sleeper cells be damned the only ones asleep around here is the majority of the American people!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
WAKE UP AMERICA! OUR CHILDREN MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RECOVER FROM WHAT WE DO OR DO NOT DO NOW!
Entry for March 30, 2008
Truth....censored from the public???Please, learn all you can before you vote...
Goverment Health Care, Goverment Bailing out the Stock Market..make me nervous about the future!!!!
This video, ready to be shown on 60 minutes, BUT WAS NOT for political reasons. The conclusions reached are both frightening, and in the long run, devastating to this country's ability to survive if the current level of spending continues at the present rate.
NO MATTER WHAT POLITICAL PARTY YOU MIGHT BELONG TO THIS INVOLVES US ALL SO PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND COME VOTING TIME AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT!
THIS IS TRULY SOMETHING TO LOOK AT---PRETTY SCARY WORLD!?!
PLEASE WATCH THIS.
(NOT SHOWN ON 60 MINUTES)
The US Comptroller General THE HEAD OF THE GPO.US Government Immorality
{Click Below or cut and paste into your browser}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2fI2p9iVs
Truth....censored from the public???Please, learn all you can before you vote...
Goverment Health Care, Goverment Bailing out the Stock Market..make me nervous about the future!!!!
This video, ready to be shown on 60 minutes, BUT WAS NOT for political reasons. The conclusions reached are both frightening, and in the long run, devastating to this country's ability to survive if the current level of spending continues at the present rate.
NO MATTER WHAT POLITICAL PARTY YOU MIGHT BELONG TO THIS INVOLVES US ALL SO PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND COME VOTING TIME AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT!
THIS IS TRULY SOMETHING TO LOOK AT---PRETTY SCARY WORLD!?!
PLEASE WATCH THIS.
(NOT SHOWN ON 60 MINUTES)
The US Comptroller General THE HEAD OF THE GPO.US Government Immorality
{Click Below or cut and paste into your browser}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2fI2p9iVs
VA DENTAL COVERAGE
This is a heads up, thought you might be interested.
Here is a News Flash from VA Watchdog dot Org: http://www.vawatchd og.org/08/ nf08/nfMAR08/ nf032908- 1.htm
More dental coverage sought for vets
March 28, 2008
NEWS-SUN STAFF REPORT
http://www.vawatchd og.org/08/ nf08/nfMAR08/ nf032908- 1.htm
Veterans with service-connected disabilities would get expanded dental coverage under bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park.
The "Make Our Veterans Smile Act" (House Resolution 5595) was co-introduced by Kirk and fellow Navy Reserve intelligence officer U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-Pa.
Currently, only 100 percent disabled, homeless or prisoner-of- war veterans are eligible for dental benefits. The bill, if signed into law, expands dental coverage to any service-connected disabled veteran, regardless of disability rating starting Jan. 1, 2009.
"We need to ensure that those who wore the uniform, risked their lives and sacrificed so much are appropriately cared for," Kirk said Thursday. "We won a great victory for area veterans when we saved the North Chicago VA Hospital from closing. But the commitment the government makes to help care for disabled veterans is incomplete without addressing their dental needs."
According to the Veterans Administration, 258,000 veterans currently are eligible for dental benefits. More than 2.5 million additional disabled veterans would receive coverage under the Kirk-Carney bill.
In Illinois, coverage would expand from nearly 5,000 veterans to more than 60,000 veterans, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Legislation is on Thomas, here... http://thomas. loc.gov/
Type in H.R. 5595.
Legislation printed below:
------------ --------- ----
Make Our Veterans Smile Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)
HR 5595 IH
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5595
To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide dental care to veterans with service-connected disabilities, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 12, 2008
Mr. CARNEY (for himself and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide dental care to veterans with service-connected disabilities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Make Our Veterans Smile Act of 2008'.
SEC. 2. PROVISION OF DENTAL CARE BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO VETERANS WITH SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITIES.
(a) Provision of Care- Section 1712(a)(1)(G) of title 38, United States Code, is amended by striking `rated as total'.
(b) Authority To Provide Care by Entering Into Contracts- Section 1703(a)(7) of such title is amended by striking `section 1712(a)(1)(F) ' and inserting `section 1712(a)(1)'.
(c) Effective Date- The amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) shall apply with respect to outpatient dental services and treatment, and related dental appliances, furnished on or after January 1, 2009
Here is a News Flash from VA Watchdog dot Org: http://www.vawatchd og.org/08/ nf08/nfMAR08/ nf032908- 1.htm
More dental coverage sought for vets
March 28, 2008
NEWS-SUN STAFF REPORT
http://www.vawatchd og.org/08/ nf08/nfMAR08/ nf032908- 1.htm
Veterans with service-connected disabilities would get expanded dental coverage under bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Highland Park.
The "Make Our Veterans Smile Act" (House Resolution 5595) was co-introduced by Kirk and fellow Navy Reserve intelligence officer U.S. Rep. Chris Carney, D-Pa.
Currently, only 100 percent disabled, homeless or prisoner-of- war veterans are eligible for dental benefits. The bill, if signed into law, expands dental coverage to any service-connected disabled veteran, regardless of disability rating starting Jan. 1, 2009.
"We need to ensure that those who wore the uniform, risked their lives and sacrificed so much are appropriately cared for," Kirk said Thursday. "We won a great victory for area veterans when we saved the North Chicago VA Hospital from closing. But the commitment the government makes to help care for disabled veterans is incomplete without addressing their dental needs."
According to the Veterans Administration, 258,000 veterans currently are eligible for dental benefits. More than 2.5 million additional disabled veterans would receive coverage under the Kirk-Carney bill.
In Illinois, coverage would expand from nearly 5,000 veterans to more than 60,000 veterans, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Legislation is on Thomas, here... http://thomas. loc.gov/
Type in H.R. 5595.
Legislation printed below:
------------ --------- ----
Make Our Veterans Smile Act of 2008 (Introduced in House)
HR 5595 IH
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5595
To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide dental care to veterans with service-connected disabilities, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 12, 2008
Mr. CARNEY (for himself and Mr. KIRK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide dental care to veterans with service-connected disabilities, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Make Our Veterans Smile Act of 2008'.
SEC. 2. PROVISION OF DENTAL CARE BY SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO VETERANS WITH SERVICE-CONNECTED DISABILITIES.
(a) Provision of Care- Section 1712(a)(1)(G) of title 38, United States Code, is amended by striking `rated as total'.
(b) Authority To Provide Care by Entering Into Contracts- Section 1703(a)(7) of such title is amended by striking `section 1712(a)(1)(F) ' and inserting `section 1712(a)(1)'.
(c) Effective Date- The amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) shall apply with respect to outpatient dental services and treatment, and related dental appliances, furnished on or after January 1, 2009
REVELATIONS AND MORE REVELATIONS
New Revelations in Haditha Case -- Rumsfeld Set Up Shadow "Body" to Oversee Investigations
Family Security Matters
Richard Thompson
March 27, 2008
Revelations by top Marine Generals, that former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, set up a shadow ''body'' composed of high-ranking administration officials to oversee the Haditha investigations, could prove to be the most damning evidence of the political motivations and influence over the ongoing prosecutions of Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, USMC, and other combat Marines involved.
Lawyers representing Marine LtCol Jeffrey Chessani uncovered the existence of the extraordinarily unusual oversight body.
The hysteria and media firestorm over Abu Gharib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction to the Haditha incident, causing the military's civilian bosses to set up this shadow oversight body. This extraordinary action politicized the military justice system and was a clear signal to top generals that they were expected to hold individuals criminally responsible. The investigation turned into a quest for a prosecution -- not justice.
The Marines are being prosecuted for their house-to-house battle to ferret out ambushing insurgents on November 19, 2005. The insurgents fired upon the Marines while hiding amongst woman and children. The ensuing firefight resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians -- a result the insurgents wanted to happen.
Details of the battle and the civilian deaths were dutifully reported throughout the chain of command. The chain of command, including the top generals, all concluded this was a tragic and unfortunate consequence of urban warfare, but the Marines were justified in their actions of defending themselves.
Months later, however, a known al Qaeda propaganda operative instigated an inflammatory Time Magazine article written by reporter Tim McGirk -- later proven to be false -- calling the deaths of the civilians a ''massacre.'' The military initiated at least three investigations as a result.
Proof that this entire investigation has been a politically motivated quest for a prosecution rather than justice is supported by several details of the investigations, including:
An admission by the Director of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (''NCIS'') that over 65 investigators were assigned to the case, which in his opinion was the largest investigative effort in Department's history.
Formation of ''Legal Team Charlie'' composed of military lawyers reassigned from other units and reserve officers activated for the purpose of prosecuting this case--all highly unusual.
The Secretary of Navy countermanded a determination by General James Mattis, USMC, that Colonel Stephen Davis, USMC, LtCol Chessani's regimental commander, would receive a Non-Punitive Letter of Caution, which would not be part of his permanent record. Gen Mattis' decision was overridden by the Navy Secretary, who ordered a Letter of Censure, a more severe punishment, which effectively ended this fine Marine officer's career. As the consolidated convening authority in all the Haditha investigations, General Mattis' decision, under normal circumstances, would be absolute and final.
It's deeply troubling that the desire to appease the liberal anti-war press and politicians has led to the prosecution of innocent Marines for purely political purposes. These prosecutions will become a scandal of historic proportions unless terminated by independently minded and virtuous military judges.
An Undue Command Influence motion had already been filed on behalf of the combat Marines., and LtCol Chessani's lawyers intend to file its own Undue Command Influence motion on his behalf. Further startling events will be revealed at that time.
Even though LtCol Chessani was not personally present at the scene of the ambush on November 19, 2005, the Marines responding were in his battalion: the Third Battalion, First Infantry Regiment -- one of the most decorated battalions in our nation's history, and the pride of the second Battle of Fallujah. Thus, LtCol Chessani is charged with ''dereliction of duty'' and ''orders'' violations. Despite his 20 years of loyal service in defense of his country, he faces a maximum punishment of three years in prison, dismissal (an officer's equivalent of a dishonorable discharge), and the loss of his retirement benefits. Of course, his wife and six children ranging in ages from 3 months to 8 years old, made untold sacrifices as he left them to defend us on foreign shores as well.
URL: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=1387053
Family Security Matters
Richard Thompson
March 27, 2008
Revelations by top Marine Generals, that former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, set up a shadow ''body'' composed of high-ranking administration officials to oversee the Haditha investigations, could prove to be the most damning evidence of the political motivations and influence over the ongoing prosecutions of Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, USMC, and other combat Marines involved.
Lawyers representing Marine LtCol Jeffrey Chessani uncovered the existence of the extraordinarily unusual oversight body.
The hysteria and media firestorm over Abu Gharib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction to the Haditha incident, causing the military's civilian bosses to set up this shadow oversight body. This extraordinary action politicized the military justice system and was a clear signal to top generals that they were expected to hold individuals criminally responsible. The investigation turned into a quest for a prosecution -- not justice.
The Marines are being prosecuted for their house-to-house battle to ferret out ambushing insurgents on November 19, 2005. The insurgents fired upon the Marines while hiding amongst woman and children. The ensuing firefight resulted in the deaths of 15 civilians -- a result the insurgents wanted to happen.
Details of the battle and the civilian deaths were dutifully reported throughout the chain of command. The chain of command, including the top generals, all concluded this was a tragic and unfortunate consequence of urban warfare, but the Marines were justified in their actions of defending themselves.
Months later, however, a known al Qaeda propaganda operative instigated an inflammatory Time Magazine article written by reporter Tim McGirk -- later proven to be false -- calling the deaths of the civilians a ''massacre.'' The military initiated at least three investigations as a result.
Proof that this entire investigation has been a politically motivated quest for a prosecution rather than justice is supported by several details of the investigations, including:
An admission by the Director of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service (''NCIS'') that over 65 investigators were assigned to the case, which in his opinion was the largest investigative effort in Department's history.
Formation of ''Legal Team Charlie'' composed of military lawyers reassigned from other units and reserve officers activated for the purpose of prosecuting this case--all highly unusual.
The Secretary of Navy countermanded a determination by General James Mattis, USMC, that Colonel Stephen Davis, USMC, LtCol Chessani's regimental commander, would receive a Non-Punitive Letter of Caution, which would not be part of his permanent record. Gen Mattis' decision was overridden by the Navy Secretary, who ordered a Letter of Censure, a more severe punishment, which effectively ended this fine Marine officer's career. As the consolidated convening authority in all the Haditha investigations, General Mattis' decision, under normal circumstances, would be absolute and final.
It's deeply troubling that the desire to appease the liberal anti-war press and politicians has led to the prosecution of innocent Marines for purely political purposes. These prosecutions will become a scandal of historic proportions unless terminated by independently minded and virtuous military judges.
An Undue Command Influence motion had already been filed on behalf of the combat Marines., and LtCol Chessani's lawyers intend to file its own Undue Command Influence motion on his behalf. Further startling events will be revealed at that time.
Even though LtCol Chessani was not personally present at the scene of the ambush on November 19, 2005, the Marines responding were in his battalion: the Third Battalion, First Infantry Regiment -- one of the most decorated battalions in our nation's history, and the pride of the second Battle of Fallujah. Thus, LtCol Chessani is charged with ''dereliction of duty'' and ''orders'' violations. Despite his 20 years of loyal service in defense of his country, he faces a maximum punishment of three years in prison, dismissal (an officer's equivalent of a dishonorable discharge), and the loss of his retirement benefits. Of course, his wife and six children ranging in ages from 3 months to 8 years old, made untold sacrifices as he left them to defend us on foreign shores as well.
URL: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/challenges.php?id=1387053
give peace a chance you say? Don't sound like it!
'Peace' Advocates Playing Dirty
HUMAN EVENTS
by Katie O'Malley
Posted 03/27/2008
Once content to thump drums and dig deep for chants that rhyme, the ''peace'' movement's foothold on the public soapbox has slipped. The peaceniks -- ANSWER, MoveOn.org, Code Pink and the rest -- are in the midst of very public identity crisis. They are facing, for the first time, visible and vocal opposition to both their words and their methods. And it has made them angry….very angry….angry enough to (pause for dramatic effect) use violence as an option!
As organizations have come together to face them in the streets (and have successfully released the left's stranglehold on activism and the media) the lefties have revealed their inner violent streak to which they have always proclaimed an immunity.
We have certainly seen incidents of violence within the misnamed ''peace'' movement since its inception decades ago. These lovers of dialogue and group hugs have bombed buildings (just ask Obama's ''acquaintance'' William Ayers of the Weather Underground), stormed institutions and screamed vile and evil comments to Vietnam Veterans, since they first began their activism. In Ayers memoir, ''Fugitive Days,'' he goes so far as to write, ''I don't regret setting bombs. I didn't do enough.” At least he is honest about it.
His disturbing perspective and the inherently un-peaceful legacy of the 1960s peace movement has been enthusiastically embraced by the newest generation, tutored by the aging hippies of yore.
A steady uptick in violence against the military has been unfolding in recent months. The recruiting station in Washington, DC at 14th & L, the site of a storming and trashing on February 15, received additional overtures of ''peace'' last week when rocks were thrown at the windows and the exterior of the building, DC Metro police and counter protestors there to support the recruiters, were covered in red paint lobbed at them. What happened to daisies? They don't stain and they don't hurt!
The Times Square recruiting station in New York was the site of a bombing on March 6. Recruiters in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Texas and Tennessee have all been the recipients of this special kind of leftist love in the last 12 months, just to name a few. Counter protestors in Berkley have not received hugs and love, but instead have been shoved and hit with signs proclaiming ''Give Peace a Chance.''
Even the peace and tranquility of a church on Easter Sunday is not immune to their inherent anger and their willingness to put shock value and confrontation above dialogue and communication. A group calling themselves ''Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War'' interrupted Chicago's Cardinal George's Easter homily and threw fake stage blood on themselves and fellow churchgoers while denouncing the war in Iraq.
In the narcissistic mind of the antiwar left, even the most holy and meaningful gift of resurrection does not trump the need for relevance and attention. Shouldn't Catholic schoolgirls be railing against hemlines?
My own experience covering the left has provided a multitude of examples missing peace in the peace movement. I used to embrace the chance to bring my children to events to give them real world opportunities to hear diverse opinions first hand, unfiltered by the press or even their mother. It has added a great deal to our dinner table conversations over the years. It impressed upon them that views, however divergent from our own, come from real people with real passions.
Recent events and the escalation of violence on the left have, unfortunately, made me unwilling to provide them with this opportunity for the foreseeable future. My children have been on the receiving end of some of the most profane, hate-filled language known to man. They have been physically threatened, signs ripped from them and shredded, flags snatched from their hands. Simply put, the peaceniks are too violent to be around my children.
I can also tell you that the mail I get from the left is anything but peaceful. I am certain that the physical positions they suggest I emulate give me far too much credit for my flexibility. I am confident that not one of their suggestions is a sanctioned yoga pose.
This past week, the length to which the left will go has been further exposed and shows how personal and violent they become when they lose the spotlight. No longer content to lob bombs and projectiles at institutions of ''the man,'' these embracers of peace have developed a comfortable pattern of physically assaulting their ideological opponents.
This week, Ann DeWalt, 82, was found guilty of harassment for kicking a 33-year-old Iraq war veteran in the back during a January 19 vigil. In a calculated and desperate move, the left has is adept at using the young and the elderly to do their dirty work, secure in the knowledge that the media, the authorities and even the victims themselves will be more reluctant to pursue charges. I believe Saddam called them ''human shields.''
More chillingly, last weekend a man attending a Chester County Peace Movement (CCPM) peace vigil in West Chester, Pennsylvania, assaulted a citizen journalist and blogger. At 12:10 PM, blogger ''Skye'' was videotaping an exchange between opposing groups. As the conversation gets both animated and heated, she shifts her filming position to capture all parties involved. The shot is abruptly cut when a fist flies at her face, she is slapped and the camera is jammed into her face. Not satisfied by the first blow, he strikes her a second time.
Nearby police intervened and the party involved was quickly pointed out by the victim and witnesses. The officer requested the suspect's cooperation in the investigation. During his ''refusal,'' this lover of peace took his physical abuse past shoving a woman and shoved the officer. He was rewarded with handcuffs and removal.
Skye frequently attends events throughout the Northeast to document the multilayered story via video and stills and our paths have crossed several times. In my experience, I have known her to be respectful, professional and downright cheery. She works diligently to capture both the pro-troop and the anti-war sides of rallies.
Where are the feminists denouncing a man in their midst using his physical power to try cower a woman? Of course I am still waiting for feminists to address Bill's approach to fringe benefits.
Where are the pithy chants touting love? Where are the hugs?
I can't help but wonder when the lefties will give peace a chance.
URL: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25729
HUMAN EVENTS
by Katie O'Malley
Posted 03/27/2008
Once content to thump drums and dig deep for chants that rhyme, the ''peace'' movement's foothold on the public soapbox has slipped. The peaceniks -- ANSWER, MoveOn.org, Code Pink and the rest -- are in the midst of very public identity crisis. They are facing, for the first time, visible and vocal opposition to both their words and their methods. And it has made them angry….very angry….angry enough to (pause for dramatic effect) use violence as an option!
As organizations have come together to face them in the streets (and have successfully released the left's stranglehold on activism and the media) the lefties have revealed their inner violent streak to which they have always proclaimed an immunity.
We have certainly seen incidents of violence within the misnamed ''peace'' movement since its inception decades ago. These lovers of dialogue and group hugs have bombed buildings (just ask Obama's ''acquaintance'' William Ayers of the Weather Underground), stormed institutions and screamed vile and evil comments to Vietnam Veterans, since they first began their activism. In Ayers memoir, ''Fugitive Days,'' he goes so far as to write, ''I don't regret setting bombs. I didn't do enough.” At least he is honest about it.
His disturbing perspective and the inherently un-peaceful legacy of the 1960s peace movement has been enthusiastically embraced by the newest generation, tutored by the aging hippies of yore.
A steady uptick in violence against the military has been unfolding in recent months. The recruiting station in Washington, DC at 14th & L, the site of a storming and trashing on February 15, received additional overtures of ''peace'' last week when rocks were thrown at the windows and the exterior of the building, DC Metro police and counter protestors there to support the recruiters, were covered in red paint lobbed at them. What happened to daisies? They don't stain and they don't hurt!
The Times Square recruiting station in New York was the site of a bombing on March 6. Recruiters in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Texas and Tennessee have all been the recipients of this special kind of leftist love in the last 12 months, just to name a few. Counter protestors in Berkley have not received hugs and love, but instead have been shoved and hit with signs proclaiming ''Give Peace a Chance.''
Even the peace and tranquility of a church on Easter Sunday is not immune to their inherent anger and their willingness to put shock value and confrontation above dialogue and communication. A group calling themselves ''Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War'' interrupted Chicago's Cardinal George's Easter homily and threw fake stage blood on themselves and fellow churchgoers while denouncing the war in Iraq.
In the narcissistic mind of the antiwar left, even the most holy and meaningful gift of resurrection does not trump the need for relevance and attention. Shouldn't Catholic schoolgirls be railing against hemlines?
My own experience covering the left has provided a multitude of examples missing peace in the peace movement. I used to embrace the chance to bring my children to events to give them real world opportunities to hear diverse opinions first hand, unfiltered by the press or even their mother. It has added a great deal to our dinner table conversations over the years. It impressed upon them that views, however divergent from our own, come from real people with real passions.
Recent events and the escalation of violence on the left have, unfortunately, made me unwilling to provide them with this opportunity for the foreseeable future. My children have been on the receiving end of some of the most profane, hate-filled language known to man. They have been physically threatened, signs ripped from them and shredded, flags snatched from their hands. Simply put, the peaceniks are too violent to be around my children.
I can also tell you that the mail I get from the left is anything but peaceful. I am certain that the physical positions they suggest I emulate give me far too much credit for my flexibility. I am confident that not one of their suggestions is a sanctioned yoga pose.
This past week, the length to which the left will go has been further exposed and shows how personal and violent they become when they lose the spotlight. No longer content to lob bombs and projectiles at institutions of ''the man,'' these embracers of peace have developed a comfortable pattern of physically assaulting their ideological opponents.
This week, Ann DeWalt, 82, was found guilty of harassment for kicking a 33-year-old Iraq war veteran in the back during a January 19 vigil. In a calculated and desperate move, the left has is adept at using the young and the elderly to do their dirty work, secure in the knowledge that the media, the authorities and even the victims themselves will be more reluctant to pursue charges. I believe Saddam called them ''human shields.''
More chillingly, last weekend a man attending a Chester County Peace Movement (CCPM) peace vigil in West Chester, Pennsylvania, assaulted a citizen journalist and blogger. At 12:10 PM, blogger ''Skye'' was videotaping an exchange between opposing groups. As the conversation gets both animated and heated, she shifts her filming position to capture all parties involved. The shot is abruptly cut when a fist flies at her face, she is slapped and the camera is jammed into her face. Not satisfied by the first blow, he strikes her a second time.
Nearby police intervened and the party involved was quickly pointed out by the victim and witnesses. The officer requested the suspect's cooperation in the investigation. During his ''refusal,'' this lover of peace took his physical abuse past shoving a woman and shoved the officer. He was rewarded with handcuffs and removal.
Skye frequently attends events throughout the Northeast to document the multilayered story via video and stills and our paths have crossed several times. In my experience, I have known her to be respectful, professional and downright cheery. She works diligently to capture both the pro-troop and the anti-war sides of rallies.
Where are the feminists denouncing a man in their midst using his physical power to try cower a woman? Of course I am still waiting for feminists to address Bill's approach to fringe benefits.
Where are the pithy chants touting love? Where are the hugs?
I can't help but wonder when the lefties will give peace a chance.
URL: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=25729
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Islam, the religion, the cult, the system
Islam is not a religion nor is it a cult. It is a complete system.
Islam has religious, legal, political, economic and military components. The religious component is a beard for all the other components.
Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called "religious rights."
When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to "the reasonable" Muslim demands for their "religious rights," they also get the other components under the table. Here's how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2007)).
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:
United States -- Muslim 1.0%
Australia -- Muslim 1.5%
Canada -- Muslim 1.9%
China -- Muslim 1%-2%
Italy -- Muslim 1.5%
Norway -- Muslim 1.8%
At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:
Denmark -- Muslim 2%
Germany -- Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom -- Muslim 2.7%
Spain -- Muslim 4%
Thailand -- Muslim 4.6%
From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.
They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. (United States).
France -- Muslim 8%
Philippines -- Muslim 5%
Sweden -- Muslim 5%
Switzerland -- Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands -- Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago -- Muslim 5.8%
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.
When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris -- car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam -- Mohammed cartoons).
Guyana -- Muslim 10%
India -- Muslim 13.4%
Israel -- Muslim 16%
Kenya -- Muslim 10%
Russia -- Muslim 10-15%
After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:
Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8%
At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:
Bosnia -- Muslim 40%
Chad -- Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7%
From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:
Albania -- Muslim 70%
Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4%
Qatar -- Muslim 77.5%
Sudan -- Muslim 70%
After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:
Bangladesh -- Muslim 83%
Egypt -- Muslim 90%
Gaza -- Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1%
Iran -- Muslim 98%
Iraq -- Muslim 97%
Jordan -- Muslim 92%
Morocco -- Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan -- Muslim 97%
Palestine -- Muslim 99%
Syria -- Muslim 90%
Tajikistan -- Muslim 90%
Turkey -- Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates -- Muslim 96%
100% will usher in the peace of "Dar-es-Salaam" -- the Islamic House of Peace -- there's supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:
Afghanistan -- Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100%
Somalia -- Muslim 100%
Yemen -- Muslim 99.9%
Of course, that's not the case. To satisfy their blood lust, Muslims then start killing each other for a variety of reasons.
"Before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world and all of us against the infidel. -- Leon Uris, "The Haj"
It is good to remember that in many, many countries, such as France, the Muslim populations are centered around ghettos based on their ethnicity. Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. Therefore, they exercise more power than their national average would indicate.
Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.. www.frontline.org.za/books_videos/sti.htm
Islam has religious, legal, political, economic and military components. The religious component is a beard for all the other components.
Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called "religious rights."
When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to "the reasonable" Muslim demands for their "religious rights," they also get the other components under the table. Here's how it works (percentages source CIA: The World Fact Book (2007)).
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:
United States -- Muslim 1.0%
Australia -- Muslim 1.5%
Canada -- Muslim 1.9%
China -- Muslim 1%-2%
Italy -- Muslim 1.5%
Norway -- Muslim 1.8%
At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs:
Denmark -- Muslim 2%
Germany -- Muslim 3.7%
United Kingdom -- Muslim 2.7%
Spain -- Muslim 4%
Thailand -- Muslim 4.6%
From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.
They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. (United States).
France -- Muslim 8%
Philippines -- Muslim 5%
Sweden -- Muslim 5%
Switzerland -- Muslim 4.3%
The Netherlands -- Muslim 5.5%
Trinidad & Tobago -- Muslim 5.8%
At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.
When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris -- car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam -- Mohammed cartoons).
Guyana -- Muslim 10%
India -- Muslim 13.4%
Israel -- Muslim 16%
Kenya -- Muslim 10%
Russia -- Muslim 10-15%
After reaching 20% expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings and church and synagogue burning:
Ethiopia -- Muslim 32.8%
At 40% you will find widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare:
Bosnia -- Muslim 40%
Chad -- Muslim 53.1%
Lebanon -- Muslim 59.7%
From 60% you may expect unfettered persecution of non-believers and other religions, sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels:
Albania -- Muslim 70%
Malaysia -- Muslim 60.4%
Qatar -- Muslim 77.5%
Sudan -- Muslim 70%
After 80% expect State run ethnic cleansing and genocide:
Bangladesh -- Muslim 83%
Egypt -- Muslim 90%
Gaza -- Muslim 98.7%
Indonesia -- Muslim 86.1%
Iran -- Muslim 98%
Iraq -- Muslim 97%
Jordan -- Muslim 92%
Morocco -- Muslim 98.7%
Pakistan -- Muslim 97%
Palestine -- Muslim 99%
Syria -- Muslim 90%
Tajikistan -- Muslim 90%
Turkey -- Muslim 99.8%
United Arab Emirates -- Muslim 96%
100% will usher in the peace of "Dar-es-Salaam" -- the Islamic House of Peace -- there's supposed to be peace because everybody is a Muslim:
Afghanistan -- Muslim 100%
Saudi Arabia -- Muslim 100%
Somalia -- Muslim 100%
Yemen -- Muslim 99.9%
Of course, that's not the case. To satisfy their blood lust, Muslims then start killing each other for a variety of reasons.
"Before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; and the tribe against the world and all of us against the infidel. -- Leon Uris, "The Haj"
It is good to remember that in many, many countries, such as France, the Muslim populations are centered around ghettos based on their ethnicity. Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. Therefore, they exercise more power than their national average would indicate.
Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.. www.frontline.org.za/books_videos/sti.htm
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Gas War LET'S START ONE!!
Ever notice how one gas station will have one price for gas and the one right across the street from it will be a penny or so cheaper? This is called price war, so why not start a big one and get the price of gas down? Makes sense to me and it is worth a try, afterall what do we have to lose? Nothing that's what! Here is how it can be done.
THIS IS NOT THE 'DON'T BUY' GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON, OR LESS.
This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.
Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the 'don't buy gas on a certain day' campaign that was going around last April or May!
It's worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!!
I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down?
We need to take some intelligent, united action. The oil companies just laughed at that "DON'T BUY GAS ON CERTAIN DAYS" because they knew we wouldn't continue to 'hurt' ourselves by refusing to buy gas.
It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join in in creating a price war between oil companies.
By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.48 for regular unleaded in my town.
Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, or even $2.50 we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace...not sellers.
With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action.
The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas, but we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.
Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.
But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!
I am sending this note to 30 people, plus, placing it on all my blogs and the various veteran sites I post on. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) .. and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers.
If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!
If it goes one level further, you guessed it..... THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all!
If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people and get the ball rolling, then like a snowball rolling down hill it will begin to grow bigger and bigger just like a rumor or gossip does in the real world.
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this message and game plan out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 to 10 days days!!!
I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you ! Acting together we can make a difference. Veterans Unite! Hopefully the rest of the people will follow suit and the gas war will be on.
If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $2.00 RANGE, OR LOWER AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK. WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO LOSE BY TRYING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. DOING NOTHING WILL GET US LIKE RESULTS. . . NOTHING!
KEEP IT GOING AND GOING AND GOING. . . .!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Vietnam vets, once again, left behind and forgotten!
STIGMA KEEPS MANY NEW VETS FROM SEEKING MENTAL
HEALTH CARE. As you read the article below you can see where, once again, Vietnam veterans are being left behind, cast aside and, for all intents and purposes forgotten in the VA system.
I have nothing against today's young soldiers getting help, immediate help, as that is what they deserve and earned through their service to our country, but what about those of us who have been waiting for years for such help as this article reports? How many of us have died awaiting such help? How many of us will continue to wait and die before the VA and other government officials say, "Hey, what about the Vietnam vets, without whom we may have never known about PTSD and it's effect on soldiers in the first place?"
Thousands of Vietnam veterans are waiting, and many have been waiting and fighting for their just benefits and adequate treatment for untold numbers of years, and still we wait for the VA to do the right thing. Since our war was an unpopular war, one that Congress chose to walk away from, we are considered a pain in the side, to be nice, to the VA and Congress who now rallies around the young soldiers of today but pays little, to no, attention to the plight of Nam vets. We still continue to fight for our just benefits and treatment, but in addition, it is we who initiated the fight for veteran to receive treatment and compensation for PTSD. Today the powers that be speak of traumatic brain injury due to explosions, bombs, do they consider or even give thought to the fact that bombs, booby traps and the like were, also, utilized in Vietnam, thus, we too, and likely do, suffer from traumatic brain injury? Once again we are all but forgotten! When will this disgrace end? Will it only come to an end after we are all dead and gone. Seems to be the most likely scenario!
NOTE: All Emphasis added by
Rocky
Waiting room fills with young vets
Meredith May
Chronicle Staff Writer
Four years after the start of the war in Iraq, Dr. Karen Seal took a job at the San Francisco VA Medical Center to work in the liver clinic, treating patients with hepatitis C.
She noticed the veterans in the waiting room. Most of them were from the Vietnam era, in their 60s and older.
But over the months, the faces began to get younger. The waiting room was starting to fill with young men in their late teens and 20s, the first trickle of Bay Area soldiers emotionally and physically injured by the war.
Seal, a primary care physician, began working with them, taking their medical histories and directing them to the right care.
"At the time, I had never heard of PTSD," Seal said. (Can you believe any doctor working at any VA hospital, especially after 4 years as stated above, had never heard of PTSD!?! )
Now she knows how post-traumatic stress disorder contributes to the alcohol addiction and depression she sees in many of her patients.
She made referral after referral to the mental health wing of the VA hospital, but heard from colleagues that those initial patients never made it. It was too much of a stigma - especially in military culture - to walk across the campus to the mental health ward.
So Seal and colleagues got an idea. What if there were a special clinic just for Iraq war veterans that combined primary care and mental health checkups in a nonjudgmental setting? (Emphasis added - note the "just for Iraq War veterans"!)
There were only a few other places in the country that do such a thing - the Department of Defense has a one-stop veterans clinic in Washington, and there was a similar one in Seattle, but it took anyone from the first Gulf War to the present. (Again, nothing mentioned here about Nam vets.)
Finally, in April 2007, San Francisco VA opened a clinic just for Iraq war veterans, calling it the Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom Integrated Care Clinic.
"Now, we see three to seven veteran men, and one or two women, a week," Seal said.
Visitors can drop in and be seen by a primary care doctor and a combat stress specialist. They are screened for post-traumatic stress, depression, alcoholism, and brain injury. If they need help readjusting into civilian life, there's someone to assist with that.
About 1 in 5 is discovered to have post-traumatic stress, but now only 15 percent miss their appointments with mental health workers.
"This job is a gift," Seal said. "To be able to tell them it's normal to jump when they hear a balloon pop or to get nervous on a crowded bus. I can tell them that a lot of their buddies are experiencing the same things."
E-mail Meredith May at mmay@sfchronicle.com.
(Original article posted by VA Watchdog)
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