During the Cold War, their was a period of time when detente’ was the policy of the United States and Russia. They kept what was theirs, we kept what was ours, we met and signed treaties every now and then and simply agreed to disagree. The worthless agreements worked on our end because the Doomsday Clock got turned back a few minutes, always good publicity, and they worked on the Soviet’s end because they got to take a break from trying to figure out how to make the missiles fly and the bombs to explode over here instead of over there.

At that time, the premise was that Communism and the Soviet Bloc was here to stay and we would simply have to mind our own business and try not to piss anybody off. Well, maybe we could make our athletes mad when we boycotted the Olympics, but you have to take a stand sometimes, right?

Then along came a guy who did not accept the premise. He called the Soviet Union what it was – an “evil empire” – and believed with all his heart that the Communist system in place was illegitimate and that those who bore the yoke yearned to be free. He did not trust the Soviets, he entered into an arms race that made the left apoplectic, and vowed to dump Communism on the “ash heap of history” by standing up to it, once and for all. He traded weakness for strength and never turned away when people struggled for their freedom. He stood on the free side of the Berlin Wall and told the leader of the empire, simply, to tear it down.

Today the Berlin wall rests in pieces along the corridors of museums, and the man the left called “dangerous” and “insane” is celebrated throughout the former Communist world as the greatest liberator it has ever known. He didn’t accept the premise, and never let the wailing, hatred and thuggery of the left deter him.

Liberalism, just like its big brothers Socialism and Communism, has failed, demonstrably, in every way. Franklin Roosevelt, far from being a hero, simply started a train going toward a cliff five thousand miles away at two miles an hour, and the left has made sure ever since that no one can disembark. The train has now arrived at its inevitable destination, perhaps a little sooner than it should have thanks to Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Yet for some reason we seem still to accept the premise in America – and even in the GOP – that liberalism is simply a legitimate, albeit distasteful, alternative to conservatism instead of the miserable, sickening failure that it is.

Polls tell us not to call it by its name. The media make us cower, then seduce us with promises of fairness only to stab us in the back – again and again. We are told by this President that up us down, losses are gains, and defeat is victory. Just wait, say Boehner and Cantor – we’ll fight when there are more of us up here, without realizing there would be more of them up there if they would just fight.  And we buy into it. Newt Gingrich, for all his well-documented personal failings, doesn’t buy into it. He calls out the media. He lays out the choices before us clearly, as he did in his speech last night. He doesn’t accept the premise. That’s why, against all odds and any sort of reason, he is winning.

My problem with Mitt Romney is that I perceive he will simply tinker around the edges. A cut here, an increase there. A tax break here, a deduction gone there. You keep what’s yours, we’ll keep what’s ours, and let’s just try to get along and not piss anybody off. He’s a nice guy, you know, and loves his family, and being burned in effigy simply won’t do.

As a country, morally and fiscally, we are in the gravest of danger. Our country is splintering, geographically and demographically, by class and race and education and income. Our last chance stands before us in November, and it will be in the form of the GOP nominee. Are we going to put forth a flawed leader who doesn’t accept what has gotten us into the desperate situation we are now in – the only position that will save us – or will Mitt Romney wake up and explain to us that he will not tinker, he will not negotiate, and he will not go along?

Will Mitt Romney explain to us that he does not accept liberalism as a legitimate alternative for America? Will he explain to us that he believes this to his core, and no amount of political or personal hatred from the left will deter him from completely and totally dismantling the edifice that chokes our country and our freedom? Does he truly believe this?

Will he? Does he?

Can he?

We have one.  He mesmerizes his audiences. He wears sunglasses that are cool, his children are beautiful, and he promises that things will be different. He is articulate and charming and forceful and all the things we are looking for. He is Twitter and Google and Facebook and reality TV and the internet and everything new and different and exciting all rolled up into one. His campaign will be flawless and will use every marketing tool and gimmick and ploy under the sun.

He is the miserable failure that is in the White House. His name is Barack Obama.

I don’t need a hero. I need a guy that can throw a strike in Yankee Stadium and stand on the mound like a stone wall while knowing that there might be a rifle trained on him at that very moment. I need a woman who refuses to be cowed by the most vile, sustained personal attacks that could be imagined and still manages to rise every morning to fight the good fight. I need a man who orchestrated a landslide victory in 1994 and wrested power away from a corrupt group of Democrats who had held on to it for decades. I need someone who founded and ran a successful business as a minority, fought cancer and won, and endures the “race traitor” slurs because he knows the man in the White House is not only bad for this country, but bad for his race.

I need an individual who was sharpened by being a Republican in the most liberal area on the planet outside of Europe, and still managed to hold the leftists at bay long enough to bring prosperity to a state who hasn’t had it since. A man who has spent time in business, and turned around things that were left for dead. I need a man who carries a pistol when he walks his dog, and uses it when his dog is attacked. I need someone who is not afraid to talk about Christ, or oil, or prosperity, or the proper role of government in our lives. I need a woman who shows the love of Christ by inviting children into her home, and caring for them until they can find a family of their own. A woman who has been politically successful in a state that also produced the foul Keith Ellison, and is unapologetic in her love of the constitution and this country.

I don’t need some slick teleprompter reader who would see little difference in selling me a Sham-Wow or nationalized health care. I don’t need some damn fool facilitator – in – chief, an articulate hologram. We have one. He is ruining this country. His name is Barack Obama.

When we wait for Reagan to come again, we look as pitiful and foolish as those on the left who pine for the days of the Kennedys and Camelot, and whose hopes rested on a generation that followed who was completely unable to rise to the task.

Give me flawed people. Give me flawed candidates. Give me someone who will fight, and when elected, will cleanse Washington of the trash that has accumulated in every department, every lobbying firm, every street corner and every room of the West Wing. Give me someone who knows the catastrophe that hangs above us, and will do all in their power to deflect it away.

We’ll go to war with who we have. They just need to be who they are.

Rights of the mentally ill have always been a special part of the ACLU’s agenda. In the past, treatment of the mentally ill was brutal and horrific, with the mentally ill confined to cages like animals and treated as subhuman. As research into mental illness gave us insight to the disease, we discovered that brain chemistry has much to do with the more catastrophic illnesses, such as paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Based on that excellent research, drugs have been developed to minimize the symptoms and make these illnesses manageable. That is, if the drugs are taken regularly, as prescribed. If they are not, symptoms can return and can even be made worse.

That’s not quite the way the ACLU sees it, however, and it has taken to the courts to make sure that those diagnosed with mental illness are not forced to take medication. From an ACLU of New Mexico press release:

August 6, 2008

CONTACT: (505) 266-5915 ext. 1003

ALBUQUERQUE— Yesterday, the New Mexico Court of Appeals struck down a city ordinance, affirming an earlier ruling, that would have empowered the city of Albuquerque to forcibly medicate people with mental illnesses. The Assisted Outpatient Treatment Law (AOT) conflicted with state laws that require patient consent before treatment.  This decision is a tremendous victory – upholding civil liberties in New Mexico.

Why did Albuquerque enact this law in the first place? The press release gives us an idea:

Protection and Advocacy System, Inc., the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU), and The Law Offices of Peter Cubra initially sued the City in 2006, alleging that AOT subjects people with mental illness to potentially invasive treatment regimens based upon speculation that they might become dangerous.

By all accounts, speculation that the shooter in Arizona would become dangerous was widespread – and correct. The simple fact is that under the laws of that state, and others, thanks in large part to the ACLU, there was nothing that could be done – including making the shooter take medication or seek treatment. This is what the New Mexico law was trying to address, but in a less coercive form. The requirement was that those who were already receiving mental health services – there have been no reports that the Arizona shooter was under care – would need to continue with treatment and / or drugs. The press release explains:

AOT, also known as Kendra’s Law, grants judges the authority to require people receiving mental health services to take psychiatric drugs, regularly undergo psychiatric treatment, or both. Failure to comply could result in the patient’s being committed to an institution for up to 72 hours.

Why is it called Kendra’s law? From Wikipedia, cross-checked for accuracy through other sources:

In 1999, there was a series of incidents involving individuals with untreated mental illness becoming violent. In two similar assaults in the New York City subway a man diagnosed with schizophrenia pushed a person into the path of an oncoming train. Andrew Goldstein, age 29, while off medicines, pushed Kendra Webdale to her death in front of an oncoming NYC subway train. The law is named after her.

The law was modeled and signed into law in many states, has been challenged, and in both cases has been ruled constitutional. The challenge that was won by the ACLU in New Mexico was because Kendra’s Law conflicted with state law, but it certainly was not the reason given for the initiation of the lawsuit. Remember, the ACLU’s position is that

…AOT subjects people with mental illness to potentially invasive treatment regimens based upon speculation that they might become dangerous.

The reason that more stringent laws mandating involuntary hospitalization or treatment of those with severe mental illness have not been enacted is the real fear of a protracted lawsuit by the ACLU.

The ACLU’s argument is that people should be in charge of their own psychiatric treatment. The Catch-22 is that while off medication, many individuals with certain mental illnesses do not have the capacity to determine their own treatment. That has made no difference to the ACLU, whose lawsuits have been responsible for the mass deinstitutionalizing of the mentally ill, who, without the benefit of therapy and/or medication, regularly turn into the chronically homeless – and sometimes into violent criminals.

Which brings us back to Arizona. I am not a mental health professional. Here is what I believe, however, from simple research. The Arizona shooter was severely mentally ill. His writings, videos and postings indicate that he was convinced that the government was trying to brainwash us all, especially him. It is quite likely that he believes attempting to kill Representative Giffords was an act of self-defense, and that he would have tried to do so regardless of what political party she belonged to or what her stand on the issues were. The shooter was worried about “brainwashing” and being “forced to worship God” by the government – not about immigration or health care.

The debate here is not whether anything from the outside provoked the shooter – anyone who tries to pass off that meme with all that we now know is absolutely and clearly trying to score political points, nothing more. The issue is how far we can go as a society to protect ourselves from people who are clearly mentally ill, and how far the ACLU and the left will go in making sure we can’t.

This is just incredible – from Fox News online:

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore reportedly has had a change of heart on ethanol, telling a conference on green energy in Europe that he only supported tax breaks for the alternative fuel to pander to farmers in his home state of Tennessee and the first-in-the-nation caucuses state of Iowa.

Speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank, Gore said the lobbyists have wrongly kept alive the program he once touted.

“It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation ethanol,” Reuters quoted Gore saying of the U.S. policy that is about to come up for congressional review. “First-generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small.

No kidding. Everyone knew this. It’s just that the conservative who knew it are philistines, and the leftists who are now admitting it are thoughtful and flexible.

Oh, but it gets better.

“One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa
because I was about to run for president,” the wire service reported Gore saying.

I didn’t know this, but now understand why my sodas are so expensive:

Ethanol production this year will reportedly consume 41 percent of the U.S. corn crop and 15 percent of the global corn crop. Last month, the Agriculture Department said corn crop production would fall this year and attributed the decline to the increase in the price of corn.

To be fair:

Reuters reported that Gore had less concern about second-generation ethanol production, which does not compete with food since it uses chemicals or enzymes to extract sugar from fiber in wood, waste or grass.

“I do think second and third generation that don’t compete with food prices will play an increasing role, certainly with aviation fuels,” Gore reportedly said.

Mark that under #too little too late.

And if you weren’t mad enough already, this will send you over the edge. Turns out that Al was not only responsible for inventing the internet, but he was directly responsible for wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on ethanol:

The Media Research Center’s Noel Sheppard noted that as vice president, Gore was the tie-breaking vote in 1994 when the Senate voted to authorize ethanol production. Sheppard said that those who question Gore’s motives behind the climate change movement that landed the former vice president a Nobel prize and Oscar should also look to his comments on ethanol.

“So more than 10 years ago, Gore supported an expensive, ‘not good policy’ because he thought it would help him get elected president. Yet media don’t believe he’d misrepresent the threat of manmade global warming in order to become extremely rich,” Sheppard wrote Monday.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Not.

Now, the election recount has concluded, and the numbers confirm that despite the incredible support we had – and neither candidate getting to 50% – in the end we came up just a little too short.

The combination of the national tide that swept the country, massive amounts of secret corporate cash funding a campaign of distortions, and dirty politics by Washington, DC partisan operatives was just too much to overcome. But what’s done is done.

I congratulate Mrs. Ellmers and wish her well as she prepares to serve the people of North Carolina’s Second District.

What happened, Mr. Etheridge, is that you followed your party off a cliff by voting for health care, and inspired a political novice who is also a nurse to run against you. What happened, Mr. Etheridge, is that your arrogance and jackassery were finally on full display when you manhandled some college kids who dared ask a simple question of you.

You outspent Renee Ellmers 3-1 in this race and had the power of incumbency and a tailor-made district behind you, and you still lost. Your votes in congress caused the tide that you blame for sweeping you out of office, and the country is better off without you.

Goodbye, and good riddance.

I am not making this up. From Fox News online:

Fire officials in California say a fire at a warehouse that stored memorabilia belonging to Neil Young started in a vintage car the singer had converted into a hybrid vehicle.

Belmont-San Carlos Fire Marshal Jim Palisi told the San Mateo County Times the Nov. 9 fire began in Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental and spread to the nearby warehouse in the San Francisco Bay area. Young had converted the car to run on batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator as part of his LincVolt project to create the world’s most efficient full-size vehicle.

Young says workers hope the car’s computer will shed light on what caused the vehicle to go up in flames.

Fire crews were able to save about 70 percent of the warehouse’s contents, including other cars and music equipment belonging to Young.

I wonder how much C02 was released into the atmosphere due to this fire? Looks like someone is going to need to buy some carbon credits. Wait – what are ashes made of…?

This will be a brief diary. I have been by our local early voting station a few times, once to vote and twice to cheer on GOP volunteers who are working the polls. There is barely any room to park, no matter what time of day, and turnout is huge. The problem is that this polling place is 95% Democrat.

Democrat poll workers are aggressive, loud and all over the place. The GOP is not well represented because most of us have jobs we are trying to hold. The GOTV effort among Democrats, especially blacks, is well financed and organized, and is bumping against the border of the law if not striding right across it.

Here is what is important – despite the outright harassment, yelling and violations of the 50′ polling place boundary on a routine and regular basis, the veteran poll worker I had the pleasure of speaking with said this, “I give it as much as I take it, but I do it in a nice way. The voters can tell, and they are turned off by bullies. I am nice, but I stand my ground and make sure if anything is going on that shouldn’t be, I let the workers inside know. A lot of people have complained without me going in.”

As I have said before and as Erick noted yesterday, we have not won jack squat. If anyone with conservative leanings is thinking of not voting, don’t let it happen. If you are working in a hostile polling place, stand your ground but act as you would have others act. We are all representing the GOP and candidates, and it is very, very important that we conduct ourselves with that in mind, no matter how difficult it may be.

The wave may be out there, but it has not reached the beach. Now is no friggin’ time to play prevent defense. We fight and fight and fight until the last polling place in the last district in the last state has closed, and then we ready ourselves to fight the fraud that will inevitably follow. The Democrats are scared that the gravy train we have financed for so long is coming to an end, and they will stop at nothing, particularly now.

Don’t let the media, even well intentioned media, set us up for the narrative that if we don’t win 90 seats in the House and take the Senate then Obama’s agenda has been endorsed. Fight until liberalism is on the ash heap of history.

Hat tip to Dan Spencer – the link to the article can be found in his RedHot post.

As Mark Shields and David Brooks debated on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, they spoke about Barack Obama’s self-absorbed interview with the New York Times. Shields, the left winger, was very demoralized over the mere fact that Obama had done the interview, perhaps not realizing that this whole thing was, is and will always be about Barack Obama.

MARK SHIELDS: He didn’t have to do this. What he is doing, a retrospective before the election.

I mean, we have gone from perhaps the least introspective president to the most introspective president. I mean, he sits there and talks about what it means to him and all this. For goodness’ sakes, he’s got a responsibility to his party.

How would you like to be a Democratic member of the House fighting for your life right now, getting hit over the head for having voted for the stimulus bill, and have the president say in The New York Times Sunday magazine, there’s no such thing as a shovel-ready project?

Jim Lehrer expanded the point.

JIM LEHRER: Yes. That was — that’s the piece that’s been — that particular quote has really been drawing the flies — the fleas, has it not?

David Brooks, knowing that he had been scooped but not able to resist interjecting himself into the world of “journalist”, dropped this little nugget:

DAVID BROOKS: Yes. Well, I shouldn’t have confessed this. He said this to me off the record about a year ago. But it hasn’t…

JIM LEHRER: Off the record? So, then you can’t talk about it.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, because Peter Baker is a better than I am, because I couldn’t get him to go on the record with that thing.

(LAUGHTER)

JIM LEHRER: He said this to you a year ago?

DAVID BROOKS: It was obvious. I mean, you are trying to build a stimulus package. And when they were trying to build it, believe me, they would have loved to have filled it with infrastructure jobs. But the projects just didn’t exist. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t find them.

They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t find them.

I really don’t know what Brooks’ purpose was in sharing this little tidbit. Maybe he was jealous. Maybe he sees himself as an Arlen Specter – worth nothing to either side and eager to do anything to get back in the game. But the fact remains that this is just one little example of the press carrying the water for the President. We all knew there was no such thing as a “shovel ready project”, the press all knew there was no such thing (apparently), yet they allowed a debilitating “stimulus” to be sold to the American people – and defend it to this day.

Barack Obama’s regime will be noted for many things, but the most depressing and ominous is the willingness of the press to trade the trust of the people for the benefit of Barack Obama and Democrats.

UPDATE
From UPI, on March 3, 2009. Remember, if David Brooks knew a year ago that there were no shovel-ready projects, guess who else did? That’s right, the guy who told him.

WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) — Shovels already are hitting the ground in just the two weeks since the $787 billion stimulus package was signed, U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

Speaking to Transportation Department employees and flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Obama said 400,000 jobs of the estimated 3.5 million jobs either created or saved were involved in rebuilding infrastrucuture, updating transit or laying broadband line.

“You have never been more important than you are right now, and for that we are all grateful,” Obama told the employees.

Through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, “we will be investing $28 billion in our highways, money that every one of our 50 states can start using immediately to put people back to work,” Obama said. “I can say that 14 days after I signed our Recovery Act into law, we are seeing shovels hit the ground.”

And he really needs to give his toadies a heads up if he is going to throw them under the bus. Arianna Huffington, October 10th, on CNN:

And even though, for example, we still have about $70 billion left in TARP money, why not begin to spend that in ways that would create jobs right now?

I mean, there’s so many ways to do that. Right now in the “Huffington Post”, Dan Froomkin has suggestions around the equivalent of FDR’s works and progress administration that built our modern infrastructure, green jobs in renewable energy where you actually create public-private partnerships.

Riiiight. Government funded, shovel ready projects are so last week, Arianna.

I was taking a trip down memory lane today and came across a diary I posted after the election in 2006:

I need someone to help me keep track of these figures

I think we need to keep track of where the country was economically on the day of the election. I am on the road most of the time, working hard like most all of you, and need some help. Here are the figures I am interested in, and would love more suggestions:

DJIA
Nasdaq
Consumer confidence
Unemployment
Median price of a new home
Prime rate
Worker productivity

The MSM will try to tell us how much better things will be under the Dems, and we all know that is a crock of crap. The boom is over, I am 100 %in short-term bonds, and I think we need to ram the coming recession straight where the sun doesn’t shine in Nancy Pelosi’s skirt. Many can play the game they have played.

My work is in commercial construction, and the word I am getting from the hated upper 2% is that the plug is going to be pulled on a multiple projects that keep millions of people like me employed. America has no idea what a great economy we now have, and no idea what they did on Tuesday to destroy it. The markets were betting on divided government.

Just watch.

And no Harvard PhD either. I hate when I am right.

Much has been written here at RedState about the left’s adherence to Saul Alinsky’s Rule for Radicals. I won’t rehash any of the excellent commentary here, but I would like to take a brief look at two rules that interest me right now. One has been used against the right for decades but is being revisited in this election cycle, and one has been forgotten by the left and could prove to be its undoing.

4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

They have really had their way with us on that one, but it looks like we are in the process of re-writing our own rules. Maybe a Republican candidate for Governor of New York who has forwarded some highly questionable e-mails is preferable to a sitting Democrat who has had multiple extra-marital affairs, and who replaced a Democrat who regularly frequented hookers. Maybe a Senate candidate in Delaware who has had trouble with the IRS – and believe me, plenty of decent people have – is not as bad as a New York congressman who is actively involved in ethics violations, or a D.C. delegate who is caught on voice mail this week shaking down a lobbyist for campaign contributions.

Republicans advised Nixon to resign. Republicans threw Trent Lott under the bus. Republicans chastised their own supporters for saying “Hussein”. Maybe that is over. Maybe all bets are off, and we ourselves can adopt the same “circle the wagons” tactics the Democrats have practiced for so long.

And really, as long as a disgraced, disbarred ex-President who has had highly credible allegations of rape leveled against him and a wife who helped him cover it all up are still rock stars in the Democrat Party, we don’t have a lot to worry about. Hey, they lowered the bar to that point, not us.

12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”

First of all – were you even aware of this one? I must admit that even though I read it I really didn’t absorb it until recently. Their attack was successful, no doubt about it, but they have utterly and completely failed to follow Rule 12. Their alternatives have been highly and visibly destructive, and the whole country can see it and feel it. All the other rules lead to nothing unless this one is followed, and they have ignored it.

Thanks Mr. Alinsky. You’ve made me feel better now.

Feeling good about the generic ballot showing Republicans way ahead of Democrats? Inspired by the victories of Tea Party backed candidates in GOP primaries? Already practicing saying “Speaker Boehner”?

Not so fast.

Do we really think that a desperate Democrat Party, whose only principle is power, is not going to use every underhanded, sick, unethical trick in its book to retain the House and Senate? If they think 43 seats are in danger, do we think that they won’t cheat in just five, where Democrat appointees and the press are likely to be friendly to their efforts?

Do we really think that a press who is all-in with this failed President and Congress will quit carrying the water for Democrats? Do we believe, for example, that the NYT hatchet job on Rep. Boehner is just coincidence? Now that their enemies are in place and on the ballot, that the onslaught will be half-hearted?

Worse yet, do we really think that the GOP establishment, who has been outed as just another part of the Ruling Class, will get solidly behind the upstart GOP candidates? Or do you believe they will whisper behind the scenes, withhold their money and support and wait for the opportunity to regain power if these candidates should lose?

The Ruling Class, Republicans and Democrats, are in danger. These Ivy-League, self-appointed stewards of our lives have failed miserably and have directed this country into a position from which it will not soon recover. But they will fight for their power and position like cornered animals, because like cornered animals, they simply have no other place to go.

Let me repeat that – they have no other place to go.

If we think our candidate will win by 10 percentage points, we need to make 15 our goal. If we want to get five friends out to vote, make it ten. One night at a phone bank? Make it three. If you live in a safe Democrat district, as I do, make it uncomfortable and close. Make sure the Democrats know that they own this mess, and that you will never go away. Ever.

I follow sports, and can’t tell you how many “sure things” I have watched evaporate like standing water on a summer day. We need to double our efforts, play like we are behind, give no quarter and aim for nothing less than a total repudiation of the Ruling Class and Barack Obama.

Our country is depending on us.

I once had a large and menacing friend – we’ll call him Ray. He was as gentle as a lamb, but no one outside our little group knew that. He would go to bars and hang out with us, mostly keeping to himself. When one of us got into trouble, which was more than occasionally, here is how the conversation would go:

“OK – I hit on your girlfriend, and that was probably wrong. I may even be sorry about it one day. And if you want to fight, then we’ll fight. But I am a little worried about something.”

At that point the perpetrator would yell “Ray!”, and Ray would look up, nod his acknowledgment and go back to shooting pool. The conversation would continue:

“That is my friend Ray, and he isn’t wrapped all that tight. If he sees us fighting, he will come over here and beat you until your Momma won’t be able to recognize you. Now you can apologize to me for getting so bent out of shape for hitting on your girlfriend, or we can fight and see what happens.”

In every instance, the victim would back down. The threat of the violence our friend might unleash was used effectively by our group to do things we otherwise would not dare do.

So also it goes with the “moderate” imam of the Ground Zero Mosque. While claiming the mantle of moderation and peace, he uses radical Islam for the purpose of extortion if he doesn’t get his way. It’s not the radicals here that he is worried about, you see – it’s the radicals in the “Muslim World” that will become unhinged. Govern yourself accordingly America, he seems to say. While distancing himself completely from terrorists, he does not hesitate to use their propensity for violence to achieve his ends. I guess you could say the imam is the only one standing between ordinary Americans and torches and pitchforks. (Yes, we’ve heard that before, and it is the subject of another diary altogether.)

If what the imam says is true, then the “Muslim World” is nothing more than a collection of uncontrollable apes, constantly teetering on the edge of deadly violence. If what he says is not true, then the imam is nothing more than a garden variety liar and extortionist. Either instance provides a strong argument against not only the Ground Zero Mosque, but the construction of any additional mosque in America. If the only thing that is preventing Islamic violence here in America is our culture of western civilization, then why should we give quarter to an ideology that hates, and will at the first chance subsume, the only thing that constrains it?

The imam is also very quick to bring up our culture of tolerance, and particularly the right of “we Americans” – I wonder who he means when he says “we”? – to religious freedom. Contained within the amendment he brandishes is also the part about free speech, which gives Americans the right to, say, burn Korans without fear of violent intimidation. Of course, our current leaders see the first point but despise the second, and have gone out of their way to decry the Koran burning while supporting the provocation of the Ground Zero Mosque. The imam needs to understand that the the First Amendment skirt he hides behind also gives cover to other people whose only intent is to provoke, and that he must make peace with the fact that they occupy exactly the same space.

I say we should call some bluffs. Burn the Koran. Oppose the mosque. If there is violence, then it should prove once and for all that Muslims are far too ready to claim the privileges of this great nation without taking the responsibility of protecting them. If there are radicals within Islam, then only Muslims can drive them out. If Muslims are either too afraid to do so, or secretly murmur that the unbelievers had it coming to them, then they need to understand that America cannot support a religion that condones what they have come to condone.

And maybe then we can let the imam know that he can no longer let the radicals do his dirty work for him.

I have been stewing about the issue of the Ground Zero mosque for a few weeks now, wrestling with a diary on the subject. Today I was made aware of a statement by Newt Gingrich on the issue, and when I read it I realized he said everything that I wanted to say. So here it is, copied from Newt’s website:

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.

The proposed “Cordoba House” overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks – is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.

Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to “symbolize interfaith cooperation” when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.

Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for “religious toleration” are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca.

And they lecture us about tolerance.

If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.

We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.

Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.

America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.

No mosque.

No self deception.

No surrender.

The time to take a stand is now – at this site on this issue.

The very thought of this mosque is, and remains, an outrage. It is a slap in the face to every American who watched in horror as the planes hit, the innocent men and women jumped to their deaths and the buildings collapsed. That is, every American who watched and remembers. Any benefit of the doubt that any Muslim on earth used to get from me is gone. The death and destruction wrought by these Islamists litters the world, and their little crusade needs to come to a stone cold stop. It has nothing to do with freedom of religion and everything to do with what they consider their triumph.

Instead of the scene of the worst sneak attack on innocent civilians in our history, let Ground Zero forever more represent the beginning of the West’s rejection of Islamists and the immediate halt to these seeds of subjugation disguised as places of worship.

I know, I know. You believed in Hope and Change. You thought he was the one you had been waiting for. But your unemployment benefits have run out, the country is in virtual ruin, and you want a do-over. Maybe you’re a Democrat candidate for office, and can’t believe you blindly went along with leadership who is so far left they make Che Guevara look like Barry Goldwater.

Tanya Tucker has a message for you.

It’s a little too late, friends.

Barack Obama has abandoned America at the place where America’s heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see.

Since that dark day, Americans have been asked to bear the burden of defending those values, again and again and again. Now this president declares that the victims of 9/11 and their families must bear another burden. We must stand silent at the last place in America where 9/11 is still remembered with reverence or risk being called religious bigots.

Muslims have worshiped in New York without incident both before and after the attacks of 9/11. This controversy is not about religious freedom. 9/11 was more than a “deeply traumatic event,” it was an act of war.

Building a 15-story mosque at ground zero is a deliberately provocative act that will precipitate more bloodshed in the name of Allah. Those who continue to target and kill American civilians and U.S. troops will see it as a symbol of their historic progress at the site of their most bloody victory.

Demolishing a building that was damaged by wreckage from one of the hijacked planes in order to build a mosque and Islamic center will further energize those who regard it as a ratification of their violent and divinely ordered mission: the spread of Sharia law and its subjugation of all free people, including secular Muslims who come to this country fleeing that medieval ideology, which destroys lives and crushes the human spirit.

We are stunned by the president’s willingness to disregard what Americans should be proud of: our enduring generosity to others on 9/11 – a day when human decency triumphed over human depravity. On that day, when 3,000 of our fellow human beings were killed in barbaric act of raw religious intolerance unlike this country had ever seen, Americans did not turn outward with hatred or violence; we turned to each other, armed with nothing more than American flags and countless acts of kindness.

In a breathtakingly inappropriate setting, the president has chosen to declare our memories of 9/11 obsolete and the sanctity of ground zero finished. No one who has lived this history and felt the sting of our country’s loss that day can truly believe that putting our families through more wrenching heartache can be an act of peace.

We will honor the memory of our loved ones. We will protect our children, whose lives will never be the same. We will not stand silent.

It looks like Virginia is going to receive justice, thugocracy style, for electing a Republican governor. Let me introduce you to the Joint Forces Command, soon to be a memory. From Fox News Online:

Joint Forces Command, or JFCOM, is one of 10 full combatant commands. Most correspond to regions of the world, such as Pacific Command, but others are organized around a concept or mission rather than geography.

JFCOM lists its mission as training troops from all services to work together for specific missions. It tries to make sure equipment used by different services works together, and looks for gaps in capabilities within military services that could be filled by a specially trained joint force.

The command is headed by a four-star military officer, the highest grade currently in use. Marine Gen. James Mattis was its commander until named last month to replace Army Gen. David Petraeus as head of U.S. Central Command. His replacement will be Gen. Ray Odierno, now the war commander in Iraq. Odierno’s job will be to eliminate his own office, officials said.

I hate to say this, but it seems as though training the different branches of our armed forces to fight together is…well…necessary. Not for Barack Obama I guess, whose charm offensive in the Muslim world seems to have given us reason to slash defense spending while at the very same time irresponsible blue states with powerful and politically generous teacher’s unions get bailouts. Got it.

The Virginia-based command trains troops from different services to fight together. Joint Forces Command, with nearly 4,900 employees and annual salaries of more than $200 million, is the largest single cut to be announced Monday.

Here’s the message – a state trending red in the age of thug politics is very, very dangerous indeed. I wonder how the 4,900 jobs are going to be listed in Obama’s “saved or created” directory?

The final round of the British Open was held on Sunday. Played at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, the tournament was won by a man from South Africa named Louis Oosthuizen. His given name is Lodewicus Theodorus Oosthuizen, but “Louis” will be on the Claret Jug, much to the relief of the engraver, I would imagine.

As he walked up the 18th fairway, with his drive on the green and an insurmountable lead, he smiled and put his arm around his friend and caddie, Zack Rasego. Rasego happens to be black. Oosthuizen mentioned in his interview after the tournament that he was thinking about Nelson Mandela as he walked toward victory – it also happened to be Mandela’s 92nd birthday – and I would guess that Zack was probably thinking the same thing. Imagine that – a white South African golfer, with a black caddie, mentioning Nelson Mandela in his victory speech in the championship of the former colonial power, the United Kingdom.

The scene made me wonder what made it possible – how could this happen, given South Africa’s well documented race issues? The answer, I believe, lies with the man who celebrated a birthday today. Held in prison for decades, brutalized but never bowed, Nelson Mandela went on to become the leader of the country which had at one time despised and imprisoned him. With every reason to be vindictive and petty, Mandela instead chose to be magnanimous. Instead of unleashing violence against whites, or turning a blind eye to it, he did his best to create an environment that could produce a scene like the one we saw today. There are legitimate criticisms of Mandela’s tendency toward Communism, the violence that plagues South Africa to this day and the continued imperfection of race relations there. I doubt, however, that Mandela can legitimately be criticized for fanning the flames of racial hatred or intentionally being divisive.

“I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.”

“If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.”

Nelson Mandela

Another country comes to mind when the issue of race relations is mentioned, and that is the United States. The first black leader of this country is Barack Obama, elected in a near-landslide, with support not only from blacks but also from whites. A man who enjoyed over 60% approval when inaugurated and a leader who promised change and a new direction for this country. A man who could, once and for all, turn the tide of race relations in this country forever.

What an opportunity. What an opportunity missed.

Instead of using this chance to be President of all people, Barack Obama has instead not missed an opportunity to be petty and divisive. He could have challenged us all to be better than we would have been before – to put away centuries old grievances and attitudes and work together for the good of a country which is still the beacon of freedom to the world. Instead, attempting to put himself as above the fray, he has allowed reasonable people who disagree with his policies to be called racists-and worse- by those closest to him. Instead of taking charge and asking for support, he has spent the majority of his time blaming his predecessors and whining about what he inherited. Instead of facing our racial issues head-on, he has taken the “coward’s” way out (h/t Eric Holder), and refused to take the African American community to task about the rampant crime, addiction and broken families that are so prevalent there. And worst of all, he has allowed a situation in Philadelphia that strikes at the very core of our representative republic to be swept under the rug, apparently because the perpetrators are black.

He is the only President who could have made a difference in the ways that we so badly need a difference to be made. He has chosen not to.

He has used the power of the federal government to reward blue states and penalize red states. He has declared war on business – the insurance industry, the oil industry, Wall Street, banks and anyone who dares make a profit – with more that could be named, and more surely to come. He is taking a state to court – fellow Americans – for daring to write a law which exactly mirrors a federal law, then refuses to enforce the federal law to further inflame the situation. He uses crisis when it occurs, and creates crisis where none exist.

In short, he is not the leader of a country. He has chosen another path. He is the leader of a group of narrow special interests, bound together only by selfishness and a desire to extort as much as possible from groups which they deem undesirable, oppressive or historically advantaged.

He desires to split this nation apart, like a jeweler would split a large, beautiful diamond into little chips for trinkets. He divides us, with his words, with his policies and by proxy.

What an opportunity missed. Forever.

From Fox news online, with very few comments because this speaks for itself:

North Korea’s health care system is in shambles, with doctors sometimes performing barbaric amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight for payment in cigarettes, in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat and power, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said Thursday.

North Korea’s state health care system has been deteriorating for years amid the country’s economic difficulties. Many of its 24 million people reportedly face health problems related to chronic malnutrition, such as tuberculosis and anemia, Amnesty International said in a report on the state of the health care system.

I would venture to guess that all the “little ‘c’” communists milling about the White House would make a forceful argument that North Korea is doing it wrong and communism isn’t all that bad when approached correctly, blah blah blah…

A 24-year-old defector from northeastern Hamkyong province told the human rights organization that a doctor amputated his left leg from the calf down without anesthesia after his ankle was crushed by a moving train when he fell from one of the cars.

“Five medical assistants held my arms and legs down to keep me from moving. I was in so much pain that I screamed and eventually fainted from pain,” said the man, identified only by his family name, Hwang. “I woke up one week later in a hospital bed.”

I wonder if Michael Moore is on his way to do a film, because…

…Margaret Chan, who refused to be accompanied by foreign reporters on her visit, also praised the isolated regime for providing universal health coverage and said programs like one for child immunizations and its response to a malaria resurgence make it the “envy” of many other developing countries.

Words fail me, my prayers for those souls who are enslaved by a cruel, hate-filled, Godless regime, and my prayers for the United States as we on the right battle those who deny the barbarism and misery that has been the hallmark of communism.

Let’s very quickly tie together two other little tidbits from the Bull City of Durham, North Carolina – home of Duke University, Mike Nifong and the Duke University lacrosse team. Did you know that there was an organization in Durham called The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People? Would you like to go to a meeting? No problem – unless you are white:

For years, political observers have speculated whether the credibility and influence of the committee is waning due to shrinking membership, diminishing cooperation with other activist groups and infighting. What goes on behind the organization’s closed-door meetings is out of view to many, as it is open only to Durham residents of African-American descent.

Move along folks. Only blacks allowed here. Your water fountain is over there. But there is another little link to our friends named Shabazz:

Recently, several high-profile members of the group questioned the fairness and validity of the committee’s endorsements in last month’s municipal elections, in which Mayor Bill Bell nearly lost its support. The committee also favored City Council candidate Donald Hughes, a recent college graduate with no previous professional experience in public office over two-term incumbent Cora Cole-McFadden. Hughes is the son of committee member Jackie Wagstaff, who ran against Cole-McFadden for City Council in 2001.

Jackie Wagstaff? So what? Well, turns out she was at the NBPP’s little rally at Duke back in 2006:

Black power, black power!” chants echoed throughout the crowd as members explained their cause.

[snip]

I am here with these brothers because it appears Durham does not want to see the truth,” said Durham school board member Jackie Wagstaff.

School board member Jackie Wagstaff? Did you read that right? Yes you did, and that is the subject of another diary altogether. It is tough being a cracker in Durham sometimes.

One last little thing to complete the trifecta. It is almost too much to bear. From the RNC’s website, verified by my on the ground memory:

In North Carolina, Durham County's Elections Director, Mike Ashe, Has
Asked That Approximately 80 Voter Registration Forms Submitted by ACORN Be
Investigated For Suspicions Of Fraud. "A Durham official is asking state
elections administrators to check approximately 80 voter registration forms
for possible fraud. ... Mike Ashe, Durham County's elections director, said
the forms were among about 4,000 submitted to his office over the past four
to six weeks by a national left-wing group called Acorn ... Ashe's staff
also learned this week of irregularities with a handful of other
registrations. It was not clear who was responsible for these problems. ...
'This is serious, obviously,' Ashe said." (Matthew E. Milliken, "Elections
Chief Asks For Voter Fraud Probe," The Herald [NC] Sun, 9/19/08)

Shabazz, Shabazz, I thought…where have I heard that name before? A-ha! Remember the Duke lacrosse case? Seems like Barack Obama is not the only one who can’t let a good crisis go to waste. From the blog “Sweetness and Light”, circa 2006:

Malik Zulu Shabazz, a Washington lawyer who is the leader of the New Panthers, said he will be in Durham to rally with local black leaders and monitor progress of the criminal case against Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, the two students charged with raping and kidnapping the dancer.

Well, it sounded good then.  And for the record, Malik Shabazz and King Shabazz are two different people (I guess). As for the intimidation on display in Philadelphia? Not a new tactic. You make the call…

“We are conducting an independent investigation, and we intend to enter the campus and interview lacrosse players,” Shabazz said Thursday. “We seek to ensure an adequate, strong and vigorous prosecution.”

A flier distributed by the group this week displays photos of Finnerty and Seligmann and calls for those who have “had enough of disrespect and racism from Duke” to assemble at the front gates of the university’s West Campus at 10 a.m.

Asked whether his followers will be armed when they come to Duke, Shabazz chuckled and said, “I don’t know if I can comment on that.”

Here’s how it went when they got there, from The Chronicle:

Approximately 20 members of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense demonstrated at the West Campus gates in support of the exotic dancer who alleged she was raped by three members of the men’s lacrosse team.

[snip]

The group arrived at 10:05 a.m. in more than 20 cars, pulling simultaneously up to the curb at the Green Zone overflow parking lot on Duke University Road.

Before starting a formal press conference at the entrance to the University, demonstrators conferred in a huddle in the parking lot for about 30 minutes. They were surrounded by NBPP members-wearing black boots, fatigues, bulletproof vests and berets with NBPP logos-who kept bystanders at bay.

OK, so far so good. The bullet proof vests were a little overdone, unless they had heard about the high crime in Durham and felt a need to be prepared. Then they went to a rally at an A.M.E. church about a block from North Carolina Central University. Located in Durham only a couple of miles from Duke, NCCU is a traditionally black university where the lacrosse player accuser went to school. Here’s how things went at a little friendlier venue. Remember, Malik Shabazz was the keynote speaker. Again, from The Chronicle:

St. Joseph’s African Methodist Episcopal Church was abuzz Monday evening as the group led a town hall meeting for Durham’s black community. Many in the audience cheered the new Panthers’ attacks on Zionism, capitalism and white Americans.

From the pulpit, NBPP officials said they had come to Durham to share their revolutionary message and defend the accuser in the Duke rape case. They said the media has unfairly portrayed them as violent hooligans.

“All they will tell you is that we’re carrying guns,” said Minister Hashim Nzinga, NBPP’s national chief of staff.

Violent hooligans? That hardly seems fair…

Another NBPP official, spokesman Yusuf Shabazz, expanded on his party’s anti-Semitic black separatist agenda. He added that the party would use violent means to increase the power of blacks and create an independent territory he called “New Africa.”

“Anytime a white man grabs a rifle and stands up for his liberty and wife, he’s a hero.” Yusuf Shabazz said. “We’ll kill everybody in a household, we’ll kill everybody on our block.”

Incredibly, the leaders of the NBPP were also allowed to meet with the prosecutor in the case, the now disbarred Mike Nifong, who reviewed the case and discussed the evidence with them. Nifong and all the blacks in the area were either in support of these thugs or silent, but a few did manage to distinguish themselves. From WRAL online:

The accuser’s mother in the case told WRAL that family members did not ask the group to come to Durham, and they do not want their help.

And a final commentary on the New Black Panthers from the People’s Republic of Chapel Hill:

“What they do is come into a community and exploit the pain,” said UNC associate professor Michael Waltman.

Or, at the risk of repeating, they never waste a good crisis.