Troops Quartered in America

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 according to Pentagon officials. The justification for the combat troops is said to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe.

There are, and should be, strenuous opponents to this plan from both the left, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the right, the libertarian Cato Institute. Both ends of the political spectrum should be alarmed by this unwarranted expansion of executive authority.

The Constitution was written with the intention of having civilians in control of the military, not the other way around. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 12 placed a two-year limit on spending for the army as a measure to insure civilian control of the military.

This tradition persisted throughout American history.

Any new law alters the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to limit the president’s power to deploy troops within the United States. That law has long allowed the president to mobilize troops only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”

Along these lines, the Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces except when they are impressed into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.

The National Defense Act of 1916 made each State's militia (volunteer army) a part of the National Guard. Each State's National Guard is under the command of that State's governor; but Congress has given the President the power to call those units into federal service under exceptional circumstances, such as during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, when necessary (Article 1, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16). I also read the 3rd Amendment, the quartering of troops amongst civilians, as another indication that the Founders were wary about having combat troops amongst the general populace. The U.S. has had a long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace.

The unprecedented nature of the 20,000 troops combat troops should be clear. Troops returning from urban warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan are being re-deployed in America.

The question is why?

There is no insurrection currently and the National Guard along with law enforcement agencies have traditionally provided security. Why does the U.S. government feel compelled to place so many combat troops in the general population?

Domestic deployment appears to be an expansion in presidential and military authority. Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.

The troops are here already. The first reaction force is built around the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, which returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations, aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination, bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics. The troops are on a one-year domestic mission.

Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.

Since 1 October 2008, the US Army announced that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), as an on-call federal response force for natural or man-made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.

This marks the first time an active U.S. Army unit will be given a dedicated assignment to NORTHCOM, where it is stated they may be "called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) attack." These soldiers will also learn how to use non-lethal weapons designed to "subdue unruly or dangerous individuals" without killing them, and also includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and beanbag bullets. However, the "non-lethal crowd control package [...] is intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S.

Uh huh.

Even government officials are noting the extreme measures. Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response--a nearly sevenfold increase in five years--"would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," stated Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense. Even McHale stated that this was "a fundamental change in military culture."

The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.

Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.

In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents."

In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces.

Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat--pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively.

Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, seemingly now retained by The Elect, ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.

Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and training.

Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time.

Is it happening to America?

"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman, and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland."

Adolph Hitler

How GPS Works

GPS works by using the 29 satellites orbiting the Earth 12,000 miles up. Five of them are redundant. The U.S. military began launching them in 1978, and it took until 1994 to get the required 24 in orbit which was enough to calculate a position anywhere in the world. These 2,000- to 4,000-pound satellites are 17 feet wide. They traverse six separate orbits with each orbit having four satellites chasing one another.

The satellites are positioned so that any ground-based GPS receiver can always receive data from at least four of them. A master control station in Colorado Springs and five unstaffed monitor stations around the world track each satellite's orbit precisely. The controls are correcting in that if a satellite is out of position, they command its booster rockets to nudge it back on track.

Using a 50-watt radio transmitter each orbiting GPS satellite continuously broadcasts signals containing a pseudorandom code that provides its identity and position and the time maintained by an atomic clock. An accurate data location requires at least three satellites and incrementally four is much better, and six or seven provide even more accurate results. A GPS receiver uses relatively simple geometric calculations to determine its own latitude, longitude, and altitude. By comparing successive readings as compared with time, it can also calculate ground speed and direction.

Errors persist since many people have noticed that GPS data is never totally accurate. Radio waves travel at the speed of light or 186,000 miles/second. And in a vacuum, the Earth's atmosphere slows waves down. Further delays occur when signals bounce off intervening obstacles such as buildings, elevated geography, and trees. Until 2000, the public GPS was purposely made less accurate because GPS was originally designed for military use and the U.S. government didn't want enemy forces to possess better position information. Thus, the U.S. military introduced deliberate errors into the system. This process resulted in GPS calculations that could be off by 100 meters.

Differential GPS (DGPS) now corrects for measurement errors by comparing the GPS positions recorded at designated reference stations with the accurately known positions (determined through careful surveys) of those stations. The improved calculations result in accuracy within a yard or two.

Worried About the Elect's Stress Tic? Foreign Policy Decline Imminent

As the recent Barbara Walter's interview illustrated, The Elect has a discernable spasm under his right eye. As the middle-aged smoker that he is, it would have been fortuitous if he had released his medical records so that the American people would know what his health problems are. However, the tic is an indication that the stress of the transition has begun to wear on him.

The Elect is leading the U.S. down a treacherous foreign policy path by deciding on Clinton. As the U.S. unipolar strength is receding the international world is transitioning to a multipolar situation per the NIC. Foreign policy will be dysfunctionally multilateralist as the U.S. is now committed to international interests. This provides a vulnerability to foreign entities who may inject their agenda into U.S. national interests. This increasing dependency is a high risk strategy for the American people. Clinton will only be able to obtain international agreements without validating the assumptions of U.S. recovery and linking U.S. national interests. International interests will begin to predominate foreign policy discussions and will likely end up controlling our economy and negatively impacting our national security. Russia has forged such an agreement with Europe because of its energy intimidation. Russia has already begun to move in Venuzuela.

In addition, the U.S. foreign policy will not recover from it's original economic status using The Elect's domestic recovery plan involving the building of bridges, roads, the renovation of schools, and promoting green energy. The Elect will need to discover that government projects do not create revenue, they deplete it.

The Almost Elect Needs to Remember the Promise You Made

In the `you can fool some of the people some of the time' department, comes a statement

that suggests that `you can't fool all the people all the time.' Cf. Edited song: "Remember the Promise," by Cock Robin

Sign the petition for the public release of Barack Hussein Obama's birth certificate at: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81550

Get informed:

The natural born citizen site has been censored for political reasons and has been a victim of cyber attacks. I wonder why.

A general summary of the controversy can be found at an Oklahoma newspaper site.

Another site, Atlas Shrugs, has updated information although they too have been censored, by Google. After breaking information on the site, and readers questioned Google, hits dropped to zero.

Google employees donated quite a bit to The Elect's campaign: $487,355.

Finally, Google CEO Eric Schmidt might well be occupying the newly-formed tech adviser position to The Elect. Obama created this position just shortly before visiting the Google headquarters during his campaign.

Atlas was helpful for me as well; I found out that Google censored my site but ensuring that my blog does not appear in searches.

There is a service called, Google Ranking Diagnostics, that helps bloggers self-diagnose their website.

The self-diagnosing revealed that Google has applied a non-searching feature:

"Please note that this page is using NOINDEX, NOARCHIVE, NOFOLLOW to prevent it from being indexed."

There is no violation of the Terms of Service, the usual explanation for censoring, it is simply political.

The Hillbuzz site has updated information that includes an open letter to The Elect that will run in Chicago.

The Freedom March site features interviews with the principals.

The People's Passions site is contacting the Electors for action.

Mainstream Media Picks Up Eligibility Issue Story

A number of factual errors exist Pete Williams' article but at least it is a signal that the mainstream media is picking up the question of The Elect's ineligibility to be president since he is not a natural born citizen.

Note on Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus

This is a well-written brief review of the accepted textual problems found in the New Testament. The book was written to assist laypeople in their understanding of how the textual tradition of the NT has been modified over time. None of it is really controversial yet as Ehrman explains there are no books which attempt to explain academic pursuits in regards to the reliability of the NT text. He explains that as a devout young person he innocently believed that the words of the text were inerrant however as an academic he began to understand that we did not have the actual words of Scripture. His academic interests led him to more fully understand the complexity of the transmission and he faithfully surveys the history of scholarship regarding the textual tradition. Along the way he demonstrates how specific Scriptural passages are not well attested, or have been modified for theological reasons or for the sake of clarity.

"His Will Be Done"

The Elect Messiah is inspiring songs of praise: "His Will Be Done."

The Elect's Cronies Advocate End of Natural Born Citizen Requirement: Curious

Who is it that is trying to amend the natural born citizen requirement? Sarah P. Herlihy is advocating an amendment because the requirement is seen as an obstacle to globalization. Ms. Herlihy is employed by Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The law firm is based in Chicago. Indeed, one of the partners, Bruce I. Ettelson, P.C., is a Member of finance committees of U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Richard Durbin (temID=7845, viewed towards the bottom of the page). In addition, Jack S. Levin, P.C., is another partner who was presented the "Illinois Venture Capital Association's lifetime achievement award for service to the private equity/venture capital community" by none other than The Elect.

Grandma States The Elect Was Born in Kenya

The audio of a telephone conversation with Sarah Hussein Obama, with the transcript following along with the audio, where she says she was there when Obama was born, is available to hear.

The introduction and the full tape is available as well.

The Elect's Salvation Interview

In an interview in 1995, The Elect seemed to make little sense while he was working out his salvation and divided America into groups. Some will have things taken away, and others will be given things: redistribution.

Unfolding Mumbai Story

Click image to view an interactive graphic showing the attacks in Mumbai. Created by The New York Times.

I would think it is about time that the civilized world would begin to organize against the terrorists.

The Elect Messiah Flip Flops On Change, Again

"Understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost," Obama said. "It comes from me. That's my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going, and to make sure, then, that my team is implementing."

In his consistent double-talk the Elect Messiah tapped more no-change appointments, as he has reliably done, in appointing more old Washington cronies-—former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, as a top economic adviser-—and he is prepared to name his former rival, Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state next week.

Promising change, The Elect has raised questions about how much he can deliver on that promise given the long list of beltway insiders he's named, or signaled that he will name, to run his government. This is business as usual:

—Former Clinton White House adviser Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff.

—Former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as chairman of the National Economic Council .

—Former Clinton lawyer Greg Craig as White House counsel.

—Former Treasury Department official and current New York Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary.

—Former Clinton Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder as attorney general.

Others may not have been in the Clinton administration but offer the same Washington cronyism. Volcker was Federal Reserve Chairman during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Tom Daschle, The Elect's apparent choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former Senate majority leader who voted to commit troops to Iraq.

Consider this nonsenical comment: The Elect noted that Volcker "hasn't been in Washington for quite some time. And that's part of the reason he can provide a fresh perspective." I see; if he leaves for a while he comes back with fresh ideas. That makes no sense whatsoever.

The Elect stated: "The last Democratic administration that we had was the Clinton administration. And so it would be surprising if I selected a Treasury secretary who had had no connection with the last Democratic administration. Because that would mean that the person had no experience in Washington whatsoever." The lack of experience sounds like The Elect himself. The lack of qualifications did not stop him from running.

The Elect stressed that, "what we are going to do is combine experience with fresh thinking." Right, ok, that is exactly what his opponent offered.

"What we don't want to do is get caught up in a spiral where people pull back from the economy, businesses then pull back, jobs are reduced and we get into a downward spiral." Right, he might as well say the fundamentals of the economy are strong. Wait, that is what his opponent said as well.

This is a guy who is a total puff piece. He has nothing of substance to say.

Terrorists Continue Rampage

Mumbai attacks continue, death toll stands at 160, and at least 327 injured.

The Elect Lies About Kennedy Connection

The Elect traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother. Or, so he says. One problem with this account is: it is a lie.

Contrary to The Elect's claims the Kennedy family didn't fund a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father.

The Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960.

An Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, acknowledged that the senator spoke in error.

Although the airlift occurred before Kennedy became president, Obama said that Kennedy was involved.

What actually happened though is less dramatic. A Kenyan nationalist leader, Tom Mboya, traveled to the United States in 1959 and 1960 to persuade thousands of Americans to support his efforts to educate a new African elite.

Mboya raised money for Obama Sr.

Stephen Plotkin, an archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, said a search of the records did not turn up any evidence that the Kennedys supported the airlift.

Gitmo Sobering Records

Records of the High-Value operatives incarcerated at Gitmo make for sobering reading and listening. I would hope these ne'r do wells remain sequestered and they throw away the keys. If these individuals are ever released they will continue their delayed jihad, the type of actions that Mombai is experiencing currently. I talked to an Indian employee at Subway's, he would not have released the enemy combatants at Gitmo: common sense.

India, Mumbai Hit Again

Graphic source: BBC News, from Microsoft

There are only early reports so far but terrorists have targeted numerous targets in Mumbai.

Al-Shabaab: American Jihad Site

Al-Shabaab, an Islamist group in Somalia, produced the first American jihadist who has been convicted. Their goal is to recruit more jihadists. The estimated number of visits for www.kataaib.net 5,037 visits is per day.

For any one who would like to protest housing jihadist sites in the U.S. the following information should be helpful.

Al-Shabaab in Somalia is Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab's website http://kataaib.net/shuhadada%2028-01-2008.html
Dotster web hosting; DOTSTER INC
8100 NE Parkway Dr #300
Vancouver, WA 98662, USA
Abuse: abuse@dotster.com
legal@dotster.com
Phone 1-360-449-5985 or 1-360-449-5900

West, Strongest Tribe

Bing West seems to have written one of the better accounts of the Iraqi conflict.

In The Strongest Tribe, he summarizes the mistakes made by the U.S. government and the incredible turnaround worked out by the American military. Most of this story in unknown and unappreciated as the American people lost interest in the service of their sisters and brothers, and the American mainstream media failed to accurately report the news.

Bing West was assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs under President Ronald Reagan. He served in the Marine infantry in Vietnam. Later, as an analyst at the RAND Corporation, he wrote the Vietnam classic The Village, that war colleges use as a primer in counterinsurgency. As a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, West has covered the war for five years. His books on Iraq - No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah and The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the United States Marines (co-authored with MajGen Ray Smith)–have won the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award for nonfiction, the Colby Award for military nonfiction, and the Veteran of Foreign Wars Media Award. West is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; his articles appear in The New York Times, The Wall St. Journal, and other major newspapers. He appears on National Public Radio and The Newshour with Jim Lehrer.

Deputy WH Press Secretary Avoids the Bait

Today's press briefing by Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto ended without him taking the bait and answering questions regarding The Elect's birth certificate.

Lester Kinsolving:

Q: Good. The CEO of WorldNetDaily has called on the President-elect to release a birth certificate listing the hospital and names of parents. The White House believes that this would fully satisfy the constitutional requirement, don't you?

MR. FRATTO: I don't think I have anything to say on that, Lester, and I think we're going to end it right there.

Fratto did not have an answer and the briefing ended at that point.

Summary of Analyzing The Elect's Forged Certificate

Because of threats to his safety the actual identity of "Dr. Ron Polarik" is not revealed but he does provide a summary of analyzing The Elect's Certificate of Live Birth. He has written his research in a longer essay as well.

SCOTUS Set to Consider Donofrio: 5 Dec. 2008

A graphic of the Leo Donofrio petition states the Supreme Court is set to discuss The Elect's eligibility on 5 December 2009.

Learning From Enemies

In what looks to be a propaganda video recently narrated by al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri, The Elect is mocked taunted for not being a leader like Malcolm X. Yet, he is identified as "son of a Muslim father."

The stark contrast is the side-by-side images of Obama being guided by an orthodox Jew to the Kotel in Jerusalem with the Muslim prayer of Malcolm X. al-Zawahiri appears to be chiding The Elect as a direct contrast to Malcolm juxtaposing the "house negro" and the "field negro." Al-Zawahiri seems to be alluding to the murky origins of The Elect and one that seems designed to probe The Elect's psyche.

Al-Zawahiri obviously identifies The Elect as a Muslim: "you pray the prayers of Jews and claim to be a Christian to climb the rungs of leadership in America."

Zawahiri seems to be calling on The Elect as a covert Muslim who should return to his roots and his higher calling, a black nationalist as Malcolm X.

Foreign Policy Lists the Ten Worst FP Ideas of The Elect

The prestigious journal Foreign Policy recently listed the ten worst FP ideas of The Elect.

Cf. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4461&print=1

The Elect is in Good Company

The Elect is thick as thieves with the company he keeps.

The Elect Beering Fruit

This Elect's beer is for you!

The Elect as Internationalist

At the very least, can we not agree that

foreign influence in the latest election is the most that we have ever seen?

Kenya To Erect Monument for the Birthplace of Obama

WRIF Michigan Radio Talk Show, Mike in the Morning, asked about a marker to be put up at Obama's birthplace. The Kenyan Ambassador, His Excellency Peter Ogego, states that a marker to the birthplace of Obama is planned.

Government To Bail Out The Elect's Sharia Compliant Bank: Citi

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are discussing how to save Citigroup. One option being considered is taking some of the risky assets held by Citigroup off its balance sheet, a move that would give the company more breathing room and put it in a better position to raise capital.

Citi donated to The Elect's presidential campaign and is Sharia-compliant.

The Elect Promises Everything to Everybody

In his second gaffe with foreign leaders The Elect promised Afghan President Hamid Karzai that the United States would send more aid and pay more attention to his war-torn country. Later of course, The Elect's aides declined to confirm that their discussion had included specific promises. Isn't the facade is a bit too thin, twice in a row, to separate world leaders geographically dispered? First he made promises to Poland, which were later rescinded, and now to Afghanistan as well. The Elect is promising everything to everybody privately and then denying it in public.

Elect Exploits Net to Censor Americans

The Elect's shameless exploitation of the Net continues today as Obama does not allow comments, or annotations, on his YouTube statements. This is a dangerous precedent which needlessly censors democratic interactivity by participants.

The statement is a one-way message. You can not comment, interact, or object to anything presented. This is Big Brother.

Oppose this anti-Internet, anti-freedom politician by registering your objection at change.gov.

Rep. Sherman States Congress Threatened With Martial Law by Obama-Bush Gang

Representative Brad Sherman (D-California) reported live on C-SPAN that members of the House were told if they did not vote for the bailout bill martial law would be declared in the U.S. This bill was rammed down the throats of our Representatives and the people.

Representative Michael Burgess (R-Texas) confirmed the same point.

Martin's Case Dismissed

The Hawai'i Court blocked the release of Obama's birth certificate. Andy Martin's case was dismissed and he will most likely appeal to the next highest court. It is a strange day in this country when a person whose name and nationality is a mystery and a simple request to release an original birth certificate is ignored.

This is a simple twist of fate. Judge Bert Ayabe upheld arguments from Governor Linda Lingle's administration that Martin had no standing under state law to obtain a copy of the document. Ayabe ruled that Martin provided "insufficient evidence to indicate that the public interest supports" release of the record. Yet, state Health Department director Dr. Chiyome Fukino has stated that her office has been barraged by requests for copies of the birth certificate.

So which is it? Is there public interest or not? Inquiring minds want to know. The Hawaiian officials are doing some double-talking.

Martin Denied Standing for Obama Certificate

Judge Bert Ayabe, Circuit Court judge, upheld arguments from Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle's administration that Andy Martin, an attorney, had no standing under state law to obtain a copy of Obama's Hawai'i birth certificate. I understand the issue of standing but if citizens do not have standing then who does?

Media Ban on Negative Obama Images

This is strange; once I had found all of one negative, smoking picture of Obama, I wondered how many photos like that had found themselves on the net. And, after searching a bit, I only found one more picture posted with Obama smoking. You mean to tell me that with all the paparazzi and politicos around, only two pictures have been taken during a media blitzed political campaign with a smoker, smoking? The web has nothing but positive images of Obama. As the Beatles sang, "Nothing is real, nothing to get upset about."

In fact, upon searching for negative images of Obama, I found more negative pictures posted of McCain and Palen. There were, of course, some posters and political

statements about Obama commenting on his politics.

Or, there were negative posters about the Democrats, or,

negative political statements about Obama,

but every image or photograph available about Obama is heroic, positive, presidential, or statesman's-like. It is as if there is a media ban on rational discussion, or ordinary discourse about Obama.

Note on Bittle, Where Does The Money Go?

The authors do not readily identify Treasury securities which are government bonds issued by the United States Department of the Treasury through the Bureau of the Public Debt. They are the debt financing instruments of the U.S. Federal government, and they are often referred to simply as Treasuries or Treasurys.

Alarmingly, the Chinese now hold the second highest total of bonds, not far behind our close ally Japan.

Major Foreign Holders Of Treasury Securities
(in billions of dollars)
Holdings At End Of Period:
Aug 2008
Japan
585.9
China, Mainland
541.0

If China decided to bank elsewhere and take their money out of the U.S., our economy would be in an even more precarious position.

Since 1970, the U.S. has operated under a deficit. In 31 of the past 35 years we have spent more than we have taken in. This is unsustainable. There are really only three options to fix the problem: raise taxes, nibble at the deficit, which the authors show is easier said than done and will not address the $9 trillion debt, or, balance the budget. In short, we can not afford our politicians who have acted so irresponsibly.

Fixing the deficit issue is difficult. A standard mantra is stop government waste, which is admirable, but this is not enough. Another tactic might be to heavily tax the "sin" taxes areas: drugs, cigarettes, etc., but the writers show also that this is an area that only effects 3% of the budget which is only make a slight dent in the problem. Even seemingly good ideas backfire which the authors demonstrate with the yacht tax. The idea was to just heavily tax yacht owners which seems like an idea that would only harm the wealthy. Unwittingly though, the little person was hurt as well. There are many more people who repair boats, sell them, maintain them and generally keep the industry as a whole afloat. They were harmed as well in the yacht tax. The federal budget is more of a conundrum that is ordinarily thought.

One good example is to examine how when even less popular or controversial programs are cut the problem remains. If all spending for the arts, space, foreign aid, and welfare were cut, only 4.08% of the federal budget would be effected. Even making deep cuts won't substantially address the budget problem.

How about bringing the troops home from Iraq? Will that work? Nope, sorry that is no solution either (p. 94). Bush moved the war funding from supplemental to the regular budget, but ending war funding won't close the deficit. The move only helped the funding become more transparent.

Another looming issue is the non-feasibility of continuing Social Security and Medicare. Until now, the programs have been pay-as-you-go arrangements which worked, until now (p. 97). The politicians had their hands in the pockets of working Americans since the money raised through these payments appeared to be a trust fund for Americans. However, the politicians treated the funds as free for the taking and they borrowed those funds to use. As boomers retire, money was available, but as more retire the question will be is there enough to pay the later retirees (p. 104). The illustrative graphs make it clearer just how severe the problem is (p. 105).

The only way out is to cut programs, raise taxes, or borrow more.

The politicians who attempted to level with the American people, even bipartisan stabs at the issue, failed. Gore considered the "lock box" notion a try to hold funds in reserve, and Bush as governor of Texas tried something along the same lines, but they were mocked by comedians and the ideas were abandoned.

By 2040, according to the authors, we will only have three seriously bad choices (p. 107).

They end the work on a more positive note but for the budget ideas to take hold they will need politicians who are honest, serious, and upfront about cutting the budget. I am more pessimistic about our chances.

Times Publishes Current Intelligence Assessment

Source: Cf. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/world/21intel.html?_r=1&ref=world

Global Forecast by American Intelligence Expects Al Qaeda’s Appeal to Falter

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: November 20, 2008

WASHINGTON — A new study of the global future by American intelligence agencies suggests that Al Qaeda could soon be on the decline, having alienated Muslim supporters with indiscriminate killing and inattention to the practical problems of poverty, unemployment and education.

While not contradicting intelligence assessments suggesting that Al Qaeda remains a major threat with a strong presence in the tribal areas of Pakistan, the report says that the group “may decay sooner” than many experts have assumed because of severe weaknesses: “unachievable strategic objectives, inability to attract broad-based support and self-destructive actions.”

“The appeal of terrorism is waning,” said Mathew J. Burrows, head of long-range analysis in the office of the director of national intelligence and a lead author of “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World.” Mr. Burrows said polls and anecdotal evidence strongly suggested disillusionment among Muslims with Al Qaeda and its methods and goals since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The predicted decline of Al Qaeda is one of the few bright spots in the generally gloomy report, which describes a decline in the United States’ world dominance as China, India and other powers assert themselves.

“Although the United States is likely to remain the single most powerful actor, the United States’ relative strength — even in the military realm — will decline and U.S. leverage will become more constrained,” the report said.

By 2025, it predicted, “the U.S. will find itself as one of a number of important actors on the world stage,” playing “a prominent role in global events” but not a decisive one as in the past.

The report said the global shift from West to East in terms of wealth and economic power “is without precedent in modern history.” Of a projected population increase of 1.2 billion worldwide by 2025, Western countries would account for only 3 percent, it said.

“We’re projecting a multipolar world,” C. Thomas Fingar, chairman of the National Intelligence Council and the government’s top intelligence analyst, said Thursday at a briefing on the report. “The unipolar moment is over, or certainly will be over by 2025.”

The previous report in the Global Trends series, completed in 2004, anticipated continued American dominance through 2020, though it recognized that the emergence of China and India as powers would transform the geopolitical landscape.

The new report describes a world riven by increased conflict over scarce food and water supplies and threatened by so-called rogue states and terrorists, widening gaps between rich and poor and an uneven impact of global warming. It said the chance of the use of nuclear weapons, while remaining “very low,” would rise in the next two decades as nuclear technology spreads.

The report said Russia’s emergence as a world power was “clouded” by persistent corruption and lagging investment in its critical energy industry. It also noted, without naming a specific country, that a government in Eastern Europe “could be effectively taken over and run by organized crime.”

Mr. Fingar acknowledged that the report, in the works for months, did not fully reflect the severity of the global economic crisis. But he said intelligence officials chose not to delay the report, judging that the long-term impact of the economic downturn would not be clear for months.

The Global Trends reports are produced every four years by the National Intelligence Council, which represents all 16 American intelligence agencies, in part to inform long-term thinking by new administrations. The reports project various possible sequences of events in the future; the new publication notes, between dire forecasts, that “bad outcomes are not inevitable.”

Even if Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups gradually lose support, the remaining violent extremists may have access to increasingly lethal technology, including biological weapons, the report found.

The comments on Al Qaeda’s future are based in part on the work of David C. Rapoport, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied the cycles of terrorist activity in the past, including those associated with anarchism, Marxism and nationalism.

The report said the global Islamic terrorist movement was likely to outlast Al Qaeda itself, with other groups likely to emerge and supplant it. But it expects a future of frustration and attrition for Al Qaeda, which Osama bin Laden built during the 1990s.

The intelligence agencies noted that Al Qaeda had focused almost exclusively on terrorism, a contrast with groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, which have transformed themselves into political movements.

“Al Qaeda has not achieved broad support in the Islamic world,” the report said. “Its harsh pan-Islamist ideology and policies appeal only to a tiny minority of Muslims.”

The Elect to Outsource More American Jobs

The Elect's top gun to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, has been a strong advocate of increasing H-1B visas, a position that means more foreign IT workers can fill jobs that otherwise would go to Americans. Napolitano has urged an increasing for the H-1B visa cap to address what she has argued is a shortage of skilled workers. In September 2007, Napolitano was one of 12 governors who sent a letter to congressional leaders stating:

"Until we are able to address this workforce shortage, we must recognize that foreign talent has a role to play in our ability to keep companies located in our state and country; and therefore, need to ensure the increase availability of temporary H-1B visas and permanent residency visas (green cards)."

The governors urged hiring more foreign talent rather than Americans.

Napolitano "is as rabid a supporter of H-1B as you are likely to find," said Rob Sanchez of Chandler, Ariz., a software engineer who publishes the Job Destruction Newsletter, which is focused on technology-related labor issues.

"Napolitano has publicly and repeatedly called for major H-1B expansion," said Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and author of Outsourcing America, and "in that respect she is no friend of American IT workers."

The Elect is recruiting an administration that has forcefully advocated for increasing the use of foreign tech workers. The recession has not blunted that advocacy.

The major benefactor in the increase of visas are of course the companies based in the U.S. that benefit from hiring cheap labor.

The major contributors to The Elect's campaign include Google, Microsoft, and IBM.

Supremes Get Serious

Cf. SUPREME COURT PRACTICE, 8th Edition, the ultimate SCOTUS resource.

As reported on earlier here, the Leo C. Donofrio suit may have legal legs to stand on. The Supreme Court has taken an extraordinary expedited action in fast tracking the New Jersey Citizen's suit challenging the presidential election.

It is unclear whether the stay application has now been accepted in lieu of a more formal full petition for certiorari (and/or mandamus or prohibition). It would be unusual if this was the case since it is rare but it was used in Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 at 98 (2000):

"The court ordered all manual recounts to begin at once. Governor Bush and Richard Cheney, Republican Candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency, filed an emergency application for a stay of this mandate. On December 9, we granted the application, treated the application as a petition for a writ of certiorari, and granted certiorari." (Emphasis added.)

The case has certainly been "DISTRIBUTED for Conference", a process usually reserved for full petitions of certiorari. Stays are usually dealt with in a different manner.

The stay application was originally denied by Justice Souter but under Rule 22.4, Donofrio renewed it to Justice Thomas who did not deny it.

A renewed application is rare.

Justice Thomas has referred the case to the full court.

That much is clear from looking at the docket.

In any case, although it is unclear whether the full court has set this for Conference, or Justice Thomas has done it on his own, the action signifies an affirmative action inside the US Supreme Court testifying to the serious issues raised by this law suit.

Mission Failed

You can fool some of the people, some of the time, but you can't fool all the young people

all the time.

Bishops Warn The Elect

BISHOPS WARN OBAMA ON ABORTION; CATHOLIC LEFT REBUKED

November 12, 2008

In a statement released today, Francis Cardinal George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, made it clear that the bishops will fight any expansion of abortion rights that may occur under the next administration. Specifically, the bishops are objecting to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a bill so sweeping and draconian that it would not only repeal every single state restriction on abortion, it would seriously jeopardize the right of Catholic hospitals and doctors to opt out of performing abortions.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue released the following remarks:

“Cardinal George is right to label FOCA ‘an evil law that would further divide the country.’ At stake are two issues: a) the rights of the unborn and, b) religious liberty.

“First, those who admit that abortion should be rare unwittingly acknowledge that there is a reason to limit its frequency: as Cardinal George said, ‘abortion kills.’ By contrast, no one maintains that root canals should be rare, and that is because this medical procedure—unlike abortion—does not result in the total denial of someone else’s rights.

“Second, religious liberty is enshrined in the First Amendment and cannot be trespassed upon lightly, and certainly not by abortion zealots. Those who support FOCA must realize that if Catholic hospitals are ever required to perform abortions, the bishops will close every one of them; no one would be hurt more than the poor.

“Cardinal George explicitly rejected the ‘common good’ mantra of the Catholic Left that justifies legal abortion while pursuing ameliorative social policies that may reduce abortions. At stake, he said, is the ‘legal protection of the unborn,’ something which is rejected by Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholic Democrats. We hope they amend their ways and fall in line with Catholic thought on this grave matter. If they do not, they will become indistinguishable from Catholics for Choice, a fully discredited organization.”

Cf. http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1515

2004 Dems Cover Up Problems Leading to Economic Crisis

C-SPAN coverage from 2004 reveals clearly that the Democrats were aware of and dismissed allegations that the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scams crisis would harm the country.

My Favorite Photo of The Elect

Zawahiri Blasts The Elect for Abandoning Islam

In a new video AQ promises to heap injury on The Elect as someone who has abandoned Islam.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda deputy, stated:

"You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America."

The Elect was not an "honourable black American" like Malcolm X, he said, but an "abeed al-beit," a house slave or a "house negro" in the message's English subtitles.

Telepresence (Read Free) Alternatives

In the challenged confines of SMBs no one should question that full-on teleconferencing with big screens showing life-size images are preferable but if these are not are there any options? In other words, are there free alternatives?

It turns out that there are options.

High-resolution video teleconferencing is available from Ekiga. Another possibility is to be found in shared whiteboards by Access Grid. And, last but not least is a 3-D graphics virtual world teleconferencing option from OpenSim.

Obama Birth Controversy Solved: The Elect Was Born in 1776

With the blogosphere controversy around The Elect swirling, I decided to settle the matter once and for all. The Elect must have been born in 1776 along with our Founders as dual citizens of the British Empire and America. Obama was born in Kenya, or Hawaii, or Jupiter or somewhere but it really does not matter. His father was a British citizen thus the Elect has dual citizenship.

And, what does the Constitution say about the issue? The Founders allowed for their eligibility to be President, but naturally they did not want subsequent generations to be governed by a Commander In Chief with dual or split loyalties to foreign powers. The Founders grandfathered themselves in for eligibility. But they would be turning over in their graves knowing that an individual with dual or split international loyalties succeeded them. We had a Revolution for liberty; we had a Revolution for America. Unless The Elect can produce a valid birth certificate verifying he should be grandfathered in as the Founders were I believe we have a coup on our hands. We should return to demanding a government of laws and not of men.

Sharia Compliant Citi Losing 52,000 Employees

Sharia compliant Citigroup is staggering under the loss of losing 52,000 employees over the next few months, the largest reduction by a company since IBM's layoffs of 60,000 employees in 1993, and the 50,000 cuts by Sears that same year. Citigroup's latest round comes on top of the 17,000 cuts that the company has already made. Unless Citi has a Savior in Washington, D.C. Citi seems done for.

Attorney General Nod, Bananas, and Dead Civilians

In a recent report Human Rights Watch recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice end the ties between the Colombian government and paramilitary death squads. Little information will flow now that Eric Holder has relinquished his weighty law practice at Covington & Burling in favor of the U.S. Attorney General nod. Holder has a conflict of interest since he is a defense lawyer for Chiquita Brands in which Colombian plaintiffs seek damages for the murders carried out by the AUC paramilitaries, a terrorist organization. Chiquita has already admitted in a criminal case that it paid the AUC around $1.7 million in a 7-year period and that it provided the AUC with a cache of machine guns as well.

In the Clinton Administration, Holder helped to negotiate Chiquita's plea bargaining with the Justice Department in the criminal case against Chiquita. Subsequently, no Chiquita official received jail time. Moreover, the identity of the key corporoate officials involved in the shenanigans are sealed.

Mario Iguaran, the Attorney General of Colombia, is on record noting that Chiquita's payments to the AUC paramilitaries led to the murder of 4000 civilians.

Memo to the Elect

Here is a memo to the Elect.

As Japan Is, Could Iraq Become?

In the we can all dream department comes a statement from the head of al-Anbar Sahwa (Awakening) council, Abu Resha, who said that it is now the time for Iraq to become a strategic ally of the U.S. Resha added:

“President Bush and other U.S. officials confirmed to me during my last visit to Washington DC that they want to pull out troops from Iraq, after it becomes strong, free and immune to external interventions, especially from Syria and Iran.”

If it were possible to dream, Iraq could become in the Middle East what Japan became in East Asia: a formerly occupied nation, defeated in war, yet developed into a prosperous, balanced economy, and a strategic ally and military power in the region.

Obama Marines Back Up Bush on AFRICOM

Marine Corps Forces Africa, the Marine component of AFRICOM, is now officially activated. The primary focus of the new command will be on engagement through bringing U.S. Marine Corps competencies to the table in support of U.S. Africa Command. AFRICOM, which was first announced by Bush in February 2007, activated on Oct. 1 of this year, was formed in recognition of Africa’s growing strategic value. Previously, responsibilities for military activities on the continent were divided among U.S European Command, U.S. Central Command, and U.S. Pacific Command. Under the new administration, Bush's plan, originally proposed by Donald Rumsfield, will continue.

Candidate Obama: No Lobbyists; Elect Obama: Hires Lobbyists

"I am running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won't work in my White House."

Candidate Barack Obama

Today, after the election, the Elect has now chosen lobbyists to be a part of the Obama administration.

The Elect has 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day that are former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as lobbyists this year. A great deal more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence.

Henry Rivera, a former Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communication Commission who was involved in planning for the agency’s transition, has dropped out of that role because he had represented clients on communications policy in the last year.

Instead, Rivera is now on the team handling science, technology, space and the arts since the Elect's rules permit people who have lobbied in one area to join an Obama transition team in another. Jim Kohlenberger will assist, he is an executive director of an advocacy group for Internet companies.

Some appointees work in areas where they have recently lobbied.

An Interior Department appointee is Keith Harper, who lobbied earlier this year for Native American tribes.

A Consumer Products Safety Commission is Pamela Gilbert, a former executive director of the agency who recently lobbied for a consumer advocacy group. She has lobbied for the company Barr Laboratories, for an investor group, and for an antitrust enforcement group.

In the Justice Department and civil rights areas is Theodore Shaw, a litigator for an arm of the N.A.A.C.P.

David J. Hayes, part of the areas of energy and natural resources, is the chairman of the environmental practice at the law and lobbying firm Latham & Watkins. He was personally registered as a lobbyist as recently as 2006, for clients including San Diego Gas and Electric.

Sally Katzen, another member of the supervisory group, was registered last year to lobby for the pharmaceutical company Amgen on Medicare reimbursements.

Louisa Terrell, a third member, is on leave from the public policy office of the Internet company Yahoo!

Tom Wheeler, a fourth member, is on leave from a firm that invests in technology companies and before 2004 lobbied for the cable television and wireless industries.

John L. White, a former Clinton official charged with overseeing the new Defense Department, is a partner in a firm that invests in defense contractors.

Michael Warren, charged with overseeing Treasury, is chief operating officer of a firm that lobbies for clients including the U.S.-India Business Council.

Warren became chief operating officer of Stonebridge and has now become a major contributor to the transition in the pivotal areas of the Treasury Department and economic policy. Although not a registered lobbyist, Mr. Warren helped manage Stonebridge while it lobbied the government for clients including the U.S.-India Business Council within the last year as well as Dynergy International, Airbus, and Conoco in earlier years.

Several of the officials have ties to the Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage firm whose implosion this fall contributed to the financial meltdown.

These officials include: Thomas Donilon, overseeing the State Department, is a partner in the law and lobbying firm O’Melveny and Myers who until three years ago lobbied for Fannie Mae. Wendy R. Sherman, also reviewing the State Department, once headed Fannie Mae’s charitable foundation. And James Johnson, a former top officer of Fannie Mae, is on the economics and international trade team, charged with reviewing the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

Christopher Lu, the transition’s executive director may have a conflict in that his wife, Kathryn Thomson, is a lawyer who represents corporate clients dealing with federal environmental regulations, while his older brother, Curtis Lu, is a top lawyer for Fannie Mae.

The vast majority of the lobbyists that the Elect picked are second-tier officials of the Clinton administration, who left during Bush's administration to work in the private sector, usually exploiting the connections they developed in the Clinton years.

Some of these officials cuurently are employed at firms that do business with the agencies they are examining. John O. Brennan, a former Central Intelligence Agency official, is president and chief executive of the Analysis Corporation, an intelligence contractor.

On the NASA review board, Lori Garver is now president of a strategic consulting company, Capital Space LLC, and previously worked for the aerospace company DFI International.

Among the officials charged with reviewing the Securities and Exchange Commission, likely to be scrutinized amid the financial meltdown, is Mozelle Thompson, who runs a legal and policy consulting business for publicly traded companies including Facebook.com.

The Elect has also chosen Jami Miscik, now reviewing American intelligence agencies, was the head of intelligence analysis at the CIA during its biggest mistake: about Iraq’s WMD. Thereafter she become a senior official managing risks in emerging markets for the investment bank Lehman Brothers, until its collapse this fall.

It is business as usual in Washington where the rhetoric never meets the reality.

Elect's Washington Times Ad

This full-page ad regarding the questions about Obama's birth certificate appeared today in the Washington Times National Weekly (Monday November 17th edition).

Elect's Video Birth Controversy Summary

A video summary of Obama's birth certificate forgery in included here.

Polar Bears Hungry Enough to Eat: One Another

Scientists claim Arctic polar bears are so hungry they are eating other bears.

Try here:

According to research and data pins, the polar warming is blamed on humans.

Catholics Urged to Repent for Elect Vote

A Greenville, South Carolina priest has asked his parishioners to repent for voting:

voting for the Elect that is.

Clinton Funds Problematic

Bill Clinton's post-presidential foundation funding, which may be problematic for Hillary Clinton to be named Secretary of State, includes members of the Saudi royal family, the king of Morocco, a fund connected to the United Arab Emirates, the governments of Kuwait and Qatar, as well as ties to international business figures connected to human rights abuses that his wife has outwardly criticized, including the governments of Kazakhstan and China.

China Denies Afghan Role

China denied the possibility of sending troops to join in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested China engage in the ISAF in Afghanistan. "Except the United Nations' (UN) peace-keeping operations approved by the UN Security Council, China never sends troops abroad. The media reports about China sending troops to participate in the ISAF in Afghanistan are groundless," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang stated.

Pakistani AQ Terrorist Unfit for Trial

Aafia Siddiqui, 36, is "not currently competent to proceed as a result of her mental disease, which renders her unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her," U.S. District Judge Richard Berman stated while reporting the results of the psychiatric evaluation.

Siddiqui is suspected of links to al Qaeda and charged with trying to kill American interrogators in Afghanistan. A subsequent hearing on Wednesday will include the possible use of medication to treat her.

Siddiqui, educated at MIT as a U.S.-trained neuroscientist, was detained for questioning in a governor's office in Afghanistan's Ghazni province. She grabbed a U.S. warrant officer's rifle and fired it at the interrogation team, which included two FBI agents. The warrant officer then shot her with his pistol. She was brought to the United States to face charges of attempted murder and assault.

Siddiqui, a practicing Muslim, refused to submit to a strip search or cooperate with prison doctors. Afghan police found documents in her handbag on making explosives, excerpts from the book "Anarchist's Arsenal" and descriptions of New York City landmarks. Since being on the run for five years, in 2004, the FBI called Siddiqui an "al Qaeda operative and facilitator who posed a clear and present danger to America."

Pakistani parliamentarians said she should be released and repatriated to Pakistan.

Time Promotes the Savior

In the primaries he was compared favorably with JFK, until it became obvious he was no JFK, now, before he is inaugurated even, Time is comparing him with FDR. Since Farrakhan has already dubbed the Elect the Messiah, he will soon be elevated to at least sainthood, or he will be considered our Savior.

This is not a bad deal for Time Warner; they only donated $508,148 to Obama's campaign, a cheap price to pay for the publicity of praise.

Berg Interview on the Election Fraud

An short summary of the Philip Berg case against Obama, and his failure to produce evidence of citizenship,

is instructive.

Muslims Back Hussein

Muslims back Hussein. The American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT) released a poll indicating that 89% of American Muslim voters picked Obama over McCain who garnished only 2% of Muslim respondents. This is also the highest American Muslim voter turnout ever reported.

Alan Keyes Files Suit in Cali Against Usurper Obama

Alan Keyes, former presidential candidate, a political activist, and media commentator, filed a lawsuit in California and warns that America may have a 'usurper' in Oval Office unless something is done to stop him. The suit calls on the California secretary of state to prevent the state's 55 Electoral College votes from being cast in the 2008 presidential election until President-elect Barack Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. There is no definitive proof that Obama is an American.

Kilcullen on Afghanistan

David Kilcullen, former Australian army officer and anthropology Ph.D, who has advised the American, British, and Australian governments, was one of General Petraeus’s strategic thinkers regarding the Iraq surge; Kilcullen is now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

In a recent statement in the New Yorker he addressed four main areas of concern in Afghanistan which I quote here:

we are being both out-fought and out-governed for four basic reasons:

(1) We have failed to secure the Afghan people. That is, we have failed to deliver them a well-founded feeling of security. Our failing lies as much in providing human security—economic and social wellbeing, law and order, trust in institutions and hope for the future—as in protection from the Taliban, narco-traffickers, and terrorists. In particular, we have spent too much effort chasing and attacking an elusive enemy who has nothing he needs to defend—and so can always run away to fight another day—and too little effort in securing the people where they sleep. (And doing this would not take nearly as many extra troops as some people think, but rather a different focus of operations).

(2) We have failed to deal with the Pakistani sanctuary that forms the political base and operational support system for the Taliban, and which creates a protective cocoon (abetted by the fecklessness or complicity of some elements in Pakistan) around senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.

(3) The Afghan government has not delivered legitimate, good governance to Afghans at the local level—with the emphasis on good governance. In some areas, we have left a vacuum that the Taliban has filled, in other areas some of the Afghan government’s own representatives have been seen as inefficient, corrupt, or exploitative.

(4) Neither we nor the Afghans are organized, staffed, or resourced to do these three things (secure the people, deal with the safe haven, and govern legitimately and well at the local level)—partly because of poor coalition management, partly because of the strategic distraction and resource scarcity caused by Iraq, and partly because, to date, we have given only episodic attention to the war.

So, bottom line—we need to do better, but we also need a rethink in some key areas starting with security and governance.

Cf. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2008/11/kilcullen-on-af.html

Arabs Already Asking for Money From the Elect

"The League of Arab States should take an increased role and be recruited to provide some services in exchange for increased foreign aid development in education and health-care arenas for their impoverished people."

Arsalan Iftikhar, an international human rights lawyer, founder of www.TheMuslimGuy.com, and contributing editor for Islamica Magazine in Washington.

Arabs are already asking Americans for money; the Elect is expected to respond.

The Cost of Havoc: AQ's Price of Terror

The price of terror

Terrorism, as one Treasury official noted, is “not a rich man’s sport.”

An analysis of some of the most notable attacks show that al-Qaida and others it has inspired have spent between $5,000 and $500,000 to carry out the attacks. Although the numbers in most cases is an approximation—and may not include all costs, such as training—they serve as an indicator of how little is needed to get the world’s attention.

Michael Sheehan, the former counterterrorism director for the New York Police Department, says the department has long been guided by a “4 x 10” rule – “10 men + 10 weeks + $10,000 = 10,000-pound bomb.”

This summary bears out the rule.

— 1993 – World Trade Center, New York – approximately $31,000 to cover the costs of bomb components, rentals of the garage used to assemble the bomb and storage lockers for components, telephone calls to and from the Middle East, and plane tickets for travel to and from the United States. Six dead.

— 1998 – U.S Embassy Attacks, Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania – less than $50,000 on bomb parts, rooms at a seedy downtown hotel, where the bombing was planned, and on an expensive suburban villa where the bomb was put together as well as satellite phones and laptops. 241 dead.

— 2000 – USS Cole, Aden, Yemen -- $5,000 to $10,000 to cover the cost of explosives, and inflatable boats as well as a camera to record the event. 17 dead.

— 2001 – September 11 attacks, New York and Washington -- $400,000 to $500,000 spent primarily for flight training, travel, and living expenses (such as housing, food, cars, and auto insurance). 2,975 dead.

— 2002 – Nightclub bombings, Bali, Indonesia -- $75,000 to $80,000 spent on explosives and living expenses for the bombers as well as for vehicles used to transport the bombs. Al-Qaida provided the bulk of the funding. 202 dead.

— 2003 – Attacks on two Jewish synagogues, British consulate and HSBC banking offices, Istanbul, Turkey -- $50,000 again spent primarily on the bomb and bombers, but also on vehicles and training suicide bombers. Also financed primarily by al-Qaida’s central operations. 57 dead.

— 2004 – Commuter train bombings, Madrid -- $10,000 mainly to purchase bomb components, rent safe houses and purchase cell phone detonators. 191 dead.

— 2005 – Underground Attacks, London – No more than $14,000, mostly for bomb components as well as travel and training. 53 dead.

Sources: United Nations, Central Intelligence Agency, US Department of Justice, 9-11 Commission.

Cf. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27644191/

Note on Microsoft China Research

A review of mine, marking the 10th anniversary of Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), will be published.

Another American Terrorist Arrested

An American, Tarek Mehanna, lied to the FBI two years ago during a legitimate terrorism investigation. Mehanna, who has a doctorate from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, was arrested as he was about to flee the country to start a new job in Saudi Arabia. Mehanna was questioned about the whereabouts and activities of Daniel J. Maldonado, a former trainee of an Al Qaeda terrorist camp dedicated to overthrow the Somali government. Maldonado was captured while on the lam and a cooperating witness secretly recorded conversations with Mehanna, who worried about lying to the FBI, according to the affidavit. Maldonado was arrested in January 2007 as he fled Somalia. He became the first US citizen charged with participating in terrorist activities in Somalia. Last year, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston to receiving training at a terrorist camp in Somalia alongside Al Qaeda members. He admitted training to use firearms and explosives as part of an effort to help a group called the Islamic Courts Union overthrow the Somali government and install an Islamic state. Maldonado is serving a 10-year prison term.

Catholic Church Drops ACORN Funding

November 12th, 2008
Catholic Church drops ACORN funding

By Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston
CNN Special Investigations Unit

(CNN) — The Roman Catholic Church is cutting off funds to the community organizing group ACORN, citing complaints about its voter registration drives in the November 4 election as part of the reason.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development froze contributions to ACORN, the Association of Community Organizing Groups for Reform Now, in June after the group revealed one of its founders had embezzled nearly $1 million from the group. This week, as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met in Baltimore, Maryland, the campaign’s chairman said it was cutting all ties with the group.

The CCHD has donated more than $7.3 million to ACORN-related projects over the past decade, including $40,000 to an ACORN chapter in Las Vegas, Nevada, that was raided before the election in an investigation into fraudulent voter registration forms. Among other questionable documents, the ACORN chapter submitted registration forms for members of the Dallas Cowboys football team.

Cf. http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/

Our Next Entangling Alliance

The Founders warned us about getting involved and trying to slay the world's monsters and Americans followed this wisdom for years. In more recent times however we have forgotten this simple admonition because of the pulling at our heartstrings or a favored project or two.

The next entangling alliance that will snag the Elect's administration is most likely to arise from Africa. In one of numerous wrong-headed moves former Secretary of Defense Rumsfield committed us to Africom and the Elect is not likely to disband the extension of an American sphere of influence.

Not surprisingly human rights groups are already clamoring for the Elect to get involved in an area that has no payback for Americans, but a great deal of potential blowback from, in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, where government forces have waged a bloody war against militias that some international critics have characterized as genocide. Either this fiasco or one very similar will plague us during the Elect's administration.

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir has agreed to al cease-fire with rebels, which could give the U.S. an opening if we would be foolish enough to take the bait.

Darfur activist John Prendergast's ENOUGH organization is a project of the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank run by Obama's transition co-chairman, John Podesta.

During the presidential campaign, Obama called the crisis in Darfur "a collective stain on our national and human conscience" and said he would make ending it a priority on "day one."

That sounds like a commitment to me; we are doomed to repeat mistakes of getting involved in the region as before.

There is no legitimate American interest, safety, or concern in the region.

We can do simple things that do not further entangle us in other people's issue. The Elect's administration can strengthen the current arms embargo and continue to support investigations by the International Criminal Court into war crimes by al-Bashir, leading Sudanese officials and certain members of rebel groups. Other than lead a moral effort, our duty is done to the region.

The primary responsibility should be borne by China, which has vast oil interests in Sudan. Other than unnecessarily provoking the Chinese Americans do not need the additional burden of Darfur.

New FDR?

How did FDR get us out of the Great Depression? He put people to work.

Will this happen again? I doubt it.

Americans Okay One-Party Rule

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey 59% of those questioned think that Democratic control of both the executive and legislative branches will be good for the country, with 38% saying that such one-party control will be bad.

Paul, Congress, and A Little Common Sense

"Since the new alignment of political power offers no real change, we will remain on the same track without even a pretense of slowing the growth of government. With the new administration we can expect things to go from bad to worse."

From time to time we hear some common sense from Congress and this is one such example. Ron Paul has noted publicly what readers have seen on this blog. The change candidate offers no change.

The Republicans strayed so far from their core values that they must earn back the trust of the American people. The Republicans were given power and instead of acting in a fiscally responsible manner they spent as much as if they were Democrats. According to Paul the core values include:

• Limited government power

• A balanced budget

• Personal liberty

• Strict adherence to the Constitution

• Sound money

• A strong defense while avoiding all undeclared wars

• No nation-building and no policing the world

The Republic will not be restored in the next four years but "the need for it will be greater than ever," said Paul.

On a hopeful note Paul added:

In the past two years, I found that when the young people heard the message of liberty, they overwhelmingly responded favorably, fully realizing the failure of the status quo and the need to once again endorse a system of self reliance, personal responsibility, sound money, and a non-interventionist foreign policy while rejecting the cradle-to-grave nanny state all based on the rule of law and the Constitution.

The alternative development is folly.

Paul said: "The march toward a dictatorial powerful state is now in double time."

Kenya Celebrates Their President

Graphic source: Time

Obama's Kenyan relatives, including his step-grandmother Sarah Obama (center top), party in Kogelo village, Kenya, after celebrating their victory in the U.S. elections. Kenya has reason to be proud of their achievement.

Skeptical German Voice of Reason on the Elect

Up to 8 out of 10 West Europeans would have voted for Obama, which points to a religious rather than political phenomenon. The way they see it, George W. Bush is a one-man axis of evil, and Obama the redeemer: "Deliver us, for thine is the kingdom . . ." Europeans want to love America again, and they imagine that a simple act of exorcism (called "elections") will rid them of the curse. But politics is not about redemption. Obama is not what West Europeans dream he is: polite, social-democratic and pacific. In other words, more European than American. Will the Euroswooners still love Obama when he presses them for more troops in Afghanistan and real sanctions on Iran?

Josef Joffe, Journalist and political scientist

Jimmy Redux

Abysmal former President

has promises from the Elect to pursue his failed foreign policy.

Citi JPMorgan Chase: One Hand Washes the Elect

Two banks will helpfully keep people in their homes. At least, that will be the party line but let us look a bit deeper than that.

Sharia compliant Citi will modify $20 billion in home loans in a new program aimed at homeowners who haven't defaulted yet which could help 130,000 mortgage borrowers stay in their homes. This sounds all well and good.

The news follows similar initiatives announced by other banks. In particular I was interested to discover that JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) was another bank which like Citi heralded an enhanced housing rescue effort. JPMorgan Chase's goal is to rescue 400,000 borrowers.

The Citi (C, Fortune 500) effort, dubbed the Citi Homeownership Assistance Program, targets 500,000 Citi borrowers. CitiMortgages CEO Sanjiv Das said he expects that more than a quarter of these people will seek assistance, with mortgages worth about $20 billion.

For borrowers who have yet to default, Citi will freeze or reduce interest rates, extend the lifetime of the loan, or even reduce the loan principal. This lowering of the interest rate is typical of Islamic financing.

Since the banks do not know how well they can do they will need the cooperation of the government. The bottom line is that the bank programs won't be nearly as effective as any massive foreclosure prevention effort that may yet be implemented by the U.S. government.

And there is a possibility that such a program may yet emerge. Congress already enacted its Hope for Homeowners initiative, which will allow borrowers to refinance their mortgages into loans backed by the Federal Housing Authority. Now there is talk of a new $50 billion plan that could bail out as many as 3 million homeowners.

The selling point is that the bank programs do not cost the taxpayers anything so who could object?

JPMorgan Chase expands their housing rescue plan and will put a moratorium on foreclosures until its new program can be implemented in about 90 days. The bank will hire and train more staff to handle the added caseload that the plan will generate. JP Morgan Chase expects to process 400,000 families who will keep their homes during the next two years by working out $70 billion worth of loans. To handle the challenge, the bank will add 300 new counselors, for a total of 2,500, and opening 24 new regional counseling centers.

In the financial meltdown there are companies that are prospering and adding staff to handle the additional load. To be successful in their endeavor though, they will need the assistance of someone in the government, someone on the inside, someone whose campaign they supported with significant donations.

I am just speculating but I wonder if both Citi and JPMorgan Chase have found their man in Washington D.C.

Actually, both companies were noted in a recent 7 November blog post documenting just how much money they contributed to the President-elect:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. $581,460

JP Morgan Chase & Co is one of the nation’s leading financial services firms, offering commercial and consumer banking and credit services, securities brokering and financial consulting. Through its subsidiary Chase Bank, the company is one of the top consumer credit card issuers in the country. As expected, the firm has lobbied heavily on legislation that would affect the nation’s financial industry, including bankruptcy reform and banking deregulation. In 2002, federal investigators launched a probe into the firm’s relationship with former energy giant Enron. Prior to the energy firm’s collapse, JP Morgan Chase had been one of the company’s biggest financial backers.

Citigroup Inc. $581,216

Citigroup is the world’s second largest financial services firm, with $1 trillion in assets. One of the company’s subsidiaries is brokerage firm Salomon Smith Barney, which has been plagued with lawsuits and government investigations into its financing of bankrupt Enron and ailing WorldCom. In 1998, Citigroup’s lobbying helped repeal a federal law that prevented banks from getting into other businesses, allowing the company to acquire an insurance firm. Citigroup continues to lobby on a number of issues, including financial privacy, bankruptcy reform and terrorism reinsurance.

People can stay in their homes, thanks to the banks, and to their man in Washington, bought and paid for.

Additional Challenge to Election

Another challenge to the latest election has surfaced.