Environmentalists see the future of the this country differently than the rest of us - to them it about a philosophy that centers on themselves and their friends that think like they do - it doesn't anything to do with saving the planet for all man kind. Like the politicians, it's about power and control.
Obama, and many other politicians, buy into this idea as it is a nice fit with their own agendas - a politician's main force is getting elected, and staying elected, and they will do anything to make that happen. So it's a power grab for both parities.
Control of the environment that the population must have to survive and grow as a nations works nicely for the environmentalist because they get to control the politician which in turn can control the population and stay in power. See this as the fraud of global warming and follow this with the carbon credits and now the "cap and trade" on all power generation from natural resources.
Keep the faith - but ask this question - what do they gain by crippling the country with higher taxes and a declining national growth curve?
The Left’s Energy Efficiency Gamble
http://blog.heritage.org/2008/12/29/the-lefts-energy-efficiency-gamble/
* Posted December 29th, 2008 at 3.09pm in Energy and Environment
http://blog.heritage.org/category/energy-and-environment/.
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Glenn English and
Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperative CEO
Jackson Reasor write in the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/25/AR2008122500662.html:
In the past five years, utility bills have risen 30 percent, largely
because of the rising cost of fuel, mainly coal and natural gas. The
country’s leading consumer organizations, including the Consumer
Federation of America and Consumers Union, recently wrote to
President-elect Barack Obama, calling on him "to devote as much
attention to the affordability of electricity as has been devoted to
gasoline."
The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that by 2030,
demand for electricity will be 30 percent higher, the equivalent of
adding four Californias to the power grid.
In some regions, demand will soon outstrip supply. The North America
Electric Reliability Corp., which oversees the reliability of the U.S.
electric power grid, projects that the desert Southwest will be at risk
for blackouts in 2010 because of a shortage of power generation
capacity. An Agriculture Department report this year on rural electric
power generation found that "brownouts are probable unless investment in
transmission is increased and simultaneously, energy efficiency efforts
and demand side management must be intensified."
These warnings echo what we’ve reported before from the North American
Electric Reliability Corporation. According to NERC, over the next
decade 135 gigawatts of new capacity will be needed to meet the growth
in consumption. But right now plants producing a total of 57 gigawatts
are planned. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0630/038_print.html
Renewable sources of power will not be able to make up the difference.
Despite decades of subsidies, alternative energies such as wind and
solar power contribute only 1% of our nation’s energy needs
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb0103.html.
And states that have set renewable energy goals are failing to meet them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/business/05power.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&adxnnl=1&ref=earth&adxnnlx=1228676604-3SSY9d4jzC5nllrG0H9jHA
But the left has its own solution: energy efficiency. The Center for
American Progress’ Joe Romm writes
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/07/28/energy_efficiency/print.html:
While a few states have energy-efficiency strategies, none matches what
California has done. In the past three decades, electricity consumption
per capita grew 60 percent in the rest of the nation, while it stayed
flat in high-tech, fast-growing California. If all Americans had the
same per capita electricity demand as Californians currently do, we
would cut electricity consumption 40 percent. If the entire nation had
California’s much cleaner electric grid, we would cut total U.S.
global-warming pollution by more than a quarter without raising American
electric bills. And if all of America adopted the same energy-efficiency
policies that California is now putting in place, the country would
never have to build another polluting power plant.
But Romm pretends that all this energy efficiency has been cost free …
even economically stimulating. He’s dead wrong. http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_californias_environmentalism.html
The Manhattan Institute’s Max Schultz reports dirty secret about California’s energy economy is that it imports lots of energy from neighboring states to make up for the shortfall caused by
having too few power plants. Up to 20 percent of the state’s power comes
from coal-burning plants in Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and
Montana, and another significant portion comes from large-scale
hydropower in Oregon, Washington State, and the Hoover Dam near Las
Vegas.
"California practices a sort of energy colonialism," says James
Lucier of Capital Alpha Partners, a Washington, D.C.–area investment group.
Another secret: California’s proud claim to have kept per-capita energy
consumption flat while growing its economy is less impressive than it
seems. The state has some of the highest energy prices in the
country—nearly twice the national average, a 2002 Milken Institute study
found—largely because of regulations and government mandates to use
expensive renewable sources of power.
As a result, heavy manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries have been fleeing the Golden State in droves for lower-cost locales. Twenty years ago or so, you could
count eight automobile factories in California; today, there’s just one,
and it’s the same story with other industries, from chemicals to
aerospace. Yet Californians still enjoy the fruits of those
manufacturing industries—driving cars built in the Midwest and the
South, importing chemicals and resins and paints and plastics produced
elsewhere, and flying on jumbo jets manufactured in places like Everett,
Washington. California can pretend to have controlled energy
consumption, but it has just displaced it.
Even before President-elect Barack Obama takes office, the United States
has been forced to follow the left’s energy efficiency gamble. A network
of environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the Natural
Resources Defense Council have coordinated to stop construction on 65
coal plants and 13 natural gas plants nationwide.
Obama is going to have a compliant Congress to implement all the energy
efficiency measures he wants. If the blackouts still come in 2010 we
will know exactly who to blame.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Democrats Stealing Another Electon : America Headed to Third World Status
America has finally fallen into that abyss that is so common in developing countries, that bottomless pit of fraud and out right criminal activity in government.
As the saying goes, and I use a nice word here as this is I hope a family website, America has become a "third world poop hole".
When this fraud happen in Washington state in 2006 where there were more votes than people, the courts said it was okay, no problem here. Of course, the candidate for governor was a Democrat which was a slam dunk for the courts, especially in Washington state. Worse, nobody challenged it!
This article from NewsMax is long but so very interesting and packed with good information that we all need to carry on the fight - keep the faith
Franken's Coup: Anatomy of a Vote Grab
Monday, January 5, 2009
By David A. Patten
Two months after Minnesota voters appeared to return incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman to the U.S. Senate by 725 votes, state officials Monday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the election.
Franken was named the victor by the Minnesota Canvassing Board, the five-member panel appointed and led by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who has been criticized for ties to the ACORN voter-registration organization the federal government is investigating for alleged vote fraud, as well as to left-wing billionaire George Soros.
The announcement marks the end of a recount process that overturned the apparent result of Election Day.
The board ruling will not result directly in the issuance of documents needed to seat Franken in the Senate, however. Under Minnesota law, that can take place only after all of Coleman’s legal options have been exhausted.
Franken’s apparent victory cannot be certified for at least seven days to allow time for legal challenges to be filed.
The Canvassing Board’s decision followed a state Supreme Court ruling on Monday rejecting Coleman’s request to factor in another 654 rejected absentee ballots from pro-Coleman precincts. That ruling was a major blow to Coleman’s hopes of winning re-election.
The court pointed out that the Franken campaign did not agree with the Coleman campaign that the ballots had been rejected improperly, and it invited the Coleman campaign to file a lawsuit pressing to count those ballots. But in past elections, courts have been very reluctant to issue any ruling that changes election results once state authorities certify them.
“Given our campaign’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that the vote of no Minnesotan is disenfranchised, today’s ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court is both disappointing and disheartening,” said Coleman recount attorney Fritz Knaak in a statement.
The ruling “effectively disregards the votes of hundreds of Minnesotans,” Knaak said.
Coleman’s attorneys also have objected to 150 duplicate ballots that may have been counted twice. They now say a legal challenge to the board’s declaring Franken the winner is “inevitable.”
Democrats have spoken increasingly of seating Franken on a provisional basis, until the court challenges, which could take weeks or even months, are resolved. But Senate Republicans, led by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, have promised to filibuster any such effort.
Cornyn says he is confident that no Republican would join Democrats to approve seating someone whose election victory has not been formally certified. Doing so, he says, would cause “damage to the Senate and its reputation as an institution,” adding, “It would be a recipe for chaos.”
If Franken is not seated, the new Senate probably would convene with just 98 members. The other vacancy stems from the seat President-elect Barack Obama vacated, which has been entangled in the charges pending against Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The state Supreme Court ruling that cleared the path to Franken’s being declared the winner was just the latest in a litany of electoral frustration for Coleman. Virtually all significant court decisions and election rulings have gone against him, a trend raising eyebrows as well as alarms among Republicans.
“Any fair-minded person should be concerned about what’s going on in Minnesota,” writes Kevin Hassett of Bloomberg.com.
The former adviser to Sen. John McCain adds, “Throughout the recount, the state’s majority political machine has been grinding away in Franken’s favor.”
Washington Times editor and writer Peter J. Parisi tells Newsmax, “I predicted to everyone I knew that I could guaran-damn-tee that Franken would steal this thing, and it looks like I was right.”
After counting 933 absentee ballots that were rejected improperly — probably Coleman’s last best hope of regaining the lead that he enjoyed for more than six weeks following the Nov. 4 election — Franken’s advantage swelled to 255 votes.
In yet another legal setback for Coleman, the state Supreme Court on Monday rejected Coleman’s request that another 654 absentee ballots rejected from pro-Coleman precincts be counted. The ruling was a major blow to Coleman’s hopes of winning reelection.
The court decided not to require state officials to count those ballots because the Franken campaign did not agree with the Coleman campaign that the ballots had been improperly rejected. The Coleman campaign can take further legal action to request the counting of those ballots, but in past elections courts have been very reluctant to issue a ruling that change election results certified by state authorities.
On Friday, Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty slammed the state’s Supreme Court for turning over too much authority to the two campaigns, saying it effectively gave them veto power over which ballots ought to be counted.
“It seems odd that you would turn over somebody’s legal right to vote to the campaigns,” Pawlenty said. “It seems to me that would be a matter of law, or facts of law, for the courts to determine.”
At times, Canvassing Board faux pas have contributed to conservatives’ growing sense of unease over its deliberations. The five-member panel supervises all aspects of the recount that deposed Coleman as the apparent winner.
Most observers agree that the board has maintained the appearance of objectivity, although Secretary of State Ritchie accidentally moved on Dec. 16 that a disputed ballot “be allocated to Senator Franken.”
“Weariness or Freudian slip?” a Star-Tribune reporter quipped in reaction to the gaffe.
Ritchey, who has ties to both ACORN and left-wing financier Soros, quickly amended his motion, specifying “candidate Franken,” and spectators appeared to dismiss the flub with a laugh.
The incident no doubt struck Coleman supporters as less than amusing, however, given Ritchie’s chairmanship over the largest recount in Minnesota history.
A Franken win would leave the Obama administration just a single vote shy of being able to cut off debate over U.S. Senate legislation anytime it wants.
To be sure, the board has faced some tough calls. On Dec. 17, for example, it took a vote away from Coleman because it had been cast on ballot for the primary instead of the general election.
No state law addresses that unusual circumstance.
According to StarTribune.com, Coleman attorney Tony Trimble urged the board not to “disenfranchise a voter for the ballot [he] was given, that came from election judges.”
The 2008 Recount Guide from Ritchie’s office states: “a ballot or vote must not be rejected for a technicality if it is possible to decide what the voter intended, even though the voter may have made a mistake or the ballot is damaged.”
Saying the situation was “too bad, it breaks my heart,” Ritchie moved that the ballot be placed in the “other” pile, and the board agreed so Coleman did not get credit for the vote.
For Coleman, it was just one more setback in what has become a nightmarish electoral chronology:
Nov. 4, Coleman Leads by 725 Votes — Unofficial tallies of election results statewide show Coleman the winner by 725 votes out of nearly 3 million cast. The narrow margin automatically triggers a recount.
Nov. 5, Coleman Leads by 475 Votes — Ritchie’s office distributes a news release stating, “In Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, a slim margin of 475 votes favors Republican candidate and Republican senator Norn Coleman over Democratic challenger Al Franken.” The 250-vote difference? It stems from adjusted figures state and county officials around the state submitted.
Nov. 6, Coleman Leads by 438 Votes — Coleman’s margin continues to diminish as more adjusted figures come in. Why the adjustments consistently favor Franken goes largely unexplained.
“What struck me as really outrageous was, in the beginning, how Coleman’s lead shrank,” comments Matthew Vadum, senior editor for Capital Research Center, a conservative watchdog of nonprofit groups. “The counties were allowed to correct their vote totals with barely a peep from Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. He just considered all this to be legitimate, and it was their prerogative to do that — and it looks like he let them get away with murder.”
Vadum tells Newsmax, “That basically laid the foundation for the slugfest now going on in the recount contest. He chopped off Coleman’s lead and got it within stealing distance.”
Nov. 7, Coleman Leads by 239 Votes — Ritchie’s office announces the State Canvassing Board will convene to begin supervising the statewide recount on Nov. 18. “This week,” Ritchie adds, “county election officials have been busy proofing the unofficial results previously submitted to this office’s Web site. Corrections have resulted in a shifting margin which now stands at 239 votes with the advantage to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.” Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak says the campaign is “profoundly suspicious,” adding, “We’re mystified at this apparent pattern of every time there seems to be a change, it happens after hours and it happens in the Franken [campaign’s] favor.”
Nov. 8, Coleman Leads by 221 Votes — The New York Times reports that 32 absentee ballots were found after an election worker drove around with them in the back seat of his car for five days. An initial protest from Coleman is withdrawn, and the votes are counted. A document posted on the secretary of state’s Web site says shifting vote counts are “routine,” citing a 2006 election in which 2,100 ballot changes occurred after Election Day.
Nov. 12, Coleman Leads by 221 Votes — Ritchie, as secretary of state, names the members of the Canvassing Board who will oversee the recount: Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson, whom GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed; Minnesota Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson, also appointed by Pawlenty; Chief Judge Kathleen R. Gearin of the Second Judicial District, a solid Democratic area; Assistant Chief Judge Edward J. Cleary, also of the Second Judicial District. By law, Ritchie will chair the board. Pawlenty appears on “Hannity & Colmes” and defends Minnesota’s secretary of state: “I know Mark Ritchie. He is a partisan on the other side of the aisle, as I am as governor. He is trying his best to conduct this fairly. The laws in Minnesota have certain limitations. There’s no evidence that he or anyone else has had actual wrong-doing. What we’re saying is that this process has resulted in some strange irregularities — statistical irregularities — and some suggestion that something is amiss.”
Nov. 18, Coleman Leads by 215 Votes — Ritchie convenes the first meeting of the Canvassing Board. The New York Times reports that the margin now stands at 215 votes. A statewide hand recount begins.
Nov. 19, Coleman Leads by 215 Votes — Ramsey County District Court Judge Dale B. Lindman grants a Franken campaign request that the county be required to release data on absentee ballots that may have been rejected improperly.
Nov. 21, Coleman Leads by 136 Votes — Coleman’s lead begins to slip almost as soon as the recount begins. In Duluth, Franken gains 30 votes, most attributed to errors stemming from outdated Eagle scanning machines. By day two, 46 percent of the 2.9 million ballots cast have been recounted. Some 823 ballots have been challenged by the two campaigns, generally on the grounds that local officials had misinterpreted the voter’s intent. As soon as a ballot is challenged, it is set aside and will not be counted until the Canvassing Board rules on the dispute.
Nov. 26, Coleman Leads by 238 Votes — As the recount moves to precincts favoring Coleman, his lead begins to increase. The Canvassing Board rules it does not have the authority to order local election officials, as requested by the Franken campaign, to reconsider the 12,000 absentee ballots rejected on Election Day. It agrees to discuss the matter further in future meetings.
Dec. 2, Coleman Leads by 340 Votes — Coleman’s lead continues to grow. The campaigns learn that 171 ballots in heavily Democratic Ramsey County were not counted because of a combination of machine and human error. When those votes are counted, Franken picks up 37 votes.
Dec. 3, Coleman Leads by 303 Votes — Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert reports that 133 votes cast on Election Day were double counted — that is, they were run twice through the optical scan machines that tabulate the vote. Correcting this error costs Franken about 35 votes, but other aspects of the recount favor Franken. Meanwhile, the number of challenged ballots in the race swells to nearly 6,000. Resolving those challenges, Franken’s attorneys say, actually will give him a 22-vote lead. About 138,000 ballots still must be recounted, officials say.
Dec. 5, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — Ritchie extends the recount deadline because the 133 ballots cannot be accounted for in Ward 3, Precinct 1. Records show 133 ballots were cast that cannot be located. Not counting the ballots in the Democratic stronghold would cost Franken about 46 votes; the whole point of the recount is to review the actual ballots, however. Ritchie dispatches Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann to aid in the search and to serve as an official observer. Also, Ritchie asks local election officials statewide to begin identifying and separating absentee ballots that may have been improperly rejected.
Dec. 10, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — The Minneapolis elections director informs Ritchie that the 133 missing ballots cannot be located. Coleman’s attorneys ask that the fate of the 133 votes be decided in court. Franken’s attorneys want the Canvassing Board to accept the vote tallies recorded on Election Day.
Dec. 11, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — On the eve of a Canvassing Board meeting to decide how to handle wrongly rejected absentee ballots, Franken submits 62 affidavits from Franken supporters who say they were disenfranchised wrongly when their absentee ballots were denied. Franken also releases a six-minute YouTube video of voters’ stories. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune characterized Franken’s affidavits as “the latest attempt by the campaign to increase the pressure on the board to count absentee ballots that were improperly rejected.”
Dec. 12, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — By unanimous vote, the five-member Canvassing Board asks all 87 counties to include in their recount votes all absentee ballots deemed to have been rejected improperly. The Coleman campaign, concerned that different counties may use different standards for evaluating absentee ballots, asks the state Supreme Court to order a halt to the counting of absentee ballots. In a double-whammy for Coleman, the Board also decides to accept the Election Day vote tally, including the 133 votes missing from Ward 3, Precinct 1.
Dec. 16, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — The Canvassing Board begins to review challenged ballots. The Board first considers ballots for Coleman that had been challenged by Franken’s attorneys. Most of these ballots are ultimately expected to go to Coleman, which should widen his lead.
Dec. 17, Coleman Leads by 358 Votes — The counting of Franken challenges concludes with Coleman’s lead growing as expected, to 358 votes. The board discusses a Coleman request that as many as 150 duplicate ballots that the campaign believes already have been counted should not be counted again. Ritchie lectures Coleman’s attorneys that the staff is “not happy” to see the issue being raised. Coleman, he said, is asking the board “to settle a question you raised very late and a lot of legal paper came to us late — like a blizzard.”
Dec. 18, Coleman Leads by 5 Votes — The counting begins of ballots for Franken that Coleman had challenged. Franken rapidly cuts into Coleman’s lead, as the Canvassing Board awards the votes. In a stunning setback for Coleman, he leads by a mere 5 votes by day’s end, with more ballot challenges remaining. On one ballot, where the oval next to Franken’s name had been darkened but Franken’s name had been changed to “Frankenstine,” the board voted 3-2 to award the vote to Franken.
Also, another legal decision goes against Coleman: The state Supreme Court rejects his request that the counting of rejected absentee ballots be halted, and orders the two campaigns to agree on which ballots were rejected improperly.
Dec. 19, Franken Leads by 249 Votes — Franken’s campaign continues to steamroll ahead, and for the first time since Nov. 4, Franken leads rather than Coleman. Also, the Canvassing Board rules that the 150 duplicate ballots should be added into the vote totals. The Canvassing Board tells Coleman it will count (or double count) the votes and says he can challenge the board’s decision in court. The Coleman campaign immediately files an appeal with the state Supreme Court. The Coleman campaign predicts the Franken lead is only temporary.
Dec. 20, Franken Leads by 249 Votes — The Franken campaign projects that once all dropped challenges — that is, challenges initially filed but later withdrawn — are added back into the tally, Franken will lead by 35 to 50 votes.
Dec. 24, Franken Leads by 46 Votes — Adding back in the withdrawn challenges helps Coleman, but not enough for him to retake the lead. The state Supreme Court, in a 5-0 opinion, denies a Coleman request to block the Canvassing Board from certifying the election results until the fate of the 150 duplicate ballots can be resolved. However, Coleman will be free to file subsequent legal appeals. Coleman attorney Knaak responds: “We are deeply disappointed.”
Dec. 28, Franken Leads by 46 Votes — Minnesota’s other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, issues a call for the candidate certified the winner by the Canvassing Board to be seated on a provisional basis, even if court challenges are pending.
Dec. 29, Franken Leads by 49 Votes — The Canvassing Board awards a few last outstanding votes, and Franken’s margin increases to 49. Coleman’s campaign identifies 654 absentee ballots in counties where the voting patterns favor the incumbent GOP senator, in addition to the 933 ballots city and county election officials had identified. As expected, the two candidates are unable to agree on which ballots should be counted, and a series of meetings convene around the state to make a determination. Also, a Minneapolis Star-Tribune analysis of the voting trends suggests that counting the rejected absentee ballots probably would favor Franken. The analysis does not include the 654 new ballots Coleman identified.
Dec. 31, Franken Leads by 49 Votes — The Coleman campaign sends a letter to the secretary of state’s office objecting that the process for deciding which absentee ballots were rejected improperly will lead to “an invalid and unreliable election result.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suggests Franken is closing in on a victory. "At this stage, it appears that Franken will be certified the winner by the State Canvassing Board,” a statement from Reid’s office declares. That draws a sharp rebuke from GOP leaders. “The American people will see right through Harry Reid’s crass partisan power grab,” says former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.
Jan. 2, Franken Leads by 49 Votes — Local election officials send 933 rejected absentee ballots to the secretary of state’s office for counting. Texas GOP Sen. Cornyn warns that Republicans will filibuster any attempt to seat Franken when Congress convenes.
Jan. 5, Franken Leads by 225 Votes — Counting the 933 rejected absentee ballots balloons Franken’s lead. The state Supreme Court rules that it will not order state officials to count 654 other absentee ballots that Coleman says should be included. The Canvassing Board schedules a Monday afternoon meeting to certify a winner.
Weeks of legal disputes are expected to follow the Canvassing Board’s decision.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
As the saying goes, and I use a nice word here as this is I hope a family website, America has become a "third world poop hole".
When this fraud happen in Washington state in 2006 where there were more votes than people, the courts said it was okay, no problem here. Of course, the candidate for governor was a Democrat which was a slam dunk for the courts, especially in Washington state. Worse, nobody challenged it!
This article from NewsMax is long but so very interesting and packed with good information that we all need to carry on the fight - keep the faith
Franken's Coup: Anatomy of a Vote Grab
Monday, January 5, 2009
By David A. Patten
Two months after Minnesota voters appeared to return incumbent GOP Sen. Norm Coleman to the U.S. Senate by 725 votes, state officials Monday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the election.
Franken was named the victor by the Minnesota Canvassing Board, the five-member panel appointed and led by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who has been criticized for ties to the ACORN voter-registration organization the federal government is investigating for alleged vote fraud, as well as to left-wing billionaire George Soros.
The announcement marks the end of a recount process that overturned the apparent result of Election Day.
The board ruling will not result directly in the issuance of documents needed to seat Franken in the Senate, however. Under Minnesota law, that can take place only after all of Coleman’s legal options have been exhausted.
Franken’s apparent victory cannot be certified for at least seven days to allow time for legal challenges to be filed.
The Canvassing Board’s decision followed a state Supreme Court ruling on Monday rejecting Coleman’s request to factor in another 654 rejected absentee ballots from pro-Coleman precincts. That ruling was a major blow to Coleman’s hopes of winning re-election.
The court pointed out that the Franken campaign did not agree with the Coleman campaign that the ballots had been rejected improperly, and it invited the Coleman campaign to file a lawsuit pressing to count those ballots. But in past elections, courts have been very reluctant to issue any ruling that changes election results once state authorities certify them.
“Given our campaign’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that the vote of no Minnesotan is disenfranchised, today’s ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court is both disappointing and disheartening,” said Coleman recount attorney Fritz Knaak in a statement.
The ruling “effectively disregards the votes of hundreds of Minnesotans,” Knaak said.
Coleman’s attorneys also have objected to 150 duplicate ballots that may have been counted twice. They now say a legal challenge to the board’s declaring Franken the winner is “inevitable.”
Democrats have spoken increasingly of seating Franken on a provisional basis, until the court challenges, which could take weeks or even months, are resolved. But Senate Republicans, led by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, have promised to filibuster any such effort.
Cornyn says he is confident that no Republican would join Democrats to approve seating someone whose election victory has not been formally certified. Doing so, he says, would cause “damage to the Senate and its reputation as an institution,” adding, “It would be a recipe for chaos.”
If Franken is not seated, the new Senate probably would convene with just 98 members. The other vacancy stems from the seat President-elect Barack Obama vacated, which has been entangled in the charges pending against Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The state Supreme Court ruling that cleared the path to Franken’s being declared the winner was just the latest in a litany of electoral frustration for Coleman. Virtually all significant court decisions and election rulings have gone against him, a trend raising eyebrows as well as alarms among Republicans.
“Any fair-minded person should be concerned about what’s going on in Minnesota,” writes Kevin Hassett of Bloomberg.com.
The former adviser to Sen. John McCain adds, “Throughout the recount, the state’s majority political machine has been grinding away in Franken’s favor.”
Washington Times editor and writer Peter J. Parisi tells Newsmax, “I predicted to everyone I knew that I could guaran-damn-tee that Franken would steal this thing, and it looks like I was right.”
After counting 933 absentee ballots that were rejected improperly — probably Coleman’s last best hope of regaining the lead that he enjoyed for more than six weeks following the Nov. 4 election — Franken’s advantage swelled to 255 votes.
In yet another legal setback for Coleman, the state Supreme Court on Monday rejected Coleman’s request that another 654 absentee ballots rejected from pro-Coleman precincts be counted. The ruling was a major blow to Coleman’s hopes of winning reelection.
The court decided not to require state officials to count those ballots because the Franken campaign did not agree with the Coleman campaign that the ballots had been improperly rejected. The Coleman campaign can take further legal action to request the counting of those ballots, but in past elections courts have been very reluctant to issue a ruling that change election results certified by state authorities.
On Friday, Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty slammed the state’s Supreme Court for turning over too much authority to the two campaigns, saying it effectively gave them veto power over which ballots ought to be counted.
“It seems odd that you would turn over somebody’s legal right to vote to the campaigns,” Pawlenty said. “It seems to me that would be a matter of law, or facts of law, for the courts to determine.”
At times, Canvassing Board faux pas have contributed to conservatives’ growing sense of unease over its deliberations. The five-member panel supervises all aspects of the recount that deposed Coleman as the apparent winner.
Most observers agree that the board has maintained the appearance of objectivity, although Secretary of State Ritchie accidentally moved on Dec. 16 that a disputed ballot “be allocated to Senator Franken.”
“Weariness or Freudian slip?” a Star-Tribune reporter quipped in reaction to the gaffe.
Ritchey, who has ties to both ACORN and left-wing financier Soros, quickly amended his motion, specifying “candidate Franken,” and spectators appeared to dismiss the flub with a laugh.
The incident no doubt struck Coleman supporters as less than amusing, however, given Ritchie’s chairmanship over the largest recount in Minnesota history.
A Franken win would leave the Obama administration just a single vote shy of being able to cut off debate over U.S. Senate legislation anytime it wants.
To be sure, the board has faced some tough calls. On Dec. 17, for example, it took a vote away from Coleman because it had been cast on ballot for the primary instead of the general election.
No state law addresses that unusual circumstance.
According to StarTribune.com, Coleman attorney Tony Trimble urged the board not to “disenfranchise a voter for the ballot [he] was given, that came from election judges.”
The 2008 Recount Guide from Ritchie’s office states: “a ballot or vote must not be rejected for a technicality if it is possible to decide what the voter intended, even though the voter may have made a mistake or the ballot is damaged.”
Saying the situation was “too bad, it breaks my heart,” Ritchie moved that the ballot be placed in the “other” pile, and the board agreed so Coleman did not get credit for the vote.
For Coleman, it was just one more setback in what has become a nightmarish electoral chronology:
Nov. 4, Coleman Leads by 725 Votes — Unofficial tallies of election results statewide show Coleman the winner by 725 votes out of nearly 3 million cast. The narrow margin automatically triggers a recount.
Nov. 5, Coleman Leads by 475 Votes — Ritchie’s office distributes a news release stating, “In Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, a slim margin of 475 votes favors Republican candidate and Republican senator Norn Coleman over Democratic challenger Al Franken.” The 250-vote difference? It stems from adjusted figures state and county officials around the state submitted.
Nov. 6, Coleman Leads by 438 Votes — Coleman’s margin continues to diminish as more adjusted figures come in. Why the adjustments consistently favor Franken goes largely unexplained.
“What struck me as really outrageous was, in the beginning, how Coleman’s lead shrank,” comments Matthew Vadum, senior editor for Capital Research Center, a conservative watchdog of nonprofit groups. “The counties were allowed to correct their vote totals with barely a peep from Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. He just considered all this to be legitimate, and it was their prerogative to do that — and it looks like he let them get away with murder.”
Vadum tells Newsmax, “That basically laid the foundation for the slugfest now going on in the recount contest. He chopped off Coleman’s lead and got it within stealing distance.”
Nov. 7, Coleman Leads by 239 Votes — Ritchie’s office announces the State Canvassing Board will convene to begin supervising the statewide recount on Nov. 18. “This week,” Ritchie adds, “county election officials have been busy proofing the unofficial results previously submitted to this office’s Web site. Corrections have resulted in a shifting margin which now stands at 239 votes with the advantage to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.” Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak says the campaign is “profoundly suspicious,” adding, “We’re mystified at this apparent pattern of every time there seems to be a change, it happens after hours and it happens in the Franken [campaign’s] favor.”
Nov. 8, Coleman Leads by 221 Votes — The New York Times reports that 32 absentee ballots were found after an election worker drove around with them in the back seat of his car for five days. An initial protest from Coleman is withdrawn, and the votes are counted. A document posted on the secretary of state’s Web site says shifting vote counts are “routine,” citing a 2006 election in which 2,100 ballot changes occurred after Election Day.
Nov. 12, Coleman Leads by 221 Votes — Ritchie, as secretary of state, names the members of the Canvassing Board who will oversee the recount: Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson, whom GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed; Minnesota Supreme Court Justice G. Barry Anderson, also appointed by Pawlenty; Chief Judge Kathleen R. Gearin of the Second Judicial District, a solid Democratic area; Assistant Chief Judge Edward J. Cleary, also of the Second Judicial District. By law, Ritchie will chair the board. Pawlenty appears on “Hannity & Colmes” and defends Minnesota’s secretary of state: “I know Mark Ritchie. He is a partisan on the other side of the aisle, as I am as governor. He is trying his best to conduct this fairly. The laws in Minnesota have certain limitations. There’s no evidence that he or anyone else has had actual wrong-doing. What we’re saying is that this process has resulted in some strange irregularities — statistical irregularities — and some suggestion that something is amiss.”
Nov. 18, Coleman Leads by 215 Votes — Ritchie convenes the first meeting of the Canvassing Board. The New York Times reports that the margin now stands at 215 votes. A statewide hand recount begins.
Nov. 19, Coleman Leads by 215 Votes — Ramsey County District Court Judge Dale B. Lindman grants a Franken campaign request that the county be required to release data on absentee ballots that may have been rejected improperly.
Nov. 21, Coleman Leads by 136 Votes — Coleman’s lead begins to slip almost as soon as the recount begins. In Duluth, Franken gains 30 votes, most attributed to errors stemming from outdated Eagle scanning machines. By day two, 46 percent of the 2.9 million ballots cast have been recounted. Some 823 ballots have been challenged by the two campaigns, generally on the grounds that local officials had misinterpreted the voter’s intent. As soon as a ballot is challenged, it is set aside and will not be counted until the Canvassing Board rules on the dispute.
Nov. 26, Coleman Leads by 238 Votes — As the recount moves to precincts favoring Coleman, his lead begins to increase. The Canvassing Board rules it does not have the authority to order local election officials, as requested by the Franken campaign, to reconsider the 12,000 absentee ballots rejected on Election Day. It agrees to discuss the matter further in future meetings.
Dec. 2, Coleman Leads by 340 Votes — Coleman’s lead continues to grow. The campaigns learn that 171 ballots in heavily Democratic Ramsey County were not counted because of a combination of machine and human error. When those votes are counted, Franken picks up 37 votes.
Dec. 3, Coleman Leads by 303 Votes — Minneapolis elections director Cindy Reichert reports that 133 votes cast on Election Day were double counted — that is, they were run twice through the optical scan machines that tabulate the vote. Correcting this error costs Franken about 35 votes, but other aspects of the recount favor Franken. Meanwhile, the number of challenged ballots in the race swells to nearly 6,000. Resolving those challenges, Franken’s attorneys say, actually will give him a 22-vote lead. About 138,000 ballots still must be recounted, officials say.
Dec. 5, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — Ritchie extends the recount deadline because the 133 ballots cannot be accounted for in Ward 3, Precinct 1. Records show 133 ballots were cast that cannot be located. Not counting the ballots in the Democratic stronghold would cost Franken about 46 votes; the whole point of the recount is to review the actual ballots, however. Ritchie dispatches Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann to aid in the search and to serve as an official observer. Also, Ritchie asks local election officials statewide to begin identifying and separating absentee ballots that may have been improperly rejected.
Dec. 10, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — The Minneapolis elections director informs Ritchie that the 133 missing ballots cannot be located. Coleman’s attorneys ask that the fate of the 133 votes be decided in court. Franken’s attorneys want the Canvassing Board to accept the vote tallies recorded on Election Day.
Dec. 11, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — On the eve of a Canvassing Board meeting to decide how to handle wrongly rejected absentee ballots, Franken submits 62 affidavits from Franken supporters who say they were disenfranchised wrongly when their absentee ballots were denied. Franken also releases a six-minute YouTube video of voters’ stories. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune characterized Franken’s affidavits as “the latest attempt by the campaign to increase the pressure on the board to count absentee ballots that were improperly rejected.”
Dec. 12, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — By unanimous vote, the five-member Canvassing Board asks all 87 counties to include in their recount votes all absentee ballots deemed to have been rejected improperly. The Coleman campaign, concerned that different counties may use different standards for evaluating absentee ballots, asks the state Supreme Court to order a halt to the counting of absentee ballots. In a double-whammy for Coleman, the Board also decides to accept the Election Day vote tally, including the 133 votes missing from Ward 3, Precinct 1.
Dec. 16, Coleman Leads by 192 Votes — The Canvassing Board begins to review challenged ballots. The Board first considers ballots for Coleman that had been challenged by Franken’s attorneys. Most of these ballots are ultimately expected to go to Coleman, which should widen his lead.
Dec. 17, Coleman Leads by 358 Votes — The counting of Franken challenges concludes with Coleman’s lead growing as expected, to 358 votes. The board discusses a Coleman request that as many as 150 duplicate ballots that the campaign believes already have been counted should not be counted again. Ritchie lectures Coleman’s attorneys that the staff is “not happy” to see the issue being raised. Coleman, he said, is asking the board “to settle a question you raised very late and a lot of legal paper came to us late — like a blizzard.”
Dec. 18, Coleman Leads by 5 Votes — The counting begins of ballots for Franken that Coleman had challenged. Franken rapidly cuts into Coleman’s lead, as the Canvassing Board awards the votes. In a stunning setback for Coleman, he leads by a mere 5 votes by day’s end, with more ballot challenges remaining. On one ballot, where the oval next to Franken’s name had been darkened but Franken’s name had been changed to “Frankenstine,” the board voted 3-2 to award the vote to Franken.
Also, another legal decision goes against Coleman: The state Supreme Court rejects his request that the counting of rejected absentee ballots be halted, and orders the two campaigns to agree on which ballots were rejected improperly.
Dec. 19, Franken Leads by 249 Votes — Franken’s campaign continues to steamroll ahead, and for the first time since Nov. 4, Franken leads rather than Coleman. Also, the Canvassing Board rules that the 150 duplicate ballots should be added into the vote totals. The Canvassing Board tells Coleman it will count (or double count) the votes and says he can challenge the board’s decision in court. The Coleman campaign immediately files an appeal with the state Supreme Court. The Coleman campaign predicts the Franken lead is only temporary.
Dec. 20, Franken Leads by 249 Votes — The Franken campaign projects that once all dropped challenges — that is, challenges initially filed but later withdrawn — are added back into the tally, Franken will lead by 35 to 50 votes.
Dec. 24, Franken Leads by 46 Votes — Adding back in the withdrawn challenges helps Coleman, but not enough for him to retake the lead. The state Supreme Court, in a 5-0 opinion, denies a Coleman request to block the Canvassing Board from certifying the election results until the fate of the 150 duplicate ballots can be resolved. However, Coleman will be free to file subsequent legal appeals. Coleman attorney Knaak responds: “We are deeply disappointed.”
Dec. 28, Franken Leads by 46 Votes — Minnesota’s other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, issues a call for the candidate certified the winner by the Canvassing Board to be seated on a provisional basis, even if court challenges are pending.
Dec. 29, Franken Leads by 49 Votes — The Canvassing Board awards a few last outstanding votes, and Franken’s margin increases to 49. Coleman’s campaign identifies 654 absentee ballots in counties where the voting patterns favor the incumbent GOP senator, in addition to the 933 ballots city and county election officials had identified. As expected, the two candidates are unable to agree on which ballots should be counted, and a series of meetings convene around the state to make a determination. Also, a Minneapolis Star-Tribune analysis of the voting trends suggests that counting the rejected absentee ballots probably would favor Franken. The analysis does not include the 654 new ballots Coleman identified.
Dec. 31, Franken Leads by 49 Votes — The Coleman campaign sends a letter to the secretary of state’s office objecting that the process for deciding which absentee ballots were rejected improperly will lead to “an invalid and unreliable election result.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suggests Franken is closing in on a victory. "At this stage, it appears that Franken will be certified the winner by the State Canvassing Board,” a statement from Reid’s office declares. That draws a sharp rebuke from GOP leaders. “The American people will see right through Harry Reid’s crass partisan power grab,” says former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.
Jan. 2, Franken Leads by 49 Votes — Local election officials send 933 rejected absentee ballots to the secretary of state’s office for counting. Texas GOP Sen. Cornyn warns that Republicans will filibuster any attempt to seat Franken when Congress convenes.
Jan. 5, Franken Leads by 225 Votes — Counting the 933 rejected absentee ballots balloons Franken’s lead. The state Supreme Court rules that it will not order state officials to count 654 other absentee ballots that Coleman says should be included. The Canvassing Board schedules a Monday afternoon meeting to certify a winner.
Weeks of legal disputes are expected to follow the Canvassing Board’s decision.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Boarder Security : How Much is Too Much?
I would like to believe that this story by Michael Yon is an exception and not the rule. I believe we have to be on our collective toes to stop further attacks but how much security is too much? Strange though, down south anyone, it seems, can just walk across the boarder at any time they want.
I guess these are tough times and some times the security personal are a little over the top - that is, maybe some of the individuals shouldn't be security inspectors as their personalities are suspect.
Oh well, I hope everything turned out okay for Michael and his friend.
Border Bullies
Michael Yon
04 January 2009
*The Department of Homeland Security in Action *
A Thai friend with whom I have traveled in Europe and Asia took time off
from her job to meet me in Florida over the holidays. This was a good
time for me, as it was between reporting stints in the war. My friend,
Aew, had volunteered to work with me in Afghanistan or Iraq, but I
declined because many people around me get shot or blown up. So we were
looking forward to spending some vacation time together. She comes from
a good family; and one that is wealthier than most American families.
She didn’t come here for a job. Well-educated, she has a master's degree
and works as a bank officer in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aew was excited
about the prospect of visiting America for the first time, though she
had traveled to many other countries and had the passport stamps to
prove it. She had no problem getting a U.S. visa, and she was paying her
own way to fly.
Problems began when she entered the airport in Bangkok. Aew had a
one-way ticket to America, because we would travel back in the direction
of the war before she would go home, but we did not know our exact
itinerary, so she hadn't bought a round-trip ticket back to Thailand.
Before boarding the flight from Thailand to America, Northwest Airlines
required Aew to buy a return ticket for 53,905 Thai bhat, or about
$1,200 for a return ticket, else they would not let her board the
flight. Aew paid by her credit card and pushed on. Understandably, it
raises suspicions when a foreign national doesn't have a round-trip
ticket in an age of massive illegal immigration -- even if that person
is an educated professional with a home and career, and even though Aew
has a ten-year visa to the United States.
Nevertheless, Aew paid approximately $1,200 for the return ticket, and so now had a return ticket.That is how it began. She boarded the jet, eventually landed in Japan
and then Minneapolis, before the final leg to Orlando. While thousands
of people have canceled trips to Orlando due to the failing economy, Aew
was coming with cash to spend in Florida. We would go to Disney, Kennedy
Space Center and many other places; she'd be seeing the sights while I
was meeting with military and other people in preparation for my
upcoming return to Afghanistan for the long year ahead.
I first met Aew in Indonesia during a break from the Iraq war. I had
gone to visit the site of the murder of my friend Beata Pawlak, who,
along with about two hundred other people, was killed in a terrorist
attack on the island of Bali.
After meeting in Indonesia, Aew and I stayed in touch. We traveled at
different times to Singapore, Great Britain, Thailand and Nepal. Yet
when Aew landed in Minneapolis, she was hustled away by an immigration
officer. After approximately 24 hours of exhausting travel, Aew was
detained for about 90 minutes without cause, and as a result, she missed
her connecting flight to Orlando.
She was brought into a small room where she saw a camera peering down. The officer conducting the shakedown wore a name tag: "Knapp." Five times she had traveled to China
with zero problems, but Knapp grilled Aew with a long series of
questions, rifling through her wallet, handling her credit cards and
reading them carefully, questioning her piece by piece. Her passport,
thick with extra pages, showed stamps from countries around the world.
It contained the valid U.S. visa, and stamps and visas from countries
she had traveled to, such as Great Britain, Japan, China, Nepal,
Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei,
New Zealand and Cambodia.
She had traveled to some of these countries on
multiple occasions, always paying her own way. She never had problems.
Not even in China. We had toured Parliament together in London, on a
private expedition led by Member of Parliament Adam Holloway. Aew was
very interested to see the Royal Family, and was beside herself when I
met Lady Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who at that time read this
website. The British, including military officers, had treated her very
well and she left with positive memories of Great Britian.
But that was Great Britain. The American shakedown was just starting.
Her sister, Puk, was sending me SMS messages from Thailand, worried that
Aew seemed to have disappeared. I had bought Puk's daughters, North and
Nurse, who are 8 and 9, a "talking globe" so they could track the
travels of their Aunt Aew. The last time I saw North and Nurse, we had
taken them to the Chiang Mai zoo, and also to an elephant camp where the
elephants paint. Puk's husband, Bey, is a high-ranking Thai police
officer who, as part of his duties, helps organize security for the Thai
Royal Family.
While the U.S. Immigration officer named Knapp rifled through all her
belongings, Aew sat quietly. She was afraid of this man, who eventually
pushed a keyboard to Aew and coerced her into giving up the password to
her e-mail address. Officer Knapp read through Aew's e-mails that were
addressed to me, and mine to her. Aew would tell me later that she sat
quietly, but "Inside I was crying."
She had been so excited to finally
visit America. America, the only country ever to coerce her at the
border. This is against everything I know about winning and losing the
subtle wars. This is against everything I love about the United States.
We are not supposed to behave like this. Aew would tell me later that
she thought she would be arrested if she did not give the password.
The Government of the United States was reading the private e-mails of a
U.S. citizen (me). The Department of "Homeland Security" was at work,
intimidating visitors with legitimate visas. They had at least 24 hours
to check her out before she landed in the United States. What kind of
security is this? The Department of Homeland Security was at this moment
more like the Department of Intimidation.
Officer Knapp called my phone as I was driving to the Orlando airport. I
was going to be there two hours early to make sure I would be on time,
so that she had a warm welcome to my country. But instead, Knapp was
busy detaining Aew in Minneapolis and was on my cell phone asking all
types of personal questions that he had no business asking. Sensing that
Aew was in trouble, I answered his questions. Mr. Knapp was a rude smart
aleck. The call is likely recorded and that recording would bear out my
claims.
This officer of the United States government, a grown man, had
coerced personal information from a Thai woman who weighs 90 pounds. I
asked Aew later why she gave him the e-mail password, and she answered
simply, "I was afraid," and "I thought I would be arrested."
What could I say to alleviate any of this? Could I say, "This is the
U.S., nothing to be afraid of."? The world already sees us as senseless
bullies. Aew might have been detained indefinitely; even I was concerned
that the Department of Homeland Security might detain Aew for no reason.
Essentially, she had no rights. They had already coerced her e-mail
password out of her head through intimidation.
This does not make me feel safe: Our Homeland Security was focusing on a
40-year-old Thai bank officer while there are real bad guys out there.
Thailand and the United States have had good relations for 175 years,
and Thailand is one of the few countries in the world that is proud to
say they are friends of the United States. There are no threats to
Americans from Thai people -- who, among other relevant things, are
mostly not Muslims. The King of Thailand was born in Massachusetts and
graduated from Harvard. I have never seen the King with a gun; only a
camera. His 2009 New Year’s speech was also a call for peace.
The King and his family helped bring widespread education to Thailand, which
created a special problem. Today there are large numbers of highly
educated, successful women looking for highly educated men. I remember
General (ret.) McCaffrey, our former drug Czar, telling me a couple of
years ago that the King of Thailand was incredibly important in wiping
out opium poppies in Thailand. The King of Thailand is highly respected
by the government of the United States. He is a very good man.
During World War II, when the Japanese encouraged the Thai people to
fight us, the Thai government actually declared war on the United States
and Great Britain. But the Thai Ambassador in Washington refused to
deliver the declaration of war. The upshot was that the United States
refused to declare war on Thailand, and the Thai people formed a
resistance against the Japanese.
Thai people refused to fight Americans. Instead, they attacked the
Japanese. Has our government had problems recently with 90-pound,
40-year-old Thai women? Do they blow things up? Aew doesn’t even know
how to light a match. She doesn’t smoke or drink, and is more upright
than your average southern Baptist. She can’t even curse and gets upset
if she hears me say a bad word about someone. "Michael!" she says,
"Don’t say that!"
When I discovered that she had missed her flight, after about 24 hours
of travel thus far, I called immigration at Minneapolis and asked to
speak with Officer Knapp. Knapp got on the phone, but this time it was
me questioning him. Knapp told me it was legal to read e-mails. I asked
for his first name, but he was afraid to give his first name, which was
rather strange for someone working within the confines of an airport
where everyone has been searched for weapons.
Where I work, in a war
zone, soldiers give their first and last names and face Taliban and al
Qaeda heads up, man to man. I write about al Qaeda, Taliban and other
terrorist groups who kill thousands of people. My name is Michael Yon.
My first name is Michael. Mr. Knapp hides behind a badge bullying a
woman whose only activities are Yoga, reading, travel, and telling me
what is healthy and unhealthy to eat. Knapp is a face of Homeland
Security. How many other officers at Homeland Security bully 90-pound
women, but are afraid to give their own names?
Knowing that Homeland Security officers are creating animosity and
anxiety at our borders does not make me feel safer. How many truly bad
guys slip by while U.S. officers stand in small rooms and pick on little
women?
I have just returned from Afghanistan and Iraq on a trip with U.S.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and I can assure you that we can do
better. We do not have to violate human rights and insult our closest
allies to maintain our security.
Meanwhile, Aew had missed two flights; standby seats were full on the
second flight, and I was considering flying from Florida to Minneapolis
to get her myself. I did not want Aew to have to sleep in the airport
overnight.
I had intended to show Aew a bit of my country. But it's taking a little
while for her to get over her discomfort at being in America. She was
treated better in China. So was I.
I guess these are tough times and some times the security personal are a little over the top - that is, maybe some of the individuals shouldn't be security inspectors as their personalities are suspect.
Oh well, I hope everything turned out okay for Michael and his friend.
Border Bullies
Michael Yon
04 January 2009
*The Department of Homeland Security in Action *
A Thai friend with whom I have traveled in Europe and Asia took time off
from her job to meet me in Florida over the holidays. This was a good
time for me, as it was between reporting stints in the war. My friend,
Aew, had volunteered to work with me in Afghanistan or Iraq, but I
declined because many people around me get shot or blown up. So we were
looking forward to spending some vacation time together. She comes from
a good family; and one that is wealthier than most American families.
She didn’t come here for a job. Well-educated, she has a master's degree
and works as a bank officer in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aew was excited
about the prospect of visiting America for the first time, though she
had traveled to many other countries and had the passport stamps to
prove it. She had no problem getting a U.S. visa, and she was paying her
own way to fly.
Problems began when she entered the airport in Bangkok. Aew had a
one-way ticket to America, because we would travel back in the direction
of the war before she would go home, but we did not know our exact
itinerary, so she hadn't bought a round-trip ticket back to Thailand.
Before boarding the flight from Thailand to America, Northwest Airlines
required Aew to buy a return ticket for 53,905 Thai bhat, or about
$1,200 for a return ticket, else they would not let her board the
flight. Aew paid by her credit card and pushed on. Understandably, it
raises suspicions when a foreign national doesn't have a round-trip
ticket in an age of massive illegal immigration -- even if that person
is an educated professional with a home and career, and even though Aew
has a ten-year visa to the United States.
Nevertheless, Aew paid approximately $1,200 for the return ticket, and so now had a return ticket.That is how it began. She boarded the jet, eventually landed in Japan
and then Minneapolis, before the final leg to Orlando. While thousands
of people have canceled trips to Orlando due to the failing economy, Aew
was coming with cash to spend in Florida. We would go to Disney, Kennedy
Space Center and many other places; she'd be seeing the sights while I
was meeting with military and other people in preparation for my
upcoming return to Afghanistan for the long year ahead.
I first met Aew in Indonesia during a break from the Iraq war. I had
gone to visit the site of the murder of my friend Beata Pawlak, who,
along with about two hundred other people, was killed in a terrorist
attack on the island of Bali.
After meeting in Indonesia, Aew and I stayed in touch. We traveled at
different times to Singapore, Great Britain, Thailand and Nepal. Yet
when Aew landed in Minneapolis, she was hustled away by an immigration
officer. After approximately 24 hours of exhausting travel, Aew was
detained for about 90 minutes without cause, and as a result, she missed
her connecting flight to Orlando.
She was brought into a small room where she saw a camera peering down. The officer conducting the shakedown wore a name tag: "Knapp." Five times she had traveled to China
with zero problems, but Knapp grilled Aew with a long series of
questions, rifling through her wallet, handling her credit cards and
reading them carefully, questioning her piece by piece. Her passport,
thick with extra pages, showed stamps from countries around the world.
It contained the valid U.S. visa, and stamps and visas from countries
she had traveled to, such as Great Britain, Japan, China, Nepal,
Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Brunei,
New Zealand and Cambodia.
She had traveled to some of these countries on
multiple occasions, always paying her own way. She never had problems.
Not even in China. We had toured Parliament together in London, on a
private expedition led by Member of Parliament Adam Holloway. Aew was
very interested to see the Royal Family, and was beside herself when I
met Lady Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who at that time read this
website. The British, including military officers, had treated her very
well and she left with positive memories of Great Britian.
But that was Great Britain. The American shakedown was just starting.
Her sister, Puk, was sending me SMS messages from Thailand, worried that
Aew seemed to have disappeared. I had bought Puk's daughters, North and
Nurse, who are 8 and 9, a "talking globe" so they could track the
travels of their Aunt Aew. The last time I saw North and Nurse, we had
taken them to the Chiang Mai zoo, and also to an elephant camp where the
elephants paint. Puk's husband, Bey, is a high-ranking Thai police
officer who, as part of his duties, helps organize security for the Thai
Royal Family.
While the U.S. Immigration officer named Knapp rifled through all her
belongings, Aew sat quietly. She was afraid of this man, who eventually
pushed a keyboard to Aew and coerced her into giving up the password to
her e-mail address. Officer Knapp read through Aew's e-mails that were
addressed to me, and mine to her. Aew would tell me later that she sat
quietly, but "Inside I was crying."
She had been so excited to finally
visit America. America, the only country ever to coerce her at the
border. This is against everything I know about winning and losing the
subtle wars. This is against everything I love about the United States.
We are not supposed to behave like this. Aew would tell me later that
she thought she would be arrested if she did not give the password.
The Government of the United States was reading the private e-mails of a
U.S. citizen (me). The Department of "Homeland Security" was at work,
intimidating visitors with legitimate visas. They had at least 24 hours
to check her out before she landed in the United States. What kind of
security is this? The Department of Homeland Security was at this moment
more like the Department of Intimidation.
Officer Knapp called my phone as I was driving to the Orlando airport. I
was going to be there two hours early to make sure I would be on time,
so that she had a warm welcome to my country. But instead, Knapp was
busy detaining Aew in Minneapolis and was on my cell phone asking all
types of personal questions that he had no business asking. Sensing that
Aew was in trouble, I answered his questions. Mr. Knapp was a rude smart
aleck. The call is likely recorded and that recording would bear out my
claims.
This officer of the United States government, a grown man, had
coerced personal information from a Thai woman who weighs 90 pounds. I
asked Aew later why she gave him the e-mail password, and she answered
simply, "I was afraid," and "I thought I would be arrested."
What could I say to alleviate any of this? Could I say, "This is the
U.S., nothing to be afraid of."? The world already sees us as senseless
bullies. Aew might have been detained indefinitely; even I was concerned
that the Department of Homeland Security might detain Aew for no reason.
Essentially, she had no rights. They had already coerced her e-mail
password out of her head through intimidation.
This does not make me feel safe: Our Homeland Security was focusing on a
40-year-old Thai bank officer while there are real bad guys out there.
Thailand and the United States have had good relations for 175 years,
and Thailand is one of the few countries in the world that is proud to
say they are friends of the United States. There are no threats to
Americans from Thai people -- who, among other relevant things, are
mostly not Muslims. The King of Thailand was born in Massachusetts and
graduated from Harvard. I have never seen the King with a gun; only a
camera. His 2009 New Year’s speech was also a call for peace.
The King and his family helped bring widespread education to Thailand, which
created a special problem. Today there are large numbers of highly
educated, successful women looking for highly educated men. I remember
General (ret.) McCaffrey, our former drug Czar, telling me a couple of
years ago that the King of Thailand was incredibly important in wiping
out opium poppies in Thailand. The King of Thailand is highly respected
by the government of the United States. He is a very good man.
During World War II, when the Japanese encouraged the Thai people to
fight us, the Thai government actually declared war on the United States
and Great Britain. But the Thai Ambassador in Washington refused to
deliver the declaration of war. The upshot was that the United States
refused to declare war on Thailand, and the Thai people formed a
resistance against the Japanese.
Thai people refused to fight Americans. Instead, they attacked the
Japanese. Has our government had problems recently with 90-pound,
40-year-old Thai women? Do they blow things up? Aew doesn’t even know
how to light a match. She doesn’t smoke or drink, and is more upright
than your average southern Baptist. She can’t even curse and gets upset
if she hears me say a bad word about someone. "Michael!" she says,
"Don’t say that!"
When I discovered that she had missed her flight, after about 24 hours
of travel thus far, I called immigration at Minneapolis and asked to
speak with Officer Knapp. Knapp got on the phone, but this time it was
me questioning him. Knapp told me it was legal to read e-mails. I asked
for his first name, but he was afraid to give his first name, which was
rather strange for someone working within the confines of an airport
where everyone has been searched for weapons.
Where I work, in a war
zone, soldiers give their first and last names and face Taliban and al
Qaeda heads up, man to man. I write about al Qaeda, Taliban and other
terrorist groups who kill thousands of people. My name is Michael Yon.
My first name is Michael. Mr. Knapp hides behind a badge bullying a
woman whose only activities are Yoga, reading, travel, and telling me
what is healthy and unhealthy to eat. Knapp is a face of Homeland
Security. How many other officers at Homeland Security bully 90-pound
women, but are afraid to give their own names?
Knowing that Homeland Security officers are creating animosity and
anxiety at our borders does not make me feel safer. How many truly bad
guys slip by while U.S. officers stand in small rooms and pick on little
women?
I have just returned from Afghanistan and Iraq on a trip with U.S.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and I can assure you that we can do
better. We do not have to violate human rights and insult our closest
allies to maintain our security.
Meanwhile, Aew had missed two flights; standby seats were full on the
second flight, and I was considering flying from Florida to Minneapolis
to get her myself. I did not want Aew to have to sleep in the airport
overnight.
I had intended to show Aew a bit of my country. But it's taking a little
while for her to get over her discomfort at being in America. She was
treated better in China. So was I.
Liberal National Health Care Will Destroy Private Care Industry
Here is just one more of the disasters that the "One" has promised to inflect on us when he takes office - it isn't clear just what he will actually do, but we can only 'hope' that he used the same technique that Clinton did back in '92 - that is, tell any lie necessary to get elected and then only do as much as necessary to keep the base Happy.
True, this isn't the 90's and the electorate is fatter and more ready and willing to scum to anything that Obama says is right for them - sigh - and as always when it turns out bad it will so easy to blame Bush. This can go on for decades. Just look how they have vilified Nixon for the last thirty years and still are!
It will be up to the rest of us t0 stop any idiocy that the congress and the 'messiah' come up with that doesn't bode well for the country as a whole - and the way to do this get on the phone and the computer and let your elected officials know that the nonsense won't fly.
Keep the faith - it's up to us now to keep the thief from our door. Arm your self with knowledge and intestinal fortitude.
Health care promises can't be kept
December 30, 2008 By Nathaniel Ward
President-elect Barack Obama cannot possibly keep his health care campaign promises, explains Heritage expert Robert Moffit.
On the campaign trail, Moffit says, the candidate "promised--repeatedly--that Americans who already had health insurance would not face any changes in their coverage and that their costs would go down, saving the typical family $2,500 annually in premiums."
But under the president-elect's proposed health care reforms, "millions of Americans will indeed lose their existing coverage, and the promised premium savings are unlikely to materialize."
What's more, the programs amount to "a Trojan horse for government control and the progressive destruction of Americans' private health insurance coverage."
The incoming administration has suggested a number of radical health care changes:
Establishing a new federally-run national health plan financed by the taxpayers;
Imposing a mandate on employers to offer health insurance to their employees; and
Creating national health insurance exchange in which the public health plan would compete -- unfairly -- with private health insurance.
Because the government's health care plan would likely be less costly up front to consumers, "the result would be a massive crowd-out of private health insurance coverage, especially employer-based coverage."
True, this isn't the 90's and the electorate is fatter and more ready and willing to scum to anything that Obama says is right for them - sigh - and as always when it turns out bad it will so easy to blame Bush. This can go on for decades. Just look how they have vilified Nixon for the last thirty years and still are!
It will be up to the rest of us t0 stop any idiocy that the congress and the 'messiah' come up with that doesn't bode well for the country as a whole - and the way to do this get on the phone and the computer and let your elected officials know that the nonsense won't fly.
Keep the faith - it's up to us now to keep the thief from our door. Arm your self with knowledge and intestinal fortitude.
Health care promises can't be kept
December 30, 2008 By Nathaniel Ward
President-elect Barack Obama cannot possibly keep his health care campaign promises, explains Heritage expert Robert Moffit.
On the campaign trail, Moffit says, the candidate "promised--repeatedly--that Americans who already had health insurance would not face any changes in their coverage and that their costs would go down, saving the typical family $2,500 annually in premiums."
But under the president-elect's proposed health care reforms, "millions of Americans will indeed lose their existing coverage, and the promised premium savings are unlikely to materialize."
What's more, the programs amount to "a Trojan horse for government control and the progressive destruction of Americans' private health insurance coverage."
The incoming administration has suggested a number of radical health care changes:
Establishing a new federally-run national health plan financed by the taxpayers;
Imposing a mandate on employers to offer health insurance to their employees; and
Creating national health insurance exchange in which the public health plan would compete -- unfairly -- with private health insurance.
Because the government's health care plan would likely be less costly up front to consumers, "the result would be a massive crowd-out of private health insurance coverage, especially employer-based coverage."
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Al Gore's Science Advisor Fired for Finding Truth
Well, well, well - but let's not let facts get in the way of agenda, for heaven's sake - if you don't sit in the front pew and drink the coolaid like everyone else, you are talking heresy and must be purged from the church of true believers.
But keep the faith - with any luck, common sense will win the day before we all have to taste the coolaid - yikes!!
Scientist Fired by Gore Calls Warming Fears ‘Mistaken’
Princeton University physicist Dr. Will Happer, who says he was fired by Vice President Al Gore for failing to adhere to Gore’s views on global warming, has now declared that man-made warming fears are “mistaken.”
Happer, who served as the director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy from 1990 to 1993, said, “I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore, since I refused to go along with his alarmism. I did not need the job that badly.”
He said in 1993, “I was told that science was not going to intrude on policy."
Now Happer has asked to join the more than 650 international scientists who have spoken out against man-made global warming fears and are cited in the 2008 U.S. Senate Minority Report from Environmental and Public Works Committee ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla.
“I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken,” Happer told the committee on Dec. 22.
President-elect Barack Obama’s choice as his top science adviser, Harvard University professor John Holdren, is a staunch believer in the dangers of man-made global warming and advised Gore on his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Dr. Happer has published over 200 scientific papers, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Sen. Inhofe said that the statements of prominent scientists like Happer who are willing to publicly dissent from climate fears strike a blow to the United Nations, Gore, and the media’s claims about global warming.
“The endless claims of a 'consensus' about man-made global warming grow less and less credible every day," Inhofe said.
Happer declared, “I have spent a long research career studying physics that is closely related to the greenhouse effect — for example, absorption and emission of visible and infrared radiation, and fluid flow. Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science.
The earth's climate is changing now, as it always has. There is no evidence that the changes differ in any qualitative way from those of the past . . .
“Computer models used to generate frightening scenarios from increasing levels of carbon dioxide have scant credibility.” ( my bold : The Slickster )
But keep the faith - with any luck, common sense will win the day before we all have to taste the coolaid - yikes!!
Scientist Fired by Gore Calls Warming Fears ‘Mistaken’
Princeton University physicist Dr. Will Happer, who says he was fired by Vice President Al Gore for failing to adhere to Gore’s views on global warming, has now declared that man-made warming fears are “mistaken.”
Happer, who served as the director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy from 1990 to 1993, said, “I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore, since I refused to go along with his alarmism. I did not need the job that badly.”
He said in 1993, “I was told that science was not going to intrude on policy."
Now Happer has asked to join the more than 650 international scientists who have spoken out against man-made global warming fears and are cited in the 2008 U.S. Senate Minority Report from Environmental and Public Works Committee ranking member James Inhofe, R-Okla.
“I am convinced that the current alarm over carbon dioxide is mistaken,” Happer told the committee on Dec. 22.
President-elect Barack Obama’s choice as his top science adviser, Harvard University professor John Holdren, is a staunch believer in the dangers of man-made global warming and advised Gore on his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Dr. Happer has published over 200 scientific papers, and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Sen. Inhofe said that the statements of prominent scientists like Happer who are willing to publicly dissent from climate fears strike a blow to the United Nations, Gore, and the media’s claims about global warming.
“The endless claims of a 'consensus' about man-made global warming grow less and less credible every day," Inhofe said.
Happer declared, “I have spent a long research career studying physics that is closely related to the greenhouse effect — for example, absorption and emission of visible and infrared radiation, and fluid flow. Fears about man-made global warming are unwarranted and are not based on good science.
The earth's climate is changing now, as it always has. There is no evidence that the changes differ in any qualitative way from those of the past . . .
“Computer models used to generate frightening scenarios from increasing levels of carbon dioxide have scant credibility.” ( my bold : The Slickster )
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Harry Reid Approves Stealing Senate Seat for Franken
The liberals have no limit to which they can attach their grab for power - what a hoot - Reid says he won't seat Burrs because of the fall from grace of the Illinois Governor. That is, he got caught doing what all liberal Democrats do to get elected and then keep power - they cheat, lie and deceive. Who knew?
Now Harry Reid says he wants to seat Franken early as he sees it a 'slam dunk' win in Minnesota even though a huge court battle is in process over manufactured ballots and other illegal action on the part of the liberal Democrat Socialist party. The GOP vows to fight any move on the part of Reid to seat Franken without due process.
Keep the faith while you read this article from NewsMax.
GOP Vows to Block Franken From U.S. Senate
Friday, January 2, 2009
By:David A. Patten
Republicans will filibuster any attempt to seat Minnesota Democrat Al Franken when Congress convenes next week, Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn warned his Democratic colleagues Friday.
It was the latest salvo in the war of words touched off this week when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suggested Franken was drawing near to clinching a victory — despite the fact that as many as 2,000 votes are uncounted and numerous legal challenges loom.
"At this stage, it appears that Franken will be certified the winner by the State Canvassing Board,” a statement from Reid’s office declared Tuesday. “We're keeping abreast of the situation and will make a decision with regard to Senate action at the appropriate point in the process."
That statement drew a sharp rebuke from GOP leaders.
“The American people will see right through Harry Reid’s crass partisan power grab,” Ken Blackwell, who is a leading contender for the GOP chairmanship, told Newsmax. “He wants to manufacture a filibuster-proof majority to push through his liberal agenda.”
Cornyn, the new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, left little doubt Republicans would fight any attempt to make a Franken victory appear a foregone conclusion by seating him early.
“I can assure you there will be no way that people on our side of the aisle would agree to seat any senator provisionally or otherwise unless there is a valid election certificate and all legal issues with regard to who got the most votes is finally decided,” Cornyn told reporters during a conference call Friday.
Cornyn said he is confident that no Republican would cross the aisle to support seating someone whose election victory has not yet been formally certified. Doing so, he said, would cause “damage to the Senate and its reputation as an institution,” adding, “It would be a recipe for chaos.”
Minnesota officials hope to complete their recount by Saturday, and will review ballot challenges on Monday. They could declare a winner Tuesday.
Legal challenges are likely to drag on for weeks, however.
Now Harry Reid says he wants to seat Franken early as he sees it a 'slam dunk' win in Minnesota even though a huge court battle is in process over manufactured ballots and other illegal action on the part of the liberal Democrat Socialist party. The GOP vows to fight any move on the part of Reid to seat Franken without due process.
Keep the faith while you read this article from NewsMax.
GOP Vows to Block Franken From U.S. Senate
Friday, January 2, 2009
By:David A. Patten
Republicans will filibuster any attempt to seat Minnesota Democrat Al Franken when Congress convenes next week, Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn warned his Democratic colleagues Friday.
It was the latest salvo in the war of words touched off this week when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suggested Franken was drawing near to clinching a victory — despite the fact that as many as 2,000 votes are uncounted and numerous legal challenges loom.
"At this stage, it appears that Franken will be certified the winner by the State Canvassing Board,” a statement from Reid’s office declared Tuesday. “We're keeping abreast of the situation and will make a decision with regard to Senate action at the appropriate point in the process."
That statement drew a sharp rebuke from GOP leaders.
“The American people will see right through Harry Reid’s crass partisan power grab,” Ken Blackwell, who is a leading contender for the GOP chairmanship, told Newsmax. “He wants to manufacture a filibuster-proof majority to push through his liberal agenda.”
Cornyn, the new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, left little doubt Republicans would fight any attempt to make a Franken victory appear a foregone conclusion by seating him early.
“I can assure you there will be no way that people on our side of the aisle would agree to seat any senator provisionally or otherwise unless there is a valid election certificate and all legal issues with regard to who got the most votes is finally decided,” Cornyn told reporters during a conference call Friday.
Cornyn said he is confident that no Republican would cross the aisle to support seating someone whose election victory has not yet been formally certified. Doing so, he said, would cause “damage to the Senate and its reputation as an institution,” adding, “It would be a recipe for chaos.”
Minnesota officials hope to complete their recount by Saturday, and will review ballot challenges on Monday. They could declare a winner Tuesday.
Legal challenges are likely to drag on for weeks, however.
Friday, January 02, 2009
Regular Army Forms Contingency Plans for Country Wide Roiting
I believe I posted on this sometime ago saying that the new 'change' that Obama will bring will be to strangle freedom of thought and movement in America to get total control of the population, Soviet style, to bring about his 'new' vision for change to the American dream.
Remember the Civil Defense Corp that Obama proposed during the campaign and how he wanted it to be as strong as the standing regular army now in place? Who would have thought that even the regular army would be planning for such a contingency as total, county wide revolt. In America?
This article solidifies some thought on how the Constitution could be suspended in favor of martial law, that is the government removing all rights and freedoms and replacing them with edicts from the government. And many in this country would welcome it at first but later would find it unacceptable. By then, of course, it would be too late as power has a way of feeding on itself. As the saying goes " power corrupts but total power corrupts absolutely".
Again, couldn't happen here, right? hmmmm If you will recall the now deposed Ogama chief of staff saying " a crisis is to good to pass up as it affords us the opportunity to implement our agenda, something that wouldn't have been possible without a crisis" or something to that effect. Can you imagine what the liberal left, Marxist socialists, could do with suspending the Constitution and having complete control over all aspects of our lives?
I know these plans are only contingencies, but with liberals in control of power in Washington, I have real sense of fear for the American way of life.
Keep the faith, the battle goes on!
U.S. Military Preparing for Domestic Disturbances
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:14 PM*By:*
Jim Meyers
A new report from the U.S. Army War College discusses the use of American troops to quell civil unrest brought about by a worsening economic crisis. The report from the War College’s Strategic Studies Institute warns that the U.S. military must prepare for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” that could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.”
Entitled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development,” the report was produced by Nathan Freier, a recently retired Army lieutenant colonel who is a professor at the college — the Army’s main training institute for prospective senior officers. He writes: “To the extent events like this involve organized violence against local, state, and national authorities and exceed the capacity of the former two to restore public order and protect vulnerable populations, DoD [Department of Defense] would be required to fill the gap.” Freier continues: “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order … An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home.”
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned last week of riots and unrest in global markets if the ongoing financial crisis is not addressed and lower-income households are beset with credit constraints and rising unemployment, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.
Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Rep. Brad Sherman of California disclosed that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discussed a worst-case scenario as he pushed the Wall Street bailout in September, and said that scenario might even require a declaration of martial law.
The Army College report states: “DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility. Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States.“Further, DoD would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.”
He concludes this section of the report by observing: “DoD is already challenged by stabilization abroad. Imagine the challenges associated with doing so on a massive scale at home."As Newsmax reported earlier, the Defense Department has made plans to deploy 20,000 troops nationwide by 2011 to help state and local officials respond to emergencies.
The 130-year-old Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military’s role in domestic law enforcement. But a 1994 Defense Department Directive allows military commanders to take emergency actions in domestic situations to save lives, prevent suffering or mitigate great property damage, according to the Business Journal.
And Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the U.S. military operations to liberate Iraq, said in a 2003 interview that if the U.S. is attacked with a weapon of mass destruction, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Remember the Civil Defense Corp that Obama proposed during the campaign and how he wanted it to be as strong as the standing regular army now in place? Who would have thought that even the regular army would be planning for such a contingency as total, county wide revolt. In America?
This article solidifies some thought on how the Constitution could be suspended in favor of martial law, that is the government removing all rights and freedoms and replacing them with edicts from the government. And many in this country would welcome it at first but later would find it unacceptable. By then, of course, it would be too late as power has a way of feeding on itself. As the saying goes " power corrupts but total power corrupts absolutely".
Again, couldn't happen here, right? hmmmm If you will recall the now deposed Ogama chief of staff saying " a crisis is to good to pass up as it affords us the opportunity to implement our agenda, something that wouldn't have been possible without a crisis" or something to that effect. Can you imagine what the liberal left, Marxist socialists, could do with suspending the Constitution and having complete control over all aspects of our lives?
I know these plans are only contingencies, but with liberals in control of power in Washington, I have real sense of fear for the American way of life.
Keep the faith, the battle goes on!
U.S. Military Preparing for Domestic Disturbances
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 1:14 PM*By:*
Jim Meyers
Entitled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development,” the report was produced by Nathan Freier, a recently retired Army lieutenant colonel who is a professor at the college — the Army’s main training institute for prospective senior officers. He writes: “To the extent events like this involve organized violence against local, state, and national authorities and exceed the capacity of the former two to restore public order and protect vulnerable populations, DoD [Department of Defense] would be required to fill the gap.” Freier continues: “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order … An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home.”
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned last week of riots and unrest in global markets if the ongoing financial crisis is not addressed and lower-income households are beset with credit constraints and rising unemployment, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.
Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Rep. Brad Sherman of California disclosed that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discussed a worst-case scenario as he pushed the Wall Street bailout in September, and said that scenario might even require a declaration of martial law.
The Army College report states: “DoD might be forced by circumstances to put its broad resources at the disposal of civil authorities to contain and reverse violent threats to domestic tranquility. Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States.“Further, DoD would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance.”
He concludes this section of the report by observing: “DoD is already challenged by stabilization abroad. Imagine the challenges associated with doing so on a massive scale at home."As Newsmax reported earlier, the Defense Department has made plans to deploy 20,000 troops nationwide by 2011 to help state and local officials respond to emergencies.
The 130-year-old Posse Comitatus Act restricts the military’s role in domestic law enforcement. But a 1994 Defense Department Directive allows military commanders to take emergency actions in domestic situations to save lives, prevent suffering or mitigate great property damage, according to the Business Journal.
And Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the U.S. military operations to liberate Iraq, said in a 2003 interview that if the U.S. is attacked with a weapon of mass destruction, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Christmas Shopping in Detroit is Differnent
Now it can't really be this bad, can it? But then again maybe it can - Detroit, like New Orleans, has been controlled by Democrats for decades. Both cities have criminals for mayors, and given Michigan is for all purposes, a third world money sump hole, this kind of behavior might be typical.
You decide.
You decide.
Who Is The "One"? : Easy - Sara Palin
Here is a little light hearted comic relief that we need during these tested times.
Take a break from the "drive-by media" and it's insane fantasies of how the new, all powerful and all giving "one" will save us all.
Enjoy
Government Not The Solution for Financial Crisis : Free Markets Are
What great insight into the crisis that we face today in the financial markets - a crisis that was brought on by the very institution that now says it can fix. Do you see anything wrong with this?
Government has always been the problem and will continue to be so as long as we allow ourselves to be directed and manipulated by it. If we as citizens don't start using some common sense in our personal lives by demanding less government and more free market solutions to our problems, we will suffer the consequences in a lower quality of life for ourselves and the next generations. You say it can't happen here, right? Guess again!
As the author of this article points out, government can't fix something by waving a magic wand, it will take sacrifice on all of us by living within our means. Oh, no not that, Obama promised he would solve all of the world problems, why should we give up anything? Case in point, the UAW in Detroit.
The liberal elites in Washington and elsewhere now are saying a fix will take long then they thought and we will have to pay more then they thought and it won't just be the rich that has to pay more but everyone, for generations to come. But guess who won't have to take a pay cut, you guessed it, the liberal elites in Washington and else where that make the laws that will move the entire nation into the poor house.
The cry of the modern liberal is "pull up the rope, I'm aboard".
Do you know people like this, yeah, so do I and they out number us by a big margin. Keep the faith though, maybe common sense will prevail when the battle heats up.
There's No Pain-Free Cure for Recession
Belt-tightening is required by all, including government. WSJ
December 27, 2008
By PETER SCHIFF
As recession fears cause the nation to embrace greater state control of
the economy and unimaginable federal deficits, one searches in vain for
debate worthy of the moment. Where there should be an historic clash of
ideas, there is only blind resignation and an amorphous queasiness that
we are simply sweeping the slouching beast under the rug.
With faith in the free markets now taking a back seat to fear and
expediency, nearly the entire political spectrum agrees that the federal
government must spend whatever amount is necessary to stabilize the
housing market, bail out financial firms, liquefy the credit markets,
create jobs and make the recession as shallow and brief as possible. The
few who maintain free-market views have been largely marginalized.
Taking the theories of economist John Maynard Keynes as gospel, our most
highly respected contemporary economists imagine a complex world in
which economics at the personal, corporate and municipal levels are
governed by laws far different from those in effect at the national level.
Individuals, companies or cities with heavy debt and shrinking revenues
instinctively know that they must reduce spending, tighten their belts,
pay down debt and live within their means. But it is axiomatic in
Keynesianism that national governments can create and sustain economic
activity by injecting printed money into the financial system. In their
view, absent the stimuli of the New Deal and World War II, the
Depression would never have ended.
On a gut level, we have a hard time with this concept. There is a vague
sense of smoke and mirrors, of something being magically created out of
nothing. But economics, we are told, is complicated.
It would be irresponsible in the extreme for an individual to forestall
a personal recession by taking out newer, bigger loans when the old
loans can't be repaid. However, this is precisely what we are planning
on a national level.
I believe these ideas hold sway largely because they promise happy,
pain-free solutions. They are the economic equivalent of miracle
weight-loss programs that require no dieting or exercise. The theories
permit economists to claim mystic wisdom, governments to pretend that
they have the power to dispel hardship with the whir of a printing
press, and voters to believe that they can have recovery without sacrifice.
As a follower of the Austrian School of economics I believe that market
forces apply equally to people and nations.
The problems we face collectively are no different from those we face individually. Belt
tightening is required by all, including government.
Governments cannot create but merely redirect. When the government
spends, the money has to come from somewhere. If the government doesn't
have a surplus, then it must come from taxes. If taxes don't go up, then
it must come from increased borrowing. If lenders won't lend, then it
must come from the printing press, which is where all these bailouts are
headed. But each additional dollar printed diminishes the value those
already in circulation.
Something cannot be effortlessly created from nothing.
Similarly, any jobs or other economic activity created by public-sector
expansion merely comes at the expense of jobs lost in the private
sector. And if the government chooses to save inefficient jobs in select
private industries, more efficient jobs will be lost in others. As more
factors of production come under government control, the more
inefficient our entire economy becomes. Inefficiency lowers
productivity, stifles competitiveness and lowers living standards.
If we look at government market interventions through this pragmatic
lens, what can we expect from the coming avalanche of federal activism?
By borrowing more than it can ever pay back, the government will
guarantee higher inflation for years to come, thereby diminishing the
value of all that Americans have saved and acquired. For now the
inflationary tide is being held back by the countervailing pressures of
bursting asset bubbles in real estate and stocks, forced liquidations in
commodities, and troubled retailers slashing prices to unload excess
inventory.
But when the dust settles, trillions of new dollars will remain, chasing a diminished supply of goods. We will be left with 1970s-style stagflation, only with a much sharper contraction and
significantly higher inflation.
The good news is that economics is not all that complicated. The bad
news is that our economy is broken and there is nothing the government
can do to fix it. However, the free market does have a cure: it's called
a recession, and it's not fun, easy or quick. But if we put our faith in
the power of government to make the pain go away, we will live with the
consequences for generations.
*Mr. Schiff is president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of "The
Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets" (Wiley, 2008).*
Government has always been the problem and will continue to be so as long as we allow ourselves to be directed and manipulated by it. If we as citizens don't start using some common sense in our personal lives by demanding less government and more free market solutions to our problems, we will suffer the consequences in a lower quality of life for ourselves and the next generations. You say it can't happen here, right? Guess again!
As the author of this article points out, government can't fix something by waving a magic wand, it will take sacrifice on all of us by living within our means. Oh, no not that, Obama promised he would solve all of the world problems, why should we give up anything? Case in point, the UAW in Detroit.
The liberal elites in Washington and elsewhere now are saying a fix will take long then they thought and we will have to pay more then they thought and it won't just be the rich that has to pay more but everyone, for generations to come. But guess who won't have to take a pay cut, you guessed it, the liberal elites in Washington and else where that make the laws that will move the entire nation into the poor house.
The cry of the modern liberal is "pull up the rope, I'm aboard".
Do you know people like this, yeah, so do I and they out number us by a big margin. Keep the faith though, maybe common sense will prevail when the battle heats up.
There's No Pain-Free Cure for Recession
Belt-tightening is required by all, including government. WSJ
December 27, 2008
By PETER SCHIFF
As recession fears cause the nation to embrace greater state control of
the economy and unimaginable federal deficits, one searches in vain for
debate worthy of the moment. Where there should be an historic clash of
ideas, there is only blind resignation and an amorphous queasiness that
we are simply sweeping the slouching beast under the rug.
With faith in the free markets now taking a back seat to fear and
expediency, nearly the entire political spectrum agrees that the federal
government must spend whatever amount is necessary to stabilize the
housing market, bail out financial firms, liquefy the credit markets,
create jobs and make the recession as shallow and brief as possible. The
few who maintain free-market views have been largely marginalized.
Taking the theories of economist John Maynard Keynes as gospel, our most
highly respected contemporary economists imagine a complex world in
which economics at the personal, corporate and municipal levels are
governed by laws far different from those in effect at the national level.
Individuals, companies or cities with heavy debt and shrinking revenues
instinctively know that they must reduce spending, tighten their belts,
pay down debt and live within their means. But it is axiomatic in
Keynesianism that national governments can create and sustain economic
activity by injecting printed money into the financial system. In their
view, absent the stimuli of the New Deal and World War II, the
Depression would never have ended.
On a gut level, we have a hard time with this concept. There is a vague
sense of smoke and mirrors, of something being magically created out of
nothing. But economics, we are told, is complicated.
It would be irresponsible in the extreme for an individual to forestall
a personal recession by taking out newer, bigger loans when the old
loans can't be repaid. However, this is precisely what we are planning
on a national level.
I believe these ideas hold sway largely because they promise happy,
pain-free solutions. They are the economic equivalent of miracle
weight-loss programs that require no dieting or exercise. The theories
permit economists to claim mystic wisdom, governments to pretend that
they have the power to dispel hardship with the whir of a printing
press, and voters to believe that they can have recovery without sacrifice.
As a follower of the Austrian School of economics I believe that market
forces apply equally to people and nations.
The problems we face collectively are no different from those we face individually. Belt
tightening is required by all, including government.
Governments cannot create but merely redirect. When the government
spends, the money has to come from somewhere. If the government doesn't
have a surplus, then it must come from taxes. If taxes don't go up, then
it must come from increased borrowing. If lenders won't lend, then it
must come from the printing press, which is where all these bailouts are
headed. But each additional dollar printed diminishes the value those
already in circulation.
Something cannot be effortlessly created from nothing.
Similarly, any jobs or other economic activity created by public-sector
expansion merely comes at the expense of jobs lost in the private
sector. And if the government chooses to save inefficient jobs in select
private industries, more efficient jobs will be lost in others. As more
factors of production come under government control, the more
inefficient our entire economy becomes. Inefficiency lowers
productivity, stifles competitiveness and lowers living standards.
If we look at government market interventions through this pragmatic
lens, what can we expect from the coming avalanche of federal activism?
By borrowing more than it can ever pay back, the government will
guarantee higher inflation for years to come, thereby diminishing the
value of all that Americans have saved and acquired. For now the
inflationary tide is being held back by the countervailing pressures of
bursting asset bubbles in real estate and stocks, forced liquidations in
commodities, and troubled retailers slashing prices to unload excess
inventory.
But when the dust settles, trillions of new dollars will remain, chasing a diminished supply of goods. We will be left with 1970s-style stagflation, only with a much sharper contraction and
significantly higher inflation.
The good news is that economics is not all that complicated. The bad
news is that our economy is broken and there is nothing the government
can do to fix it. However, the free market does have a cure: it's called
a recession, and it's not fun, easy or quick. But if we put our faith in
the power of government to make the pain go away, we will live with the
consequences for generations.
*Mr. Schiff is president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of "The
Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets" (Wiley, 2008).*
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