Obama's ACORN Plucked Again

Graphic source: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

Another state and not just in Ohio are there instances of voter fraud by Obama supporters in ACORN. A Nevada secretary of state's office spokesman said that investigators are looking for evidence of voter fraud at the office.

Creepy Video Parallels

I am going to have to weigh in on the Obama Children's Chorus which is just creepy. And, if no one sees the parallels, they need to be reminded of what happens when you capture the youth in song.

Ohio Voter Fraud Ongoing

The voter fraud in Ohio continues unabated since observers are being turned away by court order.

Who Is Erratic?

One guy attacks the other for his "erratic leadership." At least one nominee possesses leadership accomplishments, and, the other? In Obama's 1995 book Dreams of My Father, he writes that he was once headed in the direction of a "junkie" and a "pothead. Referring to his emotional struggles as a young man, Obama writes, "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though."

Oh, ok, pot, booze, and blow are fine but the other guy is erratic: just checking.

NIMBY: Muslim Uigher Background

Graphic source: The Long War Journal

If the Uighers, Chinese Muslims, who are facing possible release, enter the U.S. we should be aware of what we are dealing with. The Muslims were captured in terrorist training camps as a fall-out of the search for al Qaeda after 9/11.

The Uighers who may be released are all connected to the most lethal of the Uighur groups to evolve out of the Soviet jihad called the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Their near enemy is obviously China but no one can say for sure they these jihadists don't view the U.S. as the far enemy. The ETIM are international jihadists who share their ideology with al Qaeda and the Taliban. The swath of insurgency from various groups stretched from Western China through Central Asia.

The organization and related Uighur terrorist groups have been designated by the UN as one of the terrorist groups affiliated with the Taliban and al Qaeda; The US Treasury Department and the US Department of Homeland Security have also designated the ETIM a terrorist organization.

The Department of Defense has released unclassified documents produced at Gitmo for the Uighurs thus far incarcerated. The documents were produced during the detainee’s hearings before their Combatant Status Review Tribunals (“CSRT”) and Administrative Review Boards (“ARB”) between 2004 and 2006. All 22 of the Uighurs are alleged to have demonstrable ties to the ETIM and/or its sister organization the Sharq (East) Turkistan Islamic Partiyisa (STIP). All of the detainees were either: (a) identified as members of the ETIM and STIP and/or (b) received training at ETIM facilities and/or (c) resided at ETIM guesthouses or training facilities.

These are not people who should be released into any American's backyard.

Dow Down Again

I've heard the good Senators, as steady as they might claim, have solved the financial crisis. Yet, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 679 points--some 7 percent--again today. Maybe they should suspend the campaign and get to work. The Democrats have had a majority for two years. Yet, they have accomplished nothing.

Age Discrimination in the Presidential Campaign

Graphic source: Wikipedia Commons

With age discrimination so rampant in this presidential campaign it may be instructive to recall how other countries have handled the age issue of their leaders. Golda Meir was 76 when she ended her term as Prime Minister in Israel; French President Charles de Gaulle was 78, and Nelson Mandela as President in South Africa was 80. Mandela also was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

In a `you had to be there' moment from an earlier campaign, when Ronald Reagan was 73 he ran for re-election and in a 1984 televised debate against Walter Mondale, then 56, Reagan quipped: "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I will not hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him." The audience laughed and Reagan won the election.

Ayers Bombing Victim in Public Email

John Murtagh, who said his home was firebombed by the Weather Underground in 1971, has gone public in an email. Murtagh's father was a New York State Supreme Court justice presiding over the trial of members of the Black Panther Party charged in a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores. Murtagh stated: "Barack Obama may have been a child when William Ayers was plotting attacks against U.S. targets -- but I was one of those targets. Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family."

Africom Foreign Policy Blunder: Another Rummy Move

Another foreign policy blunder, the new United States Africa Command (Africom) became fully operational. This is the last major action proposed by former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld intended to support U.S. military and diplomatic initiatives across a huge continent and among an unbelievably complex population. Although there is little in the area that is critical to the security needs of the U.S., not to mention financial difficulties at home, is seems to be the height of folly to overextend our military resources to a new and largely hostile area. I believe that it is only a matter of time before the U.S. gets bogged down again in a Somalia like situation.

Emergency Filing Blocks Release of Terrorist Trainees

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals granted the Bush administration's motion for an emergency stay to prevent the release of seventeen Chinese Uighers found in terrorist camps after 9/11. In an emergency motion filed overnight, Justice Department attorneys said only the executive branch--not the courts--may decide whether to admit an alien into the United States. The government stated the decision to free the detainees "threatens serious harm to the interests of the United States and its citizens by mandating that the government release in the nation's capital 17 individuals who engaged in weapons training at a military training camp."

Chinese Plead for Release from Taliban

Graphic source: Afpax Insider

Two Chinese engineers kidnapped 29 August appeared on a video released by the Taliban. They pleaded for their release.

Call Those Two Running for President

Someone should be informing those guys who are running for President. Interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdel Karim Khalaf said today Iraq was ready to take over security responsibilities from U.S. security forces in Baghdad. Baghdad is now averaging four attacks a day, which according to US statistics was 89 percent less than in 2006, and 83 percent lower than in 2007. A majority of the benchmarks established by Iraq have been met already. It seems fair to state that the picture in Iraq is that any security is tenuous but characterized by clear rubrics.

The candidates are spending quite a bit of time, if they talk about the situation at all, discussing Iraq as if it were 2003. A heads-up Senators, it is 2008.

A Second Attempt at Analyzing the 2nd Debate

The second debate will go to Obama since he is exercising the better strategy. He is running against Bush c. 2003 and he has effectively painted McCain as third term Bush. It matters little what he actually says, since he says very little, and McCain needed a slam dunk to catch up in the polls which will not happen after this last performance.

Obama says that Iraq is wrong-headed and expensive but we were wrong to go there; yet, we should insert ourselves in Africa as a humanitarian gesture to stop human suffering. Moreover, we should enforce a no-fly zone as well. Uhh, Senator, this was the original policy in Iraq. Where have you been?

And, while on the topic of fixing other country's problems, aren't we broke as a nation? Didn't we just bail out Wall Street to the tune of $700 Billion? So, we should not support Iraq, in fact, we should set a timetable and get out because that is what Bush wanted. Yet, we should get out and go elsewhere? We should now go to Africa and extend ourselves there? Uhh, Senator, where have you been? We did this in Somalia, as a humanitarian gesture, and our troops were attacked. We left.

I know the words sound good but a greater grasp of the actual conditions and a review of what the U.S. has already tried would be instructive.

Who Is Qualified?

As an analysis piece of the second Presidential debate, a town hall setting, I would like to explore the question: who is qualified?

1) Break the rules and don't follow the time limits of what you agreed to while the American people are desperately seeking answers to the questions that concern them most;

2) Don't directly answer the questions of those Americans asking the questions.

If you follow number one and two listed above you are not qualified to be the next President. This is my disappointment with the second debate in the town hall round.

Unfortunately, these are the only two viable candidates available but neither McCain nor Obama followed the time rules that their campaigns agreed to nor did either candidate answer the questions they were asked. We know what we are in for: people who break the rules as they see fit and don't have answers to our questions.

At the same time, did you notice the voters? If there ever was a more subdued, concerned, and somber audience at a political event I have not seen it. The body language of the audience members transcended the cold screen of television. And, their revulsion reflects the general mood of Americans. These are dark days for the Republic.

Muslim Chinese Uighurs Terrorists Released in U.S.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina today ordered that seventeen Chinese Uighur Muslims held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison be released into the United States by Friday. It was the first time that a U.S. court has ordered the release of a Guantanamo detainee, and the first time that a foreign national held there has been ordered brought to the United States. This is a landmark ruling paving the way for former enemy combatants to be released into the U.S. Urbina said that "the Constitution prohibits indefinite detention without cause." The group has been released into the custody of Uighur families in Washington.

Churchill Quote

Graphic source: Cotswolds.info.com

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

Sir Winston Churchill

Koranic Training Children: To Die For

Graphic source: AfPax Insider

The Taliban are back at it again and they have reconstituted a Spinkai Ragzai, South Waziristan camp that trains boys seven to fourteen years old to be suicide bombers. A video obtained AfPax Insider shows a camp maintained by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The illustrations show the boys reading from the Quran with an adult Taliban training them. One slide shows a poster board with the words “Killing a Spy” written in English. The Pakistani army destroyed the camp previously and the computers, equipment, and training literature showed graphic details of the training ‘nursery.’ Young boys are seen carrying out executions, a classroom where 10- to 12-year olds are sitting in formations, with a white band of Quranic verses wrapped around their forehead, and there are training videos to show how improvised explosive devices are made and detonated.

The Spinkai camp is one of 157 training camps and more than 400 support locations in the Taliban-controlled tribal areas and in the Northwest Frontier Province.

John Palfrey, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, has co-written two books examining online issues -- Access Denied, which examines global Internet censorship and filtering, and Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. The latter book, published last month, set out to provide "digital immigrants" -- older generations of parents, teachers and others -- with a portrait of "digital natives," who were born after 1980.

Palfrey was asked questions and I posted his answer below:

Which findings in the book were most surprising to you? I didn't find as many young people taking advantage of doing everything they could do with technology. I didn't see the outpouring of creativity I was hoping to see.

I wanted to see that the technology was a gateway to get more young people involved in civic life. I didn't find a huge rush to use these technologies to improve the world. There are examples of incredible social entrepreneurs … but there is not a large-scale rush, which I was hoping to see.

Note on Norman Podhoretz, World War IV

This is a quick and easy read but one to stir up controversy if you follow his argument. There are not many people willing to take a positive view of the neocons, since currently they are regularly lampooned publicly, nor many who would dare say that Bush is right on foreign policy but Podhoretz is one such person who will. The closest analogy to Bush he argues is Truman in 1947 who unpopularly enunciated his Doctrine of containment against the Soviets. Eisenhower although differing in many ways did not alter the Truman Doctrine. Podhoretz argues that the Bush Doctrine of preemptive action against our enemies is correct and will be proven true historically.

U.S. Asks Allies/Euros to Pay for Their Defense

In a move that I've long advocated here the U.S. is asking allies such as Japan and NATO allies who have not sent troops to Afghanistan to pony up with the estimated $17 billion needed to build up the Afghan army.

This request may be a two-tiered NATO alliance that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned against early this year but there is no alternative. The Europeans are going to be hit harder, and most likely before the U.S. next gets attacked by terrorists trained in Afpak camps so they should be willing to pay for their own defense. Gates has been on the frontlines asking U.S. allies to pay for their defense, especially if they are not willing to send troops.

The U.S. has 33,000 troops in Afghanistan. About 22,000 are part of NATO's force of nearly 48,000 troops. The United States contributes the most troops by far among allies, followed by Britain with about 8,000.

The Afghan army plans to double in size to 134,000 soldiers over five years at a cost of $17 billion to $20 billion, according to estimates.