The Scriptorium

This scares me about as much as anything Obama has done thus far. He’s picked a person to head the Central Intelligence Agency that has no experience whatsoever in intelligence. Our safety is the one area where we don’t need another inexperienced Clinton holdover. What this pick tells me is that Obama is more interested in Panetta’s political prowess than his ability to prevent another attack on this country. Our CIA has enough problems without their notorious aversion to being led by an outsider being stirred up again. I want them focusing on the Islamists trying to kill us, not infighting at the agency.

When Panetta has weighed in on intelligence matters, he falls in line with the typical liberal position on interrogation methods, and is against anything that even remotely resembles torture. He said the following in this article he wrote:

We cannot simply suspend [American ideals of human rights] in the name of national security. Those who support torture may believe that we can abuse captives in certain select circumstances and still be true to our values. But that is a false compromise. We either believe in the dignity of the individual, the rule of law, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, or we don’t. There is no middle ground.

We cannot and we must not use torture under any circumstances. We are better than that.

If Panetta had been in charge the last eight years, I doubt we would have gotten the information we did from captured terrorists that saved countless lives in thwarted attacks.

It isn’t just Republicans who have problems with his inexperience, though. Even Diane Feinstein has expressed concerns.

Former California congressman and Clinton aide has little experience with spy agencies. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, indicates she might oppose the pick.

I guess we can hope that his experience in several other government agencies, positions, and boards will be sufficient to guide him in protecting us. As the current administration is fond of saying, we only have to be wrong once.

UPDATE:

We’re doomed.

In filling four senior Justice Department positions Monday, President-elect Barack Obama signaled that he intends to roll back Bush administration counterterrorism policies authorizing harsh interrogation techniques, warrantless spying and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects.

The most startling shift was Obama’s pick of Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen to take charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, the unit that’s churned out the legal opinions that provided a foundation for expanding President George W. Bush’s national security powers.

Johnsen, who spent five years in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration and served as its acting chief, has publicly assailed “Bush’s corruption of our American ideals.” Upon the release last spring of a secret Office of Legal Counsel memo that backed tactics approaching torture for interrogations of terrorism suspects, she excoriated the unit’s lawyers for encouraging “horrific acts” and for advising Bush “that in fighting the war on terror, he is not bound by the laws Congress has enacted.”

They didn’t get the memo that 2008 was the year global warming was debunked.

Call this one of the newest and innovative ways your government has come up with to battle greenhouse gas emissions.

Indirectly it could be considered a cheeseburger tax, but one of the suggestions offered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act is to levy a tax on livestock.

The ANPR, released early this year, would give the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas for not only greenhouse gas from manmade sources like transportation and industry, but also “stationary” sources which would include livestock.

The New York Farm Bureau assigned a price tag to the cost of greenhouse gas regulation by the EPA in a release last month.

“The tax for dairy cows could be $175 per cow, and $87.50 per head of beef cattle. The tax on hogs would upwards of $20 per hog,” the release said. “Any operation with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs would have to obtain permits.”

Those are some expensive farts!!

Link

Police in the E.U. can now hack a persons personal computer without getting a warrant to look for evidence of a crime they suspect has been, or will be committed. The Bible says the Antichrist will rise out of the EU, and the EU Council of Ministers in Brussels certainly act like they are preparing for his arrival. Computers and the internet are becoming a powerful tool in the hands of the average person. With access to information, it’s much harder for governments and political elites to control the masses. Watch for them to begin attacking that freedom, and increase regulation on the last source of free speech and thought we have.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Association of Chief Police Officers told the Times that hacking into private citizens’ computers is sometimes necessary in investigating cybercrimes such as child pornography, identity theft and terrorism.

Anything can be deemed “necessary” when governments reach is not limited. When privacy laws are completely ignored, the list of necessary targets will grow until anything that poses even a remote threat to government power and control is under surveillance. Sadly, people will blindly accept just about anything in the name of tolerance these days.

Police and state intelligence agencies from several countries may soon be working together to secretly hack into private citizens’ personal computers without their knowledge and without a warrant.

According to a London Times report, the police hacking process, called “remote searching,” enables law enforcement to gather information from e-mails, instant messages and Web browsers, even while hundreds of miles away.

Furthermore, the Times reports, a new edict by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels has paved the way for international law enforcement agencies to begin remote searching and sharing the information with each other. According to the Times, the United Kingdom’s Home Office, the nation’s lead government department for immigration, drugs and counter-terrorism enforcement, has already quietly adopted a plan that would enable French, German and other European Union police forces to request remote searching be done on UK citizens’ computers.

Read more here

Hamas is brutally murdering members of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, but the media has imposed a media blackout on Hamas atrocities in order to make room for the endless stream of anti-Israel news. They cover every propaganda piece Hamas puts out, and report the Palestinian death tole with glee, but ignore the terrorists the Palestinian people chose to rule over them. These are the people liberals want leading a Palestinian state.

The Hamas government has placed dozens of Fatah members under house arrest out of fear that they might exploit the current IDF operation to regain control of the Gaza Strip

Fatah officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken.

Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.

“Hamas is very nervous, because they feel that their end is nearing,” a senior Fatah official said. “They have been waging a brutal campaign against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, sources close to Hamas revealed over the weekend that the movement had “executed” more than 35 Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel and were being held in various Hamas security installations.

“We will kill them all if they try to help Israel bring down our government,” the official said. “We will hang Mahmoud Abbas and [former Fatah security chief] Muhammad Dahlan in the public square if they try to enter the Gaza Strip aboard Israeli tanks.”

The Hamas official said that his security forces had launched a massive “preemptive” campaign aimed at thwarting Fatah’s attempts to “spread anarchy and chaos.” He confirmed that many Fatah operatives had been shot in the legs over the past few days by Hamas “to make sure that they don’t help Israel.”

Read more at Flopping Aces

Poor Al. Just when his global warming scam was really paying off, scientists have found that the polar ice caps, and floating arctic ice, are growing at a rapid rate. So much for the “sky is falling” crowd and their claim that global warming is melting ice so fast that Santa is about to be homeless. The next time an atheist tries to tell you Christians have been proven wrong by science, ask them if they are referring to the work of the same scientists that believe in global warming.

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.

Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards.

The data is being reported by the University of Illinois’s Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.

Each year, millions of square kilometers of sea ice melt and refreeze. However, the mean ice anomaly — defined as the seasonally-adjusted difference between the current value and the average from 1979-2000, varies much more slowly. That anomaly now stands at just under zero, a value identical to one recorded at the end of 1979, the year satellite record-keeping began.

Link

It’s being tested in Oregon, and will likely become the law in that state, but Congress is watching the program closely and hoping to implement it nationally. The program I’m referring to is a millage tax plan that would put GPS units in all cars, allowing state governments, and eventually the federal government to tax people according to how many miles they drive. The change, they say, is needed because people are driving more fuel efficient cars and governments aren’t making as much money on the gas taxes we pay at the pump. They told us for years that we all needed to conserve energy and drive more fuel efficient cars, but now they want to punish us for doing just that by tracking our movements and charging us for how far we drive.

Oregon even plans to charge people more per mile during rush hour, thereby punishing people for going to work. I thought Liberals were the champions of the working people. NOT!

The issue of over taxation aside, this will be a privacy concern for most Americans. A GPS unit in your car is a huge invasion of privacy by people who have no business knowing where you go, how long you’re there, and when you come back. The states using the plan, however, assure us that they don’t save the GPS data of our movements and whereabouts, and it won’t be accessible to the police or Feds. Uh…Whoopty Freakin Doo! At anytime the government COULD access or store that information if they wanted to. They could also improve the GPS systems over time, and before you know it we’re living in 1984 and Obama’s civilian military force is monitoring our every move. It’s a very slippery slope, and another government intrusion into our lives. It also proves that our society is more than ready to receive the Antichrist with open arms, and allow him power and control over us that generations passed never would have allowed.

Oregon is among a growing number of states exploring ways to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, even going so far as to install GPS monitoring devices in 300 vehicles.

The idea first emerged nearly 10 years ago as Oregon lawmakers worried that fuel-efficient cars such as gas-electric hybrids could pose a threat to road upkeep, which is paid for largely with gasoline taxes.

“I’m glad we’re taking a look at it before the potholes get so big that we can’t even get out of them,” said Leroy Younglove, a Portland driver who participated in a recent pilot program.

The proposal is not without critics, including drivers who are concerned about privacy and others who fear the tax could eliminate the financial incentive for buying efficient vehicles.

But Oregon is ahead of the nation in exploring the concept, even though it will probably be years before any mileage tax is adopted.

Congress is talking about it, too. A congressional commission has envisioned a system similar to the prototype Oregon tested in 2006-2007.

The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing is considering calling for higher gas taxes to keep highways, bridges and transit programs in good shape.

But over the long term, commission members say, the nation should consider taxing mileage rather than gasoline as drivers use more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles.

As cars burn less fuel, “the gas tax isn’t going to fill the bill,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The next Congress “could begin to set the stage, perhaps looking at some much more robust pilot programs, to begin the research, to work with manufacturers.”

Gov. Ted Kulongoski has included development money for the tax in his budget proposal, and interest is growing in a number of other states.

Governors in Idaho and Rhode Island have considered systems that would require drivers to report their mileage when they register vehicles.

In North Carolina last month, a panel suggested charging motorists a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.

Read the rest here.

We should all be prepared to fight this and make Congress listen for a change. Our government is out of control.

Worldnet Daily reports that a recent Military Times survey of active-duty service members found 6 of 10 U.S. soldiers polled said they were “pessimistic” or “uncertain” about Barack Obama serving as commander in chief of America’s armed forces. The troops cited Obama’s inexperience in leading soldiers, his plans for accelerated removal of troops from Iraq, and his pledge to overturn the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding homosexual service members as reasons for their concern.

It’s tragic, really, that we’ve elected a man during a time when we’re fighting two wars and a war on terror, and our service men and women don’t trust him to lead them. It would be troubling for sure to know that the man who will need to lead you to victory was against the war you’re fighting, doesn’t think what you are doing is for a noble cause, and has repeatedly stated, as a United States Senator, that he thought the troops would fail in Iraq.

Here are a couple of the comments made by troops who took the survey. Doesn’t it kind of seem like these troops know more about the war, what’s needed to win, and what the consequences of Obama’s plan could be, if enacted, than The One does.

“Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers,” said one lance corporal who asked not to be identified, “nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief.”

“How are you going to safely pull combat troops out of Iraq?” asked Air Force 1st Lt. Rachel Kleinpeter, an intelligence officer with the 100th Operations Support Squadron. “And if you’re pulling out combat troops, who are you leaving to help support what’s left? What happens if Iraq falls back into chaos? Are we going to be there in five years doing the same thing over again?”

If only one of these young men or women could have run for President.

Read the full article here.

The media really are clueless. Or, perhaps just dishonest. In this article about a coming Israeli ground invasion into Gaza, the AP talks about the recent attacks as coming on the heals of a 6 month cease fire that ended last month. There was no cease fire, other than on some piece of paper Jimmy Carter probably had his buddies in Hamas sign. Hamas continued to fire rockets further and further into Israel during the “cease fire”, and new sophisticated rockets have continued to damage civilian infrastructure and kill innocent Jews. THAT is not a cease fire. The only side that ceased firing was Israel.

Fox news also contributed to the article, which might account for this moment of mental clarity:

Hamas, whose charter specifically calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, had ordered a “day of wrath” against Israel on Friday over the killing of a senior commander.

Pray for the IDF soldiers tasked with routing out the terrorists who are launching rockets at their friends, family, and fellow Israelis. Hamas has threatened more attempts to abduct Israeli soldiers, so pray for the troops and their families.

Link to full article

Hamas may finally be overplaying their hand. Israel is not going to stand by and watch rockets fall on the only thing that stands between them and an attack from the Jihadist nations that surround them. Israeli politicians seemed willing to let Jews die in Hamas rocket attacks much longer than any other country would tolerate, but even liberal Israeli politicians know the dangers that face them enough to crack down hard when rockets start reaching Tel Aviv and their nuke facilities. At this point, who cares if the rest of the world whines about a “disproportionate response”. The only response they would accept anyway, is a volley of spit wads.

There were growing fears in Israel last night that Hamas missiles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona.

Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group’s arsenal.

In Beersheba, until a few days ago a sleepy desert town in southern Israel, there is little sign of the 186,000 inhabitants. Schools are closed and the streets of shuttered shops echo with the howl of sirens warning of incoming rockets.

Israeli planes, meanwhile, began a new stage yesterday in their offensive on Gaza, killing Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas official. The one-tonne bomb in Jabaliya is also understood to have killed two of his four wives and four of his twelve children. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed in the six days of Israeli attacks.

Despite a diplomatic mission by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, to Paris, the Israeli army continued to muster thousands of troops and scores of tanks along Gaza’s border for a possible ground offensive. Israel’s airstrikes are designed to blunt Hamas’s capacity to fire its new Grad missiles deep into its territory. The weapons are smuggled in through tunnels and by sea, replacing homemade Qassam rockets.

Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

Link

In Brighton, Michigan the First Amendment has been rescinded in favor of a more tolerant interpretation of freedom of speech. Choose your words wisely when in Brighton, or you could be cited and fined for annoying someone. I kid you not. Annoying speech has been banned. All that’s needed to find yourself on the wrong side of the law is a complaint from someone who is annoyed by you, or a Brighton police officer catching you in the act of saying something that annoys him, or her. I’m guessing something like a pro-life opinion would be deemed annoying by the liberal chief of police. Eventually, someone will point out to them that the courts have already ruled viewpoint discrimination is unconstitutional. Lawsuits in 3..2…

Brighton, Michigan, apparently wants to stop “annoying” free speech.

The Brighton City Council recently passed a strict code for public conduct, and those who violate the law, including those who annoy someone else, could be cited and fined. LivingstonDaily.com reports Brighton Police Chief Tom Wightman issued the ordinance. Even though the edict features the word “annoy” at least twice, he contends it “is not for somebody that says something annoying” but rather for “some course of action for repeated acts.”

Gary Glenn, head of American Family Association of Michigan, disagrees. “I think this ordinance in Brighton is clearly unconstitutional in that it attempts to restrict people’s exercise of their free-speech rights based on the content of their speech,” he says. “That’s clearly viewpoint discrimination.”

Police Chief Wightman says the ordinance would apply more to verbal interactions than an upsetting or annoying T-shirt, for example. However, Glen believes it could have a negative effect on individuals and pro-family groups.

“If someone dared, in a public place in Brighton, expressed their sincere religious conviction — for example, that homosexual behavior is sinful — obviously if someone was offended or insulted or even ‘annoyed,’ as the ordinance says, they might try to bring charges against somebody for merely expressing their sincerely held Christian beliefs,” he points out.

The town is ripe for a lawsuit, says Glenn, if officials try to enforce the new decree.

Link

A court rightly decided that a business has the right to put a sign on private property and that right cannot be taken away, and the business own punished simply because the message on the sign is Christian in nature. It’s absurd that the State of New York thought they could treat this man like a criminal, and deny him the rights other business owners have under the constitution, just because of his religious beliefs. Christians must take a lesson from this gentleman and fight back when the left tries to make us accept being second class citizens. Don’t wait until your rights are taken away to realize how important they are to you.

A New York man has won a battle with the New York Department of Transportation over a trailer he parked on his private property along a public highway that was targeted because of its Christian message.

Daniel Burritt installed a tractor-trailer for his company, Acts II Construction, Inc., on private business property along U.S. Route 11 in 2007.

In May he got a letter from the New York State Department of Transportation stating that his trailer violated a state law and constituted a “public nuisance.” The NYDOT said a permit had to be obtained or the trailer would be forcibly removed and legal action would follow, even though the agency does not require permits for commercial messages being displayed.

Burritt’s legal counsel objected to the NYDOT’s requirement for a permit, saying it penalized him because of his faith.

“Christians shouldn’t be singled out and penalized for sharing their beliefs,” Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel Matt Bowman said. “We are pleased the court recognizes that displaying a religious message on private property has always been protected under the First Amendment.”

Bowman said the state violated the Constitution by treating religion in a less favorable manner than business because it did not take into account that a central aspect of the Burritt’s construction business is evangelism.

ADF attorneys
filed suit on behalf of Burritt in June and reached an agreement with the NYDOT to allow the trailer to stay until a decision could be reached. A state district court decision now has ordered the state to allow the sign to remain.

Link to Worldnet Daily Article

It looks like the testing of Obama is beginning. I’m sure he’ll just talk with Putin and explain the hope and changiness that he is to usher in, and all will be well. He handled that Georgia thing so well, I’m sure we have nothing to fear. And those missiles that Russia is selling to Iran for use with their soon to be built nukes? Not a problem. Diplomacy Obama style will convince Amadinnerjacket that he doesn’t really need to nuke Israel or the Great Satan. Times they are a changin’. Can you say Gog and Magog?

Russia has thrown down a new gauntlet to Barack Obama with an announcement that it will sharply increase production of strategic nuclear missiles.

In the latest of a series of combative moves by the Kremlin, a senior government official in Moscow said the Russian military would commission 70 strategic missiles over the next three years, as part of a massive rearmament programme which will also include short-range missiles, 300 tanks, 14 warships and 50 planes.

Military experts said the planned new arsenal was presumed to consist of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) rather than submarine-launched missiles. If this is the case, the plans represent a fourfold increase in the rate of ICBM deployment. The arsenal will include a new-generation, multiple-warhead ICBM called the RS-24. It was first test-fired in 2007, with first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov boasting it was “capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defence systems”.

The new missiles will be part of a £95bn defence procurement package for 2009-2011, a 28% increase in arms spending, according to Vladislav Putilin of the cabinet’s military-industrial commission. There will be further increases in spending in the following two years.

Link

Yet another example of how the Bush Administration kept us safe from another Jihadist attack on the homeland.

A federal jury on Monday convicted five men of conspiracy to kill American soldiers at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey last year, but acquitted them of attempted murder, according to the Associated Press.

The jury deliberated for six days before returning its verdict against three brothers — Shain, Eljvir and Dritan Duka — and two other defendants, Mohamad Shnewer and Serdar Tatar.

The men, all Muslim immigrants who lived in Philadelphia’s southern New Jersey suburbs, face a maximum of life in prison.

Federal prosecutors said that the five men were planning to attack Fort Dix and the military personnel within it, and had taken concrete steps to train and arm themselves. During the men’s trial, prosecutors argued that evidence, including hundreds of secretly taped conversations between the defendants and F.B.I. informants, jihadist propaganda videos recovered from one suspect’s computer, and videotapes of an illegal purchase of several machine guns, showed they intended to carry out an armed assault on the base.

Link

They are living among us, and we can’t afford the Left’s denials that the War on Terror even exists.

No matter what you think of George Bush’s politics, you can’t argue that he isn’t a decent and kind human being. I can’t imagine Obama ever doing this without a full herd of press lackeys tagging along to cover it.

For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes left the news media in the dark.

Their mission: to comfort the families of soldiers who died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to lift the spirits of those wounded in the service of their country.

On Monday, the president is set to make a more common public trip - with reporters in tow - to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, home to many of the wounded and a symbol of controversy earlier in his presidency over the quality of care the veterans were receiving.

GIVING SUPPORT: Vice President Dick Cheney, an avid fly-fisherman, practices his cast with wounded troops from Walter Reed Army Medical Center during one of the half-dozen barbecues he’s hosted at his Naval Observatory home. (White House photo)

But the size and scope of Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Cheney’s private endeavors to meet with wounded soliders and families of the fallen far exceed anything that has been witnessed publicly, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials familiar with the effort.

“People say, ‘Why would you do that?’” the president said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Times on Friday. “And the answer is: This is my duty. The president is commander in chief, but the president is often comforter in chief, as well. It is my duty to be - to try to comfort as best as I humanly can a loved one who is in anguish.”

Mr. Bush, for instance, has sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who have died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice. The task, along with meeting family members of troops killed in action, has been so wrenching - balancing the anger, grief and pride of families coping with the loss symbolized by a flag-draped coffin - that the president often leaned on his wife, Laura, for emotional support.

It’s long, but read it all.

For anyone who thought Obama might be interested in being a centrist, think again. His pick for head of the labor department is an unabashed Communist. That’s the direction this country will continue to go, unless Conservatives wake up to reality and fight back.

President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Labor Department has close ties to U.S. communist and socialist organizations and has sent representatives to functions organized by national parties for both ideologies.

The pick of Rep. Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., a Congressional Hispanic Caucus leader considered to be one of the most reliably pro-union voices in the House, was hailed as a victory by communist and socialist leaders.

An article this past weekend in the Communist Party USA’s People’s Weekly World Newspaper welcomed Solis and quoted known socialist leaders calling her a “great choice” and an “outstanding” selection with “a life-long commitment to working people.”

Among other personalities, the Communist paper quoted former Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., a top economic adviser to Obama, calling Solis a “terrific leader who I know first-hand will work tirelessly on behalf of America’s working families.”

WND previously reported Bonior is listed as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, an organization dedicated to transforming America into a socialist society. He was a frontrunner for the labor secretary post, but endorsed Solis after dropping out of the race.

Link to full article

Putin is still enjoying success, as he tries to take Russia back to the days of the old KGB. A proposed bill would mark a major step in that direction by imposing treason charges on citizens accused of “harming the constitutional order”. That’s KGB for disagreeing with the government, or protesting it’s policies in any way. Russia is facing far worse economic conditions than the rest of the world, because their economy was a disaster to begin with, so expect expedited crack downs on free speech or any publicly displayed civil unrest. Dictators love a crisis. It presents the perfect cover for a large scale power grab. Democrats in America are fully aware of this, too.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Russia’s foes on Friday against trying to destabilize a country facing broadening economic crisis, Russian news agencies reported.

Putin did not specify who might pose a threat to Russia’s stability. But in the past, he has often blamed Western security services of trying to destabilize the country using opposition groups and non-governmental organizations as their instruments.

“Any attempts to weaken or destabilize Russia, harm the interests of the country will be toughly suppressed,” they quoted ex-KGB spy Putin as telling an annual meeting of top spies and security officers ahead of their professional holiday.

Putin, who was the Russian president in 2000-08, has contributed greatly to the growth of influence of Russia’s FSB federal security service, a successor of the Soviet-era KGB.

Many ex-KGB officers became key government and regional officials during his presidency forming his power base, which largely remained intact after Putin handed over powers to his successor Dmitry Medvedev in May.

Critics say that under Putin, security services have become excessively influential and expressed fears Russia could one day become a police state.

Link

Buddhists are taking a few lines from the Islamists’ playbook, and either holding Christian converts captive in attempt to force them back to Buddhism, or demanding that they leave the prominently Buddhist area. It’s a peaceful and tolerant religion, though. These false religions that are so often championed by the left all have one thing in common - hypocrisy.

Buddhist clerics and local council officials are holding 13 newly converted Christians captive in a pagoda in a southeastern mountainous district of Bangladesh in an attempt to forcibly return them to Buddhism.

A spokesman for the Parbatta Adivasi (Hill Tract) Christian Church told Compass on condition of anonymity that “the plight of the Christians is horrifying.”

Local government council officials in Jorachuri sub-district in Rangamati district, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Dhaka, are helping the Buddhist monks to hold the Christians against their will, he said.

“The 13 tribal Christians were taken forcefully to a pagoda on Dec. 10 to accept Buddhism against their will,” he said. “They will be kept in a pagoda for 10 days to perform the rituals to be Buddhists – their heads were shaved, and they were given yellow saffron robes to dress in.”

All the captive Christians are men between 28 and 52 years old, he said. They became Christians around four months ago at various times in the country, which has a Buddhist population of 0.7 percent. Muslims make up nearly 90 percent of the Bangladeshi population, with Hindus accounting for about 9 percent, according to government figures.

According to the source, two Buddhist clerics, Pronoyon Chakma and Jianoprio Vikku, and two local council members, Vira Chakma and Rubichandra Chakma, were behind the anti-Christian activities along with nine other Buddhist leaders.

“It’s the first time they have taken 13 Christians to the pagoda to make them Buddhist – this is how they plan to make Buddhists of all the converted Christians in that area,” he said. “The pagoda has little capacity to accommodate them; otherwise they would hold captive more than 13 people.”

The Christian leader said Buddhist leaders and local council officials have warned Christians to return to Buddhism or be evicted, saying, “You cannot live here – you have to leave this place with your family members because you became Christians. Those who became Christians cannot live in this predominantly Buddhist area.”

Fearing for their lives, the source said, some area Christians have gone into hiding……

Full Article

Obama revealed on his website his plan to dramatically increase funding for abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood. During an economic crisis, it is the height of arrogance to increase funding to the death cult abortionists, especially when a majority of Americans do not think people who are against abortion should be forced by the government to fund it. Obama could take a lesson from Sarah Palin on how to spend the people’s money.

A pro-life group in Washington has launched a campaign to oppose what it calls president-elect Barack Obama’s planned $1.5 billion “bailout” of the abortion industry.

Last week, the Obama-Biden Transition Project posted a report on its website that calls for dramatic policy reversals on abortion, including $1 billion in taxpayer money for international abortion groups like Planned Parenthood. The report, titled “Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration,” also calls for a 133-percent increase in funding for the Title X program, which funds Planned Parenthood clinics across the country.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, is hoping a Republican-led effort in the Senate will block Obama’s plan to substantially increase taxpayer funding of Marjorie Dannenfelserthe abortion industry.

“This billion-dollar bailout of the abortion industry comes at a time, number one, when the economy is suffering dramatically with true need. And number two, it communicates an incredible depth of arrogance, especially when you consider that the vast majority of Americans — men and women, no matter who you talk to — they don’t believe that people who don’t believe in abortion should be funding it,” she contends. “Most Americans don’t believe that we should be funding abortions, especially in a time of economic crisis.”

The Susan B. Anthony List has started a “Stop the Abortion Bailout” campaign designed to recruit thousands of activists to send letters to their senators “with the goal of securing the 41 votes necessary to sustain a Senate filibuster of the abortion bailout.”

Link

Maybe the terrorists in Gaza are counting on a weak, inexperienced President who has historically supported Palestinian terrorists over our only ally in the Middle East. They have stepped up their rocket attacks on Israel once again, violating a “peace treaty” that never really was, and forcing Ehud Barak to whine that they might have to retaliate if the terrorists don’t play nice and stop killing Jews.

Despite some 24 rockets hitting the western Negev Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel would not rush into an operation in Gaza.

“We are not deterred from an operation in Gaza but we are also not rushing into one,” Barak said during a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies. “When there is no choice we will act when and where we see fit.”

Three people were lightly wounded late Wednesday afternoon when two Kassam rocket fired by Gaza terrorists landed next to a Sderot shopping parade.

Cars and shops were also damaged in the attack, which came when hundreds of people were doing their shopping in the area.

The casualties were evacuated to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing the rockets.

Following the attack, the IAF renewed air strikes against rocket squads, aiming at launchers in northern Gaza, the army said. Palestinian hospital officials said a 47-year-old man was killed when a missile hit his house and a balcony collapsed on him.

Later, four more Kassams hit the Sdot Negev region, one damaging a building, and another landed in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. No additional casualties were reported.

In response to the ongoing cease-fire breaches, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned of impending Israeli military action.

“The rocket fire is just clarifying what we’ve been saying all along, that we can’t have a situation where supposedly there is an agreed-upon ceasefire, while the reality on the ground is completely different,” Olmert said after voting in the Kadima primaries.

“Of course this demands that we address it,” the prime minister continued, “And we will address it.”

Link

I had no idea politicians were trying to get enough states to vote for a new Constitutional Convention. Why hasn’t the MSM reported this? Don’t answer that.

If today’s politicians and judges are allowed to change our constitution to “reflect today’s societal mores”, we will see our right to self defense taken away, free speech will be made a right given to us by the government instead of by our Creator, and abortion, euthanasia, and gay marriage will become rights under the constitution.

Chuck Baldwin, presidential candidate for the Constitution Party this year, said “If called, a modern Constitutional Convention could declare the U.S. Constitution to be null and void, and could completely rewrite the document. For example, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger once declared, ‘There is no effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda.’”

This may be what finally takes America down, and it’s being kept from the public until they have enough votes to move on it. Read this entire article and stay informed on what’s happening with this movement to rewrite our constitution. I’ll be blogging everything I find on it. This is by far the scariest move on our freedoms by the left that I’ve seen yet, and Obama’s election has only emboldened them. We have to wake up and fight back on this one.

A team of lawmakers in Wyoming, alarmed by WND reports that the U.S. is only two state votes away from having a new Constitutional Convention, has begun work to make certain that if a convention is held, it would have to convene in the face of their opposition.

Wyoming previously called for a Constitutional Convention but rescinded the votes in 1999.

It is unclear whether even a formal vote to withdraw a request for a convention would have an impact or whether any limits could be imposed, according to constitutional expert John Eidsmoe, author of the book, “Christianity & the Constitution. But he encouraged such rescission votes, saying if nothing more, it certainly would dampen the enthusiasm for a convention.

Last week, a public policy organization issued an urgent alert that affirmative votes are needed from only two more states before a Constitutional Convention could be assembled in which “today’s corrupt politicians and judges” could formally change the U.S. Constitution’s “‘problematic’ provisions to reflect the philosophical and social mores of our contemporary society.”

“Don’t for one second doubt that delegates to a Con Con wouldn’t revise the First Amendment into a government-controlled privilege, replace the 2nd Amendment with a ‘collective’ right to self-defense, and abolish the 4th, 5th, and 10th Amendments, and the rest of the Bill of Rights,” said the warning from the American Policy Institute.

Changes also could include the incorporation of “rights” to abortion and euthanasia, as well as the “separation” of church and state, the group said.

The warning comes at a time when Barack Obama, who was voted the next president by the Electoral College yesterday, has expressed his belief the U.S. Constitution needs to be interpreted through the lens of current events.

Read it all!

For background information see this article.

I guess “free speech zones” aren’t just for liberal university campuses anymore. A pro-life activist who simply held up a sign near an abortion clinic could be sent to prison for one year for supposedly stepping into a zone where his right to free speech is no longer allowed. When the cops are pro-choice, it only takes an accusation from an abortion clinic to send a pro-lifer to jail. It’s getting scarier every day.

A Wisconsin pro-life counselor could be heading to jail again.

baby ultrasoundA Milwaukee Planned Parenthood clinic called police complaining that Drew Heiss violated an injunction that requires protestors to stay within a certain zone.

“All he did was stand on a sidewalk holding a sign, and they alleged that he was closer than 25 feet to the door,” says Pastor Matt Trewhella, founder of Missionaries to the Preborn.

Trewhella adds that the distance has never been measured by Planned Parenthood or the police, so there is no way of proving the case. “And you know, for that the state wants to put [Heiss] in a prison for a year,” he notes. “Last time that he was facing these charges, they offered him seven months in jail if he would just confess — and he refused to do so.”

The first case was thrown out on a technicality. Meanwhile, Heiss has a wife and children at home. “Yes, Drew’s been married for about 18 years now,” Trewhella explains. “They have five kids — four daughters, one son — ranging in age from 15 down to five.”

Trewhella maintains Milwaukee police have been notoriously against pro-lifers, and he is calling for prayer for Heiss and deliverance from false charges.

Link

Before anyone feels sorry for the terrorists locked up in Guantanamo Bay, or supports closing the facility and releasing the terrorists held there, they should read this and ask themselves if they really want these people running loose.

But the picture inside Guantanamo is often an ugly one. Some prisoners do all in their power to violate the guards.

“What they do is stuff that you and I would find despicable. They save up their bodily fluid, feces and so on, and then when the guard comes to deliver food, they get a feces cocktail thrown in their face.”

It’s something Zanetti says occurs almost daily, and weighs heavily on the guards, who are tasked with feeding and clothing the prisoners and tending to them when they are sick. Hospital staff get the worst exposure of all from the detainees, he said.

“You ensure that their life is as comfortable as possible while the detainees are trying to make the guards’ life as miserable as possible.”

Those daily doses of hatred are a stark reminder about some of the men locked up inside the camp, including Mohammed, who has claimed responsibility for decapitating Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002.

“We have more than our fair share of Hannibal Lecters around here,” Zanetti said.

The war on terror is kind of a joke,isn’t it, if we’re giving money to companies that promote Jihad and fund Islamic terrorism?

Thomas More Law Center filed suit Monday morning against the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board. Law Center president Richard Thompson is asking the court to halt all bailout funds from going to American International Group, Inc. (AIG). Thompson explains why.

“Because that company has a branch that is controlled by Islamic scholars and who basically support the religion of Islam through Shariah and ultimately finance terrorist activities,” he says.

That gives the government an 80-percent stake in the business, which in part has a religious orientation — which raises constitutional questions, says Thompson. “[I]t also shines a light on serious national security issues that our own government has created by direct financial support and ownership of a business that supports anti-American, radical Islamic activities,” he states in a press release.

According to that release, AIG employs a three-person Shariah Advisory Board in its promotion of Shariah-compliant businesses and insurance products. Dr. Muhammed Imran Ashraf Usmani, the Pakistani member of that board, supports the belief that Muslims in Western countries have an obligation to wage violent jihad against their host country.

While Congress and President Bush are working out a bailout deal for the Auto Industry, the United Auto Workers Union is funding a posh golf course and “education center” that has been losing money for years. Maybe along with caps on CEO salaries, the government should look into making the union give up their money pit country club. American tax payers should not be paying for union greed!

From michellemalkin.com

Black Lake Golf Club is the newest addition to the UAW’s Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center, situated on 1,000 heavily forested acres along the southeast side of Black Lake, one of Michigan’s largest inland lakes near Onaway, Michigan.

Black Lake Golf Club complements the Center’s recreational facilities, which now include a beautiful gym with two full-sized basketball courts, an Olympic-size indoor pool, and exercise and weight room, table-tennis and pool tables, a sauna, beaches, walking and bike trails, softball and soccer fields and a boat launch ramp.

The UAW selected one of golf’s most acclaimed course architects, Rees Jones, to design an environmentally responsible, championship caliber course. It was a challenge eagerly embraced by Jones, Golf World Magazine’s “Architect of the Year” in 1995.

Link

From the DC Examiner

What do UAW executives and workers do to relax? They play golf at the union’s highly touted championship caliber Black Lake Golf Club, designed by Rees Jones. The UAW golf club is in secluded Onaway, MI, as part of the union’s Walter and Mary Reuther Family Education Center. Also part of Black Lake are a learning center, a practice facility with practice bunkers, chipping and putting greens, and a small, nine-hole par-three Little Course.

Golf Digest named Black Lake as one of top “upscale public courses.” And Michigan Golf described the course as a “classic” that includes “wide, well-groomed fairways [that] provide ample room for big hitters.” But some big hitters get special privileges at Black Lake. Tee times can be reserved up to two weeks in advance by UAW execs, compared to only three days for non-UAW duffers. Cost to play Black Lake is $95 per round.

Remember all the much-deserved bad press Detroit’s high-paid Big Three executives received last month when they flew in their corporate jets to beg Washington for a tax-paid bailout? Has anybody in Congress or the media bothered to ask UAW head Ron Gettelfinger about his union’s assets and perks like Black Lake Golf Club?

As head of one of the nation’s most powerful unions, Gettelfinger doesn’t earn nearly as much as Detroit’s top CEOs. GM’s Rick Wagoner, for example, made more than $14 million last year. But Gettelfinger’s total compensation of nearly $160,000 annually far exceeds the U.S. median gross family income of $61,500 and puts him among the top five percent of all tax filers, according to U.S. Census Bureau and IRS data.

And the UAW is anything but poor, with net assets reportedly worth an estimated $1.23 billion. UAW membership has been declining for years, as it has for most major unions, but annual income from member dues, interest and other revenues exceeded $300 million in 2006.

People working for the Salvation Army in the UK have been told not to rattle their tins as they collect money for charity, because it might offend people of other religions, and intimidate them. Maybe the P.C. police should just ban Christians from the public square all together. It’s just about getting that bad, and America is not far behind.

For 130 years they have been part of Christmas, filling the air in towns across the land with music and carols.

But one thing is missing from the repertoire of Salvation Army bands this year - the percussion of rattling tins.

Members have been forbidden to shake their charity tins - even if it’s done in time to the music - in case it harasses or intimidates people. One said she had been told it might also offend other religions.

Guidelines for branches organising public collections say tinholders should simply keep the tin still.

It means that when the brass bands start up they can rock and roll all they want - but if they shake and rattle, it could put them in conflict with the law.

Councils and police can enforce the no-rattle rule and have powers to prosecute or ban offenders. The restriction was branded ‘bonkers’ yesterday both by donors and long-serving Salvation Army volunteers.

Link

Obama escaped any scrutiny during the election for his connections to convicted felon Tony Resko, but the problem may not be going away. It seems the investigation into Governor Blagojevich’s attempted sale of Obama’s Senate seat has brought with it new interest in Resko’s shady real estate deal with the Obamas. Obama surrounded himself with so many sleezy people, including his real estate broker for the Resko deal, who was none other than bleeping Mrs. Blagojevich, wife of the good governor, that one of these relationships is bound to catch up with him. Could it be that Blagojevich is willing to spill the beans on just about anything, if it will get him a plea deal? It’s almost like going through the Clinton years all over again.

Since arresting Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has renewed interest in convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko’s part in the purchase of Barack Obama’s Chicago mansion, according to a former real estate analyst who says he was interviewed by the federal prosecutor in the past 10 days.

Kenneth J. Conner told WND he was interviewed by investigators from Fitzgerald’s office regarding the purchase of the Obama mansion and the adjacent vacant lot that Rezko’s wife, Rita, purchased simultaneously. As WND reported last week, Connor filed a civil complaint in October with the Illinois Circuit Court in Cook County alleging he was fired by Mutual Bank of Harvey, Ill., because he objected to land appraisals submitted on behalf of the Rezkos and the Obamas, with the complicity of the bank.

Connor previously confirmed to WND that he told the FBI, months ago, when he initially was fired, that the bank and the Rezkos were engaged in “fraud, bribes or kickbacks, use whatever term you want,” to benefit the Obamas.

Connor said his lawyer, Glenn R. Gaffney, also has been interviewed by the FBI about the Rezko-Obama deal within the past 10 days.

Read it all

I don’t think just ignoring Obama’s corrupt past is going to work for much longer. The media will have to cover this, or it won’t just be print news going bankrupt.

Barack Obama’s pastor of “G D America” fame is back on the speaking circuit and drawing large crowds of haters who can’t get enough of Wright’s blame America first garbage. Since one of Wright’s favorite rants is to blast Bush for not capturing Osama Bin Laden, I wonder if Wright will attack Obama with the same vitriolic rants when he doesn’t capture him either. One would have to be insane to think Bin Laden hasn’t been captured because Bush was president.

It’s also interesting that we never hear a word from the “freedom from religion” crowd, or the “separation of church and state”, ACLU types when it’s someone like Reverend Wright mixing politics and religion.

As people headed inside St. Paul AME Church in East Macon to hear controversial the Rev. Jeremiah Wright deliver a revival sermon today, a band of nearly 20 people, led by a local radio talk show host, protested the visit.

Wright silently entered the sanctuary during a choir anthem along with other ministers.

He knelt at the altar to pray while the choir finished singing.

Outside of the church, protesters shouted, “Not G.D. America, God Bless America” and “Jeremiah Wright is wrong.”

They tried to warn people going to hear the sermon that Wright preaches hate, not love.

Wright, speaking to about 350 people, delivered a traditional revival sermon based on the story of Jesus healing a blind beggar on his way to Jerico.

It should come as no surprise that Wright also expressed opinions about politics and current events.

Shouting into the microphone, Wright criticized President George W. Bush, the United States’ declaration of war against Iraq and the media.

“American boys and girls are still dying,” Wright said.

He questioned why the military hasn’t been able to find Osama Bin Ladin and the truthfulness of the media and government regarding the war.

“Wake up and smell the oil,” he said.

Wright, a Chicago minister, was President Elect Barack Obama’s preacher before snippets of some of his sermons — including one where he says “God Damn America” for its treatment of black people — became an Internet and national news media sensation.

Full Article

Wright doesn’t worship the God of the Bible. He worships himself and his culture.

We elect a weak on defense, Marxist President, and, right on cue, Russia strengthens relationships with dictators close to America geographically. Liberals loved to chastise President Bush for being too much of a “cowboy”, but there’s something to be said for being feared by your enemies. Everyone knows Obama is a push over who considers a Kumbaya-style diplomacy our best defense. As Obama’s own Vice President warned during the campaign, we will be tested.

A group of Russian warships will from December 19-23 visit the Communist island of Cuba, a long-time adversary of the United States and Moscow’s ally in the Cold War, the Russian navy said on Monday.

“This will be the first visit to Cuba by Russian warships since the Soviet era,” the Russian naval headquarters said in a statement.

The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two other ships will visit Havana in what the navy described as a “significant practical step towards strengthening and developing ties between the two states’ navies.”

Russian ships have been touring countries close to US waters in what is seen as a riposte to Washington’s own moves in Russia’s Soviet-era sphere of influence, including US naval deployments in the Black Sea.

Last month President Dmitry Medvedev visited Cuba on a four-country Latin American tour intended to revive what he called “privileged relations” that existed between Moscow and several Latin American states in the Cold War.

The Russian moves in Central and Latin America follow heightened tensions over this summer’s Russian military onslaught in Georgia, a close US ally in the Caucasus.

The navy also announced the completion of a visit to Nicaragua, during which it delivered aid to the Central American country led by leftist President Daniel Ortega.

Ortega is due to visit Moscow this week.

Full Article

Since the damage has already been done with the passage of the first bailout bill, I think this would be an excellent way to use the billions of dollars the government has left to spend from the bailout. Rather than the government using more of it to buy into businesses and banks, turning us into a socialist country over night, why not give all of us a break from payroll taxes for two months. It would help every working American (even those who don’t pay taxes, satisfying the Dems), and it would greatly help small businesses who could use a shot in the arm during this recession. It would reduce layoffs, help people pay off some debt, and probably get some people buying new cars, thereby helping the auto industry. I’d much rather the government let us keep our money, than take it from us and redistribute it to people they think deserve it more. I would especially prefer this to bailing out the auto industry and rewarding unions for bankrupting their own livelihoods.

Big business bailouts and “economic stimulus packages” are all the rage in the Capitol these days.

Most involve massive transfers of wealth
from taxpayers to government-directed projects.

But a new and very different bill, proposed by a heretofore little-known congressman from Texas, is gaining traction from Republicans – and even a few Democrats, according to the sponsor.

It’s called “the tax
-holiday plan.” And one version of it picked up support from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the nation’s largest small business advocacy organization over the weekend.

“If Congress wants to jumpstart this economy, they need to do something to help small business owners gain confidence that now is a good time to grow their businesses and create new jobs,” said Dan Danner, executive vice president of the NFIB. “Passing a six-month payroll tax holiday would do just that by putting more money in the hands of small business owners to invest
in their business and by giving employees more of their own money to spend wherever they see fit.”

Read it all

The LA Times of all papers - the same paper that withheld a damning audio tape before the election to protect Obama - is now asking the question, “if he has nothing to hide why not just release his office’s contacts with Governor Blagojevich?” Amen. Now ask that same question regarding his long form Birth Certificate and we’ll be getting somehwere. Either the media is growing weary of the bullying threats of the Obama crew, or Obama’s lies and dancing around tough issues is getting too much for the MSM to cover up without looking like obvious idiots. In my opinion, they already do, but if they keep letting Obama get a pass on everything, more news rags are going to be declaring bankruptcy everyday. It’s all quite amusing to watch.

In case you’re wondering about that list President-elect Obama promised a few days ago to release in “a few days” detailing all of his office’s contacts with accused Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich about the vacant U.S. Senate seat, the Republican National Committee would like to fan your doubts.

Saturday, as the governor met with a high-profile Chicago defense attorney, the RNC released a short videotape (see below) detailing some of Obama’s connections to and statements about the governor, who is allegedly on FBI wiretaps trying to sell his nomination to the highest bidder.

Both Obama and U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald have said there’s no evidence of the ex-senator’s involvement in the alleged political auction. And Obama has denied speaking to the governor or his office on the Senate vacancy.

But the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday that Obama’s new White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, did indeed have contacts with the governor’s office, providing a list of replacement nominees acceptable to Obama and then later adding one more.

And, it is believed, those conversations were captured by the FBI wiretaps and bugs.

That does not mean, of course, that Emanuel was involved in any wrongdoing. He’s a close political friend of Blagojevich’s in the clan-filled world of Chicago machine politics and inherited his 5th District House seat from Blagojevich when he became governor in 2002 on a reform platform.

As a representative of the outgoing senator and president-elect and a member of the same party, it would be hard to believe Emanuel or someone did not communicate somehow with Blagojevich or his staff.

What’s puzzled some people and raised suspicions among others is Emanuel’s refusal to talk about it (reportedly physically pushing one reporter’s tape recorder away and having a verbal altercation with another) and the delay on Obama’s part in releasing the promised diary of contacts.

From a practical point of view, if everything is above board, what’s to hide?

You’ve hit on something there LA Times. There IS something to hide. There always is, with Barack Obama. It’s called Chicago politics.

We’re living in scary and sad times as Christians. Palin was targeted by the media, and viciously attacked by the left because of her religion. And now, an arsonist has set her church in Alaska on fire, causing an estimated one million dollars in damage. The hatred in this country is out of control, and if you look at the news with an honest eye, that hatred is coming from one direction. The Left! Now watch as the MSM gives this story a fraction of the coverage it would have gotten if it were Reverend Wright’s church that was burned down.

Gov. Sarah Palin’s home church was badly damaged by arson, leading the governor to apologize if the fire was connected to “undeserved negative attention” from her failed campaign as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Damage to the Wasilla Bible Church was estimated at $1 million, authorities said Saturday. No one was injured in the fire, which was set Friday night while a handful of people, including two children, were inside, according to Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele.

He said the blaze was being investigated as an arson but didn’t know of any recent threats to the church. Authorities didn’t know whether Palin’s connection to the church was relevant to the fire, Steele said.

“It’s hard to say at this point. Everything is just speculation,” he said. “We have no information on intent or motive.”

Steele would not comment on the means used to set the fire.

Pastor Larry Kroon declined to say whether the church had received any recent threats.

“There are so many variables,” he said. “I don’t want to comment in that direction.”

Read more here and here.

The ACLU in Missouri is apposing a school policy that dared to treat the Bible the same way it treats all other books and literature, secular and religious. Sadly, a District Court agreed that censorship remains unconstitutional, except in the case of the Bible. Koran’s are okay for children to read in school, as are other religious texts and secular reading, but the ACLU wants to single out the Bible because, as the District Court says, “‘Bibles are different’ from other forms of religious Literature’”. I would love to hear this court explain how the Christian Bible is different than any other religious book, and how the constitution supports discriminating against one religion, while allowing others.

“How ironic that in America, until recent times, the Bible formed the basis of education, and now its mere presence is radioactive in the opinion of some judges,” he said. “The Founders never envisioned such open hostility toward the Christian religion as we see today in some venues. To single out the Bible alone for discriminatory treatment harkens back to the Dark Ages. America deserves better. Our Constitution should be respected, not disregarded.”

Staver told WND that a decision is not expected to be announced for about two months.

He said the lower court’s ban targets only the Bible.

“The Quran is OK, and other kinds of religious texts; just not the Bible. The Bible alone is impermissible in the public school,” he said.

WND reported earlier when a brief was filed with the federal appeals court.

Among the groups that have distributed material at the school are the Army Corps of Engineers, Red Cross, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Iron County Health Department, Missouri Water Patrol, Missouri Highland Healthcare and Union Pacific Railroad, officials said.

“The ACLU might not like the fact that equal access also means equal treatment for religious speech, but the Constitution requires equal treatment. The First Amendment protects private religious viewpoints. Hecklers may heckle but they may not veto private religious speech. … Religious viewpoints have Constitutional protection,” Staver said.

The minutes from board meetings noted the board president “explained to the board at this point, we are an open forum and any group can request to enter our school and distribute materials – atheists, communists, gay rights, etc.” The minutes note the board members acknowledged the policy.

However, Perry banned the district “from distributing or allowing distribution of Bibles to elementary school children on school property at any time during the school day.”

“The district court
also opined that ‘Bibles are different’ from other forms of religious literature,” Liberty Counsel said.

The Gideons, a group founded in the late 1800s, have as their “sole purpose” the goal “to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life.”

Gideons have placed the Bible in 181 nations in 82 different languages over the years.

Read the whole article HERE.

Too many Christians in this country are in denial about the growing hostility toward Christianity in this country. This kind of blatant view-point discrimination should be causing outrage among parents, the public, and the nation. Unfortunately, I think too many Christians are willing to accept defeat, give up their constitutionally protected freedoms, and hide in their churches and private schools. We could actually take a lesson from liberals on this. Gays are an extreme minority in this country, yet they make sure they are heard, and often drown out the majority. We can do the same if we act together, and we need not use the bully tactics of the left. We can start by convincing our friends and relatives that the threat to our freedoms is real. Make sure they know about things like this. Take advantage of free Christian legal organizations like the ACLJ, and fight back when someone tries to deny you, or your children their right to free speech, or tell you when and where you can read your Bible. Don’t let your teachers, employers, etc. get away with it, and don’t let them convince you that you’re intolerant or evil for demanding the same rights they do. We are as much to blame as the Christian haters, if we continue to let them label us and intimidate us.

How many people will this scandal touch, or take out? It looks like Jesse Jr. may be in deeper than he’s been claiming. The report at least links Jr.’s brother to the deals. It’d be interesting to know whether Sr. has retained a lawyer.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. flatly denies that he and his brother were involved in a scheme to get him a Senate seat in a deal with scandal-tainted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (bluh-GOY’-uh-vich).

The remarks in an interview with The Associated Press Friday came on the heels of a Chicago Tribune report that cited unidentified sources. The newspaper said businessmen with ties to the governor and congressmen discussed raising $1 million for Blagojevich to get him to appoint Jackson to the Senate. The report depicts Jackson’s brother as an active participant.

The congressman said “to an absolute certainty” that his brother was not involved in any scheming or wrongdoing.

Jackson has been identified as “Senate Candidate 5″ in a federal complaint. The governor is overheard saying the candidate would raise $500,000 for Blagojevich, and an emissary would raise an additional $1 million.

Link

You’ll remember during the campaign, Obama promised a civilian security force that would be larger and more well funded than our military. His Chief of Staff Emanuel in answer to the question, “will we have to do 50 push-ups”, said, “Yes”. Obama’s website once contained information on this force, and a plan to require all middle school and college students to serve in this new force. That language has been removed, after blogs created an uproar over his plan to draft children into service to The One. But, his plan is still being worked on, and a new Department of Defense “support of civilian authorities” plan published last week gives us a glimpse into just how much power Obama plans to give this new civilian military.

This is serious folks. This new plan would give civilian authorities the power to use the military in civilian situations where even the possibility of trouble exists. The military could be used to prevent environmental damage according to the report, or to prevent damage or injuries at special events. The wording is just vague enough to allow the military’s use for just about anything. While police forces exist to SERVE the people and stop criminal acts when they occur, this new force would be used to PREVENT people from doing things, such as causing environmental damage, and would have a “manager” that would tell the American people what to do, rather than responding to what we need from them. That means the military will be authorized to detain people before they’ve even done anything wrong. Am I the only one who has a huge problem with this?

Also, I seem to remember liberals screaming that we couldn’t put troops on the border because the Constitution prohibits the use of our military on American soil, against the American people. I guess liberals are no longer concerned about that constitutional limit to the use of the military.

Read more at Worldnet Daily. Below is a snippet from their article:

The newly proposed Department of Defense rules leave a virtually wide open door for what could be cited as a reason for military intervention.

It defines “Imminently Serious Conditions” as “Emergency conditions in which, in the judgment of a military commander or responsible DoD civilian official, immediate and possibly serious danger threatens the public and prompt action is needed to save lives, to safeguard public health or safety, or to prevent or mitigate great property or environmental damage.”

Repeatedly the rules cite “special events.”

“Special event support to non-governmental organizations is a DSCA activity,” it states under policy issues.

That, Titus contemplated, could even be a Democratic National Convention in Denver.

He said it’s important to keep the foundations of the nation in mind and that many of the principals of justice and government for America were derived from the pulpits of the 1700s.

“If you go back and look at Romans 13, the civil government was authorized to punish evil doing, not to prevent it from happening,” Titus said.

The new proposal specifically states it applies to a “potential or actual domestic crisis” and even confirms that conditions not always will allow “prior authority” before “action is necessary for effective response.”

“All this is really designed to do is legitimize by rule essentially a broader discretionary power,” Titus said.

It also reverses the role of the boss, he said, because of the repeated references to a situation “manager.”

“It’s the image that’s being created. A manager. You’re supposed to do what the manager tells you. Contrast that with civil authorities who are our servants. They’re supposed to do what we want them to do,” he said.

Udate: Here is a link to the Federal Register. Lo