Saudi Arabia Takes Terrorism Seriously - Kind of

Saudi Arabia has moved, albeit slowly, to taking terrorists a wee bit more seriously. 9-11 didn't convince them and they kept up their support of radical mosques which preached hate and called for jihad.

So where has this somewhat perceptible change of heart come from? From violent attacks hitting closer to home. For example, in December 2004, a suicide bomber detonated his car at the Saudi's main counterterrorism training center.

Nothing like hitting close to home to make you say, "Whoa... maybe we should back off being so touchy-feely with Wahhabism. "

So what are the visible changes that the royal ruling family have instituted? Well, they've built up their SWAT teams and increased anti-terrorism training.

In a country of high unemployment, the government finds jobs for those who renounce jihad.

Still, the patience of the jihadists is long. And they have found a warm welcome in Yemen, with whom the Saudis share a long and porous border. They can strike at their leisure, much like the Mexican drug cartels on our own border.

And our government is still turning a blind eye to our border problem. Maybe we share more with the Saudis than first meet the eye.

Coleman and Franken Still Dukin' it Out

The people of Minnesota must be getting plenty tired of the battle between Norm Coleman (R) and Al Franken (D). But it's not up to the citizens any more, it's up to a 3-judge panel.

It used to be the case that we, as citizens of this great nation, elected our leaders. Not so anymore. Our election system has become a fraud to our great shame. But the power of it is that we can at least settle these things legally.

It's not just Minnesota. It's all over the map. Acorn drumming up fake votes for Obama is a great example. And they're being rewarded by a nice slice of economic stimulus pie.

Al Gore lost even after he disallowed all those absentee ballots from our military members serving overseas. Perhaps what we need is a big helping of Patriot Depot.

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, they are still arguing about re-counting ballots, even though according to Newsmax.com as many as 25 precincts counted ballots for Franken twice. Whew! Can you say fraud?

The rumor has it that Franken's eventual goal is to run for governor. Some talking heads contend that all this fighting may count against him when it comes to that goal.

He was never funny on Saturday Night Live, and he's not even remotely amusing now. And by golly, I don't like him.

Obama's Lack of Executive Experience Showing

The fact that both Hillary and Sarah Palin pointed out, and quite correctly, that Barak seriously lacked executive experience was lost on his many disciples. But now, as his swept-under-the-carpet pastor would say, "Obama's chickens have come home to roost!"

Rest assured that this assertion is not made lightly. Barak Obama has come to office as possibly the least qualified candidate in the history of the nation. Not only that, but he still sees the world through the rose-colored eyeglasses of academia.

This is not to say that he can't mature in the ways of the world and the office, but even Joltin' Joe Biden said this is not an on-the-job-training kind of job. There's simply too much power potential involved.

Consider:

• Delivering that pathetic speech to the Iranian people. This is not realistic "reaching out;" what this boils down to is people from that culture seeing a weak and inept leader.

• After condemning President Bush for employing signing statements as an abuse of power, and promising to exercise more restraint when using them he is doing just that himself. His campaign said he would not issue “signing statements that undermine the legislative intent.” But his latest one is used to bypass whistle-blower protections for executive branch officials who give certain information to Congress. That's paranoid behavior and a lack of transparency. Even executive branch officials are civil servants, a fact lost on today's elite class of professional politicians.

• He now laments the fact that he's in a "Washington bubble" and out of contact with the common folk. Mr. Obama, as the highest executive in the land, you don't have time for that; you must use other methods to keep your hand on pulse of the nation. You're not a community organizer any more - deal with it; Get Organized.
  

Yes, I am being critical. I understand that there is a steep learning curve. But I deplore what the president is doing to our country. I'm afraid of the amount of damage he will have done before he matures in office and understands the world as it is. And you should be afraid as well.

Who's Ready for Cap and Trade?

Basically, President Obama is. Why? Because I might be wrong but I doubt that he has to cover the utility bills in the White House.

Now is the time to prepare your home to reduce your electricity and gas bills as much as possible.

Officially, the cap and trade policy (read "energy tax") would only up the national energy cost by $646 billion. But Ernest Istook of the Heritage Foundation estimates that the average American household wil be ponying up an additional 50%.

So what is this policy? In a nutshell, the cap is a government-mandated legal limit on what volume of greenhouse gases that a region can emit each year. Trade means that companies can swap among themselves the permission – or permits – to emit greenhouse gases.

More, when the price of petroleum spikes again, as it will thanks to Venezuela and those lovely Middle Easterners.

I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly swimming in disposable income.

But to compound the future gasoline prices, the United Nations has sent up a trial balloon on an international gasoline tax. They're calling it the "green new deal". Obama has already demonstrated how sweet he is on the UN. It's not a stretch to assume that he will embrace this plan as well.

Jim Tedisco Aims for NY Congressional Seat

Jim Tedisco (R) is battling it out with Scott Murphy (D) for the seat vacated by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D).

He's aiming to harness populist anger over the absurd bonuses ladled out to AIG exectutives. These generous bonuses come straight out of the taxpayer bailout trough. Why these executives should be rewarded for being such unpolished losers boils down to fine print in their contracts.

How much of your tax money have the AIG porkers consumed? Hold on to your hat; the bill comes out to around $170 billion. The bonuses alone account for over $400 million of that sum. Not bad work if you can get it.

One Tedisco YouTube ad points out that Murphy supported the AIG-type bailout bonuses. Murph feins innocence, insisting he supported the bailout but can't be faulted since he didn't read it. Pretty lame, Murph.

I love it when the public supports individuals that can think for themselves. And know how to tie their shoes. Yeah, that's a qualifier too.

Of course, now that he sees that misspending tax money actually bothers voters (imagine that!), he's changed his tune, saying, “One of the first things I’ll do in Congress is block federal bailout beneficiaries like AIG from abusing our taxpayer dollars to pay lavish bonuses, plain and simple. Throughout my career of investing in small businesses, I have regularly placed caps on executive compensation, which is why I am renewing my call to do everything possible to block AIG and others from abusing taxpayer dollars for excessive bonuses on Wall Street.”

Mitt Romney has endorsed Tedisco and Nancy Pelosi is in Murphy's corner. Both endorsers are heavy hitters and the battle is heating up. How important is this election? Very.

Things in Washington under the taskmasters of Obama, Pelosi, and Barney are a partisan as they've ever been and they're spending your money like drunken sailors. We need some balance.

Why GM Failed and Won't Recover

Greed and blinders. Those are the root causes of GM's collapse and why they won't recover. General Motors used to be the largest industrial company in the world.

Gas was cheap, muscle cars were hip, and consumers were buying.

It owned the market. The problem was that it grew so complacent in that role that it couldn't compete with imports like Toyota and Nissan and their efficient production methods. In many cases management was simply in denial.

For example, when Jim Harbour had the audacity to try to warn and explain to his GM superiors why the Japanese production methods were more efficient, management's response was to simply ban him from the company property.

Nothing says great management like holding your hands over your ears and saying, "LA LA LA LA LA."

But if denial was the carpenter that built GM's coffin, the UAW union was the hammer that drove the final nails into the lid.

This is the story of unbridled greed, a lunatic sense of entitlement, and a cowardly management team too scared to stand up to labor bullies.

GM finally realized that to survive after imports ceased to become imports, when they were being built here, they had no option but to become more efficient. This meant fewer, more productive workers as well as new technology.

But the union would have none of that. The workers were entitled. They weren't like the average American citizen. They deserved to be taken care of. So, management caved and created the Job Bank, which is secret union code language for being paid for sitting at home watching Oprah.

Then there's the union's demand for pensions and health care. This is another area where the management surrender monkeys wouldn't and still won't face reality. But why should they? GM can't afford it so now the Obama administration is using taxpayer dollars to fund UAW pensions and health care.

That's right, non-union workers without health care, are funding health care and pensions for union members that, in many cases, make more money per hour than they do.

This is the redistribution of wealth policy that America voted for.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson

Obama May be Tested

During the campaign, many of his supporters compared him to the late President Kennedy. True, they are both superb orators, and we can only hope that is the light in which the reference was made.

And who can forget Jumpin' Joe Biden making the ominous pronouncement (or dramatic prediction) that the messiah would be "tested" early in his administration, and the decisions the president made would not be readily recognized as the correct move.

Both of these observations may be at the point of converging. Who can forget JFK staring down the Soviets, intent on establishing missile bases in Cuba?

Now, the Russians are making nice and playing snuggle-puppy with both Cuba and Venezuela. They've sent up a trial balloon on the possibility of using a military airfield on La Orchila island to park their Russian strategic bombers.

Hugo Chavez is keen on hosting them.

Cuba is also courting the big red bear and is leaving the door open for them to establish a military presence right on America's doorstep.

"This is possible in Cuba," said General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of the Russian air force's strategic aviation staff, to the Interfax-AVN military news agency.

Could this be Barak's JFK moment? The one Jumpin' Joe prophesied for the messiah? We know the reds wouldn't have dared make this move with Bush in office, or even Clinton. But Barak is an acknowledged socialist and they obviously feel some dogmatic kinship with him.


At this point, the president is still somewhat an unknown quantity, given more to nebulous rhetoric than decisive action.

And the fact of the matter is that Russians have never been that way. For better or worse, they are men of action. Sometimes brutal, it's true; but you can count on bold action, even when it's ill-conceived.

If this test is indeed on the horizon, Obama has two choices: fall in line with his marxist belief system, or unlike Michelle, decide he's proud of his country and grow a pair.

Choose wisely.

RINOs Cross the Aisle to Feed at the Trough

Sadly, eight RINOs (Republican In Name Only) embraced the president's drunken-spending $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill.

Why? Why, to add their own pork barrel spending, of course! The bill increases spending on domestic programs by 8% on average and spews out $7.7 billion for a disappointing 8,500 earmarks. Many of these were added by the RINOs because they're "representing" you.

Here's the Earmark Lineup:
RINO, Earmarks, and the Price to you
Thad Cochran, 65, $75,908,475
Roger Wicker, 9, $4,325,000
Chris Bond, 54, $85,691,491
Richard Shelby, 64, $114,484,250
Arlen Specter, 134, $25,320,000
Lisa Murkowski, 71, $74,000,750
Lamar Alexander, 10, $5,402,000
Olympia Snowe, Just went along to get along. Cute.

So, are you feeling the love yet? I'm just wallowing in it.

On 03/04/09 White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "We've seen throughout the past few years that the amount and the number of earmarks in legislation has been cut significantly. The president believes we can do even more and looks forward to working with Congress to ensure that that happens."

Call me terminally myopic, but the only "working with Congress" that I see is Barak wielding a big rubber stamp.

He did say, "This piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business." How, Mr. President? Did you use a different courier service to deliver the bill to your desk? And why did you just sign it quietly, with no fanfare and scant opportunity for press coverage?

Hedging against your declining approval rating among those who saw you as the messiah?

I think we know the answer to that.

American Construction Workers Need Not Apply

That's what the Obama administration and the liberal socialists are effectively saying. When they passed the spending wish-list (stimulus) bill, they sidestepped including E-Verify, a Department of Homeland Security program that allows employers to check social security numbers.

USA Today reports that up to an estimated 300,000 stimulus infrastructure jobs might go to illegal alien construction workers.

Does it get any more abysmally stupid than this? I don't think so. Recall when I blogged about Obama economic adviser Robert Reich saying that none of these jobs should go to educated white male construction workers?

I wasn't joking.

Talk about liberal bloviating. Not only that; it's a sexist, racist, bigoted policy. And I thought the Dems were supposed to be the "inclusive" party.

This is called vote buying, folks. How, you ask? Simple; and you heard it here first: this administration will find a way to allow them to vote in your elections.

It will likely begin with driver's licenses or some other kind of provisional paperwork.

The administration needs to get its head out of the sand. Encouraging these workers by leaving the borders wide open and allowing lawsuits against American landowners on the border who are trying to protect their home's and property ushers in other problems.

Obama's open border pandering policy is also letting in the gangs and drug cartels. The Houston Chronicle reports at least five drug cartel cells operating in Houston already. Barak, Chicago is not that far north. Yo, comrade.

Dems Note: Paranoia will Destroy Ya

First we had that crybaby flap that Rush wanted Obama to fail. He had to clarify by saying that he wanted his policies to fail. This should have been obvious, but not to the libs and their lockstep media pals. Or was it?

Of course it was. Then why did they misconstrue what Rush said? Spin, spin, spin. Link it to their ambitions to impose the fairness doctrine on a free speech, free enterprise society.



But, as the Ginzu knife hawker on TV would say, "But wait! We're not done yet!" The latest installment is brought to us by none other than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“It’s very clear they’ve made a decision they want President Obama to fail,” he told reporters, speaking of Senate Republicans.

And when pressed to answer why he thought that, he cited a number of things on Obama's wish list that they didn't approve of. It's clear that he's yearning for the days when Dems showed so much bipartisan support for President Bush.

And when pressed to identify exactly which Republicans he was referring to, all he would say is, a “number of Republicans.” Very reminiscent of Captain Queeg rolling his ball bearings in his hand and complaining about strawberry theft.

“It’s very clear,” Reid said. “Some have said so, others have acted accordingly.” Rattle, rattle. Put those ball bearings in your pocket, Harry; please.

Want more spin? On Tuesday 3/3/09, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his team sat in hearings trying to defend Obama's $3.6 trillion budget, but the discussion kept getting shifted to the economic meltdown and subsequent (still not done with) bailouts.

In defence of the bailouts, they kept reiterating that they were just trying to clean up the mess left by the Bush administration.

Really? Let's not forget that it was McCain and other Republicans that kept pressing for a reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who precipiated the "mess". But the F&F lobbiests kept spreading the cash to prevent reform. Who was the #2 recipient of all that lobby grease?

Drumroll, please. None other than Barak Obama. In fact, the top three were Democrats. So it seems responsibility for the "mess" belongs arguably to the current administration.

In fairness though, the seed of the matter may be older. After all, it was Clinton administration that created F&F and encouraged them to provide mortgages for Americans that could not afford them.

Economic Crisis on Both Sides of the Pond

The USA isn't the only part of the globe gripped by the throat by the current economic meltdown. In California, already in trouble from poor fiscal practices and handing out taxpayer funded social programs to illegal aliens, now finds 1 out of every 10 residents unemployed.

The proposed method of bailing out the sinking boat is to freeze state income tax refunds. Or in other words, state confiscation. Thinly veiled, granted, by not saying it's a permanent theft, but time will tell.

Meanwhile, on Sunday last there was an emergency summit meeting in Brussels, attended by the leaders of the European Union.

Already, sides are being taken by the wealthier nations vs the poorer. Germany rejected Hungary's plea for a bailout of newer members of the EU.

Hungary's Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, warned of "a new Iron Curtain" destined to divide Europe, although the metal today is gold. Apt comparison, yes?

There's no doubt that the EU is a bold experiment, but now the test begins. A common currency does not make for equal distribution of wealth. Solidarity may be a noble concept, but when the fecal matter hits the fan, human nature tends to dictate self-preservation.

Meanwhile, President Obama continues to send the stock market further in the hole every time he announces more non-stimulus social give-away projects. And Barak and the Mrs. continue to host lavish parties with entertainment provided by the likes of Earth, Wind and Fire.

All this while the average joe struggles to put food on the table. Nero fiddles while Rome burns? Time will tell; time will tell.